Julia Child would have been 100 on Wednesday. Celebrations of her legacy abound, including the just-released biography, Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz (RH/Knopf;Random House Audio).

In addition to uncovering dozens of fascinating anecdotes to add the Child canon, Spitz reveals how hard she worked to make her performances look natural and the lengths she would go to ensure that recipes would work for Americans, even contacting the US Department of Fisheries to find out what the equivalents were of those she was cooking in France.

You’ll find yourself reading sections aloud to anyone who will listen and running to the computer to find videos of Child in action. Luckily, WGBH has put together a Child mashup video (great for posting on the library Web page) as well as some longer segments on their “Celebrating Julia” page.

Watch Julia Child’s 100th birthday on PBS. See more from WGBH Specials.

Her keen sense of humor and fine timing is exhibited in this David Letterman segment (also available online is the Dan Akryod SNL skit. Don’t worry; it’s not irreverent to watch it during the Centenary. Spitz says Child loved it),

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 10:07 am and is filed under 2012 -- Summer, Biography, Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.