Julia Child and the Borders of Fame

Image credit: Engin Akyurt

On February 11, 1963, Julia Child’s iconic “The French Chef” debuted on public television in the United States.

The first episode presented boeuf bourguignon, showing home cooks how to prepare the dish in a studio kitchen styled like one in a home. Over the course of the program’s ten seasons and hundreds of dishes prepared in that mostly unchanging home-style a studio kitchen, it cemented Julia Child as the country’s first celebrity chef.

And here say the non-Americans among you: Say what? Who?

Beyond the U.S. Borders, Who’s Julia Child?

Outside the United States, the very much beloved Julia Child, so frequently cited and lovingly lauded and even spoofed in books and films in her home country, is a relative unknown.

True even in France, the source of the cuisine that made her famous.

Which makes sense. The French didn’t need someone to introduce them to French cooking. Nor would they consider French cooking “French cooking” any more than Americans would call most of what the rest of the world calls “American cuisine” American cuisine.

That the French don’t have any feelings about Julia Child, positive or negative, only occurred to me as absolutely evident when I mentioned her to someone in my French family and needed to explain who she was and what she did.

Explaining the fame of Julia Child didn’t come easy, and I don’t think I succeeded in getting this person to understand who she was and why people kin the United States love her so much. (Sorry, Julia.)

THE CULTURAL BOUNDARIES OF CELEBRITY

Celebrity, in most cases, is so culturally sensitive that the biggest figures in one culture don’t hit the radar in another. Even the celebrities you think might make the leap—musicians, say, because music is universal—don’t.

France’s biggest rock star is a complete nonentity to anyone not French or not an extreme Francophile. For French people and Francophones, I don’t have to say the name of the man who, even eight years after his death, inspires the type of devotion and swooning Elvis Presley did for Americans in his heyday. They know who I mean. (For the rest of you, that would be Johnny Hallyday.)

Even in England, where language barriers with my native United States are lower, many celebrities from both cultures don’t make the jump. When I lived in London, I had many a conversation with English friends during which I referenced someone and drew blank looks in response. And vice versa.

I love walking past newsstands in different countries and noting all the drama around people I’ve never heard of before. Seems like a bunch of strangers no more important than you and me were getting a lot more attention than they should, and that’s a useful perspective to  gain.