Julia Child exhibit opens this weekend at Minnesota History Center
She had a voice as distinctive as her contributions to cooking, French cuisine and television.
"Julia Child: A Recipe for Life," a traveling exhibit celebrating her journey, is whipping up excitement at the Minnesota History Center.
"The exhibit starts with her childhood, her party girl years in college, her service during World War II," said Annie Johnson, museum manager at the Minnesota History Center.
Too tall to join the military, Julia Child went to work for the Office of Strategic Services, a spy organization. It's there she met her husband, officer Paul Child.
In 1948, they moved to Paris and that's when Julia Child's life began to change.
"She didn't really discover her love of cooking and her passion and her life's work until she was almost 40," said Johnson.
The exhibit features a recreation of the dining room at La Couronne in Rouen where she had her first meal, a giant digital reproduction of Julia Child's first cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and the WGBH French Chef kitchen set.
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"You can do your cooking show and you're being filmed, and you can take photos or videos for posterity," said Johnson.
You can also explore Child's creative process through handwritten recipe drafts, letters and photographs.
A section called "Minnesota Cooks" gives a taste of the state through cookbooks and stories of culinary innovators.
All of it is an opportunity to learn from the woman who taught millions that with "enough butter, anything is good."
"She shot 'The French Chef' in one take. So as meticulous as the planning was, sometimes mistakes happen and I think as we know from watching the show, she handled mistakes with such humor and a make-it-work attitude that I think that's a great lesson for all of us to take forward in our own lives," said Johnson.
"Julia Child: A Recipe for Life" opens Saturday at the Minnesota History Center.
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