Definitions

Child, Julia

Child, Julia

Child, Julia, 1912-2004, American cooking teacher, author, and television personality, b. Pasadena, Calif., as Julia Carolyn McWilliams. She learned French cooking while her husband was in the diplomatic service in France during the late 1940s. In 1961, Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle wrote the now-classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the first practical and comparatively accessible such cookbook for an American audience. Shortly thereafter, she began hosting a series of educational television programs; the best known, The French Chef (1963-76), transformed her into an Emmy-winning public-broadcasting star. Child's comfortable, off-hand manner took the intimidating quality out of preparing French cuisine and helped to change American styles of cooking and eating as well as American attidudes toward food. Her many other cookbooks include From Julia Child's Kitchen (1975) and The Way to Cook (1989). Child's kitchen was dismantled and permanently installed in the Smithsonian Institution.

See her My Life in France (2006, with A. Prud'homme); biographies by N. R. Fitch (1997) and L. Shapiro (2007); N. V. Barr, Backstage with Julia (2007).

orig. Julia McWilliams

(born Aug. 15, 1912 , Pasadena, Calif., U.S.—died Aug. 13, 2004, Santa Barbara) U.S. cooking expert and television personality. She lived in Paris after her marriage in 1945, studying at the Cordon Bleu and with a master chef. After cowriting the best-seller Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) and moving to Boston, she created the popular PBS cooking series The French Chef (1963–73), and later other cooking shows. Through her programs and books, she helped educate the U.S. public about traditional French cuisine and sparked interest in the culinary arts.

Learn more about Child, Julia with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Julia is usually a woman's given name or a surname. It is of Latin origin and means "youthful". It is a well-used name throughout the world. It was the 34th most popular name for girls born in the United States in 2007 and the 88th most popular name for females in the 1990 census there. It has been among the top 150 names given to girls in the United States for the past 100 years. It was the 89th most popular name for girls born in England and Wales in 2007; the 94th most popular name for girls born in Scotland in 2007; the 13th most popular name for girls born in Spain in 2006; the fifth most popular name for girls born in Sweden in 2007; the 94th most popular name for girls born in Belgium in 2006; the 53rd most popular name for girls born in Norway in 2007; the 70th most popular name for girls born in Hungary in 2005; the 19th most popular name for girls born in British Columbia, Canada in 2006.

Variants

Julius family

In Ancient Rome, women from all branches of the Julius family were called Julia (see Roman naming conventions).

Other Romans

People

Today, Julia is a common name and is also a surname.

As first name

As last name

  • Bernard Julia (b. 1952), French theoretical physicist at Ecole Normale Supérieure
  • Didier Julia (b. 1934), a French deputy
  • Gaston Julia (1893–1978), a French mathematician who devised the Julia set of fractals
  • Raúl Juliá (1940–1994), American actor

Fictional characters

Christian saints

In entertainment

  • Julia (film), a 1977 film starring Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, and Jason Robards.
  • Julia (TV series), a TV series starring Diahann Carroll that ran on NBC from 1968 to 1971.
  • "Julia (The Beatles song)", a song from The Beatles' The White Album.
  • "Julia (Eurythmics song)", a song by Eurythmics, based on the character in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and featured on their album, 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother).
  • Being Julia, a 2004 movie starring Annette Bening.
  • Julia (2008 film), a movie directed by Erick Zonca with Tilda Swindon.

Other uses

See also

Search another word or see Child, Juliaon Dictionary | Thesaurus |Spanish
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT