I can imagine that Alex had a marvelous time listening to these stories and getting them into written form.  He said he would take his notes and write up vignettes, which Julia would edit – correcting his French and adding new details as she recalled them.  She was, Alex said, an exacting editor.

Julia died in August, 2004, before the book was finished.  Alex spent the next year completing it. 

Alex says in the Forward that “Almost all of the words in these pages are Julia’s or Paul’s”.

Julia began working on a cookbook with Simone Beck, writing while following her husband as he was sent to different parts of Europe. In 2002 she donated the kitchen from her Cambridge home to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be restored as an exhibit at the National Museum of American History. One that caught my attention was titled “Dinner In A Pot”.³ This was Season 1, episode 23 and aired on July 13, 1963.

Her boundless enthusiasm, charming voice, and unique mannerisms captivated countless Americans, making her a beloved figure in the culinary world.

Julia's husband, Paul, passed away in 1994.

Julia said she “tagged along”. In 2003, when Julia was 91, she mentioned the idea to Alex and he offered to help her with it. “My Life in France,” her biography which covers much of Child’s adult life from her time in France onward, was finally released in early 2006 by her original publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. She wrote several popular cookbooks, including her most famous work, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," which was published in 1961.

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. And the oven and cabinets are almost identical to the ones in our house in Lewiston.

More to watch

You can find a list of all nine seasons of The French Chef by doing this Google search.

Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1992. "A Holiday Bird and a Free-Range Chat with Julia." Life (December 1989). The second section of the biography, which accounts for about one-quarter of the book, covers this period of her life, while she makes intermittent trips back to Simca’s house “La Peetch.” Alexander Prud’homme later detailed more about “life after fame” with Julia in the biography’s follow-up, “The French Chef in America: Julia’s Second Act.”

Today, Child’s legacy continues to live on, such as in 2009’s blockbuster film Julie & Julia (with Child portrayed by Meryl Streep) as well as 2022’s hit HBO series, Julia.

Even with her cheerful, larger-than-life personality, Julia possessed a fiery spirit and wasn’t afraid to stand up for her political beliefs. Late Achievers: Famous People Who Succeeded Late in Life.