“This is Julia Child, bon appetit!” – The spy version
Via Maria, Newly released files detail early US spy network
Before Julia Child became known to the world as a leading chef, she admitted at least one failing when applying for a job as a spy: impulsiveness.Details about Child’s background as a government agent come into the public spotlight Thursday with the National Archives’ release of more than 35,000 top-secret personnel files of World War II-era spies. The CIA held this information for decades.
The 750,000 documents identify the vast spy network managed by the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. President Franklin Roosevelt created the OSS, the country’s first centralized intelligence operation.
Child’s file shows that in her OSS application, she included a note expressing regret she left an earlier department store job hastily because she did not get along with her boss, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.
You probably always thought she was a great cook with a falsetto voice, but now you know she was also a spy.
Here she is making two of my favorite foods, steak and chocolate cake, in 1978:
Now excuse me while I finish breakfast.
Tags: Fausta's blog
August 14th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Julia was first outed by Brokaw in The Greatest Generation but without details. I look forward to hearing more of those. I used a money gift for college graduation to buy the boxed set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and still have it on my cookbook shelf. My favorite bit from her shows was when she deboned a leg of something while going on and on about how wonderful the bone would be for making stock and how it should be treasured. Then she took the bone and tossed it very unceremoniously under her work bench. What a woman!
August 14th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I love her even more now!
August 14th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Did you ever see her make Gateau in a Cage? That’s the one thing I actually made from watching her show. A cake in a caramel cage made by drizzling homemade hard caramel over the bottom of a buttered bowl. Gently remove the resulting lacy “cage” and set it over the cake. To serve, shatter the cage and then cut the cake.
MMMMMMM
August 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Expat, I also remember her accidentally dropping the chicken on the floor and putting it back on the platter, saying “no one needs to know what goes on in the privacy of your kitchen.” Mastering the Art fo French Cooking set’s the 1st cookbook(s) I ever bought, too.
That sounds delicious, Kimsch!
Me too, PM.