The Cellar - Julia Child

I don't have too much to say about the passing of Julia Child today. I am not a gourmet chef. In fact, if it doesn't get cooked on a grille, I'm barely a cook at all. I don't know a souffle from Frito Lay, but I do know a *real* person when I see one. I think Julia was real.

Her obvious joy in what she did showed in every episode of "The French Chef", pretty much the original cooking show. Few of those who followed in her footsteps ever attained the public admiration she earned; few have ever been so firmly equated with good humor, self-deprecation and plain talking. It was simply impossible not to be caught up by her personality.

She was easy to parody, and frequently was (I particularly recall Dan Akroyd's finger-slicing skit on Saturday Night Live), but it was always in a loving and good-natured manner. There was just nothing that one could find about Julia to transform into anything evil or mean.

Julia Child lived a long and incredibly interesting life, and brought much to what is often characterized as an otherwise bleak American cultural landscape. So here's a bottle of wine raised high to Julia Child. May she crush much garlic in the afterlife.