The Child Within: 10 Fun Facts About Julia Child

by Simone Cambridge

1. Julia Child helped develop shark repellent used on underwater explosives during WWII in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), after being rejected from the military for being too tall…she was 6' 2"!

2. She was a spy. During her last few years in the OSS, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, Child worked with classified top secret documents about the invasion of the Malay Peninsula in modern day Sri Lanka and China.

3. While living in China she became interested in food. Child loved native cuisine and described Chinese food as “wonderful.”

4. Julia Child was a basketball player. She had planned on using her height as an advantage, but after her college banned ‘jump ball’ she realized that she “not good at the rest of the game.”

5. In 1993, she was the first woman inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Hall of Fame.

6. While filming a series called ‘Baking with Julia,’ she used 753 pounds of butter. In the words of Julia, “With enough butter, anything is good.”

7. Julia Child named a rose ‘warm butter gold.’

8. She survived breast cancer.

9. Child said, “I think every woman should have a blowtorch.”

10. Julia Child was the first educational television personality to receive an Emmy.