During the summers, I would stay at my grandparents' house and help my grandmother in the kitchen. She had a small black and white TV on the counter that she would always tune into when Julia Child was on. That was my first experience with anybody showing how to cook online. Her show, the Tonight Show, something on PBS I do not recall. All of it. My grandmother was a big fan. She would show me recipes from a couple of Julia's books and explain how it all worked. Thanks to Julia, I now share some special memories and the love of cooking with my grandmother.

Reply

Julia Child reminds me that cooking is an adventure. Sometimes things don't turn out quite the way you want, and even dishes you make over and over don't come out exactly the same. But ccoking is as much about the joy of smelling something cooking on the stove or whacking bread dough or just ending up all covered in flour as it is about the finished product.

Reply

She influenced me, by letting me know that butter makes EVERYTHING better.

Reply

Julia Child has always been a part of my life -- I grew up with 3 channels growing up so I always watched her show on TV because that was one of the few channels I could watch. I looked on as my mom took ideas and recipes from her show and created them for us and shared with us some of the most delicious food and how much she LOVED doing that not only for us but just in general (enough to one day become a chef). Sadly i am no culinary wiz in the kitchen, I'd go as far to say Im domestically challenged on most levels haha, except for the fact that i LOVE food, if Julia taught me anything that it was to always love what you are doing no matter if you are mastering the art of french cooking or just making a meal for your family. So I may be sort of a disater in the kitchen but I love to cook and I love food and thanks to Julia thats a recipe I can't mess up.

Reply

1) Huge influence on my parents' cooking (which in turn, has influenced me to no end).

2) As somebody above said...everything tastes better with butter.

3) The absolutely critical idea that cooking is simultaneously an art and experimental; with experience comes that touch that lets you get it right the first time...but you don't get experience without mistakes (which, hopefully, are quite tasty, if not perfect). Keep trying until you get it right.

Reply

Julia Child made me love to cook, and enjoy good food.

Reply

My husband has the exact book from the movie! and he has made everything in it or some version of it. he says it gives him and everyone the courage to try one thing and everything. Practice and cooking with love! that is what he tells me. But i will leave the cooking to him. He really wants me to go see this with him. i just might have to bring him. lol.

Reply

I come from an Italian food family - butchers, dairymen, greengrocers, fishermen, old uncles with amazing home gardens and fruit tress. So I knew lots about food by the time I found Julia.

But at age 10, when I started watching her on sunny Saturdays in our dark TV room, I learned that all these simple foods I knew could be combined and mixed and baked and cut and roasted into new things I'd never seen and never imagined. There was more out there than the American and Italian meals I'd grown up with. Simply, she opened up the world of food to me.

Reply

she reinforced the belief that it is never too late to learn to do something you enjoy.

Reply

Julia Child's complete and utter abandonment for the confines of exactness in recipes. She cooked from the heart, with no abandon for what was conventional and 'right'. If only we all had the ability to cook or behave that way throughout life.

For me directly, I have been influenced by her enthusiam for steering off the path in cooking ~ to believe in yourself that you can be a phenomenial cook. And above, her passion for food. She taught me that food should be an experience and an adventure, not just nourishment.

Reply

Unfortunately, I was only able to watch her show during her twilight years. Still, she got me hooked on cooking shows, and taught me that even a guy who could barely make ramen can mix a bunch of ingredients together and make a tasty meal.

Reply

I was living in a housing co-op (think, hippie commune) during grad school, and had learned to cook from cooking out of Moosewood and similar cookbooks. I was already a pretty good vegetarian cook, and got an invitation from the campus vegetarian society to teach one evening's worth of a class on veggie cooking. I decided to do Vegetarian French cooking, mostly because I didn't know anything about it, but wanted to learn. I ended up stealing two of Julia Child's recipes (Soupe au Pistou and Gratin Dauphinois), and adapting another from another source ("Filet" with Duxelles and "Demi-Glace"). That whole process was a giant eye-opener, as it was one of the first times I really thought about French sauces and reductions. It was quite a revelation. And the class went well too!

Reply

Julia taught me that you can enjoy something decadent without enjoying a ton of it. Good advice!

Reply

Before the Food Network and even before my parents allowed us the privilege of having cable television, my siblings and I were confined to watching the measly 20 or so local channels. One of those channels was PBS. I remember even as a young elementary school student, how I was mesmerized by Julia Child's cooking show. She made me salivate over food I could never imagine eating in my traditional Chinese household. I longed to make things that she taught on the TV screen. And so I've become that knowledge-thirsty home cook.

Reply

Julia Child influenced me by not being afraid to follow her dream and always stay true to who she was

Reply

I started cooking when I was 5, figuring out that, oddly enough, ground beef, sweet potatoes, and ketchup taste delicious together. My taste has advanced a bit since then (though as a current undergrad, sometimes not much more advanced), and a lot of my love of food is because Julia always let me feel confident with whatever the heck I made, or messed up. I would watch her show on PBS every sunday instead of cartoons, I dressed up as her for halloween in 4th grade, and considered her my personal hero. She knew how vital food was, and spoke about it with a spirit that rang true for so many young people who were itching to reclaim the kitchen. And if you think about the culinary world she inherited as an American in the 40's, when good food was the province of fussy french restaurants, she really set into motion the amazing food revolution that made sites like this possible, and made possible a generation of young foodies like me! And nobody takes apart a lobster like Julia!

- Annie Rose

Reply

Julia makes you realize that you need not be intimidated by complicated-sounding cooking techniques.

Reply

She gave me the confidence to attempt to be a great cook with "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and she enjoyed food.

Reply

It is kinda funny.

She influenced me by annoying the living hell out of me.

When I was younger she was just this "crazy, weird sounding, looming" woman in the kitchen. Justin Wilson was entertaining to me(at that time), she was scary. So I decided I was going to cook and NOT be scary and annoying. Funny thing is, I came right back to her for inspiration and technique. Once I understood what she was all about, her books and show were indispensable.

Reply

I got BAKING WITH JULIA as a gift for my 10th birthday, and I've been baking ever since. So, Julia introduced me to one of my favorite hobbies.

Reply