Julia Child - A Spy?
A Chef and a Spy! That got my attention this morning. What do you think about that?
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18 Comments:
A spy? She did work for the precursor organization to the CIA as an administrator. I don't think she did any actual "spying".
mrsadm at 8:51AM on 08/14/08
I am sure not. That was the tag line in the news this morning.
izatryt at 9:23AM on 08/14/08
I am confused. I thought this came out years ago. How is this news? She is in the Spy Museum in DC already!
pbisNOTmyname at 9:42AM on 08/14/08
Way to go Julia! Sounds like the makings of a TV series, chef by day and international spy by night!
Here's the article I saw.
LiveToEat at 10:02AM on 08/14/08
Yeah, not sure how this is news, she talked about being in the OSS, it is where she met her husband. And the headline is deceptive, she wasn't really a "spy" she worked in administration. She herself said she would have made a bad spy because she was so tall and loud she would have stuck out like a sore thumb. It talks about this in the biography of her, Appetite for Life, which I highly recommend for any Julia fans.
Oh, and tomorrow is (was) her birthday
foodieguru at 10:21AM on 08/14/08
Leave it to Fox, or tv news in general, to sensationalize things. Oy...
Cassaendra at 10:23AM on 08/14/08
She wasn't a spy in the romanticized James Bond or Jason Bourne way you might be thinking of. Not sure if you imagine spies running around in trench coats and peering through binoculars, etc etc. She did real intelligence work for the OSS, on real assignments that were critical to the war effort. The first ones sound comical, but towards the end of the war she had become a very important operative. Here are few excerpts about what she did:
- "She was assigned to solve a problem for U.S. naval forces during World War II: Sharks would bump into explosives that were placed underwater, setting them off and warning the German U-boats they were intended to sink.
"So... Julia Child and a few of her male compatriots got together and literally cooked up a shark repellent," that was used to coat the explosives" [so that the mines would be left intact for the purpose of blowing up U-boats.]
- "One of the experiments was to see if survivors in life rafts could squeeze a fish and drink the water from the fish's body. Naive, perhaps, but certainly in keeping with experiments of America's first espionage organization." Julia referred to it as the "fish-squeezing unit."
- "she organized files in the OSS registry and created systems that allowed the secret intelligence work to function"
- She later was transferred to operations in Asia where "she had a high security clearance for her work, which included all classified papers for the invasion of the Malaysian peninsula. She tracked sensitive documents, dispatches, and espionage/sabotage under the South East Asia Command, then headed by Mountbatten. A colleague in Air Force Intelligence, Byron Martin, stated that Julia "was privy to every top secret ... which required a person of unquestioned loyalty, of rock-solid integrity, of unblemished lifestyle, of keen intelligence."
She was the real deal. You can read more here:
http://www.moaa.org/magazine/January2003/f_juliachild.asp
simon at 10:58AM on 08/14/08
Julia will always be my cooking inspiration. I loved how she was unflustered by kitchen mishaps and was more concerned with enjoyment than perfection. I also love how she didn't get married/start cooking until what would have been considered in that day rather late in life. Just shows that its never too late to discover your passion.
Her spying background (in whatever capacity) merely adds to my enjoyment of a true character. I always follow her 2 important rules of cooking:
1. don't be upset if it doesn't turn out perfectly-it can still be delicious
and 2. always have a glass of wine handy!
StripeyChef at 11:24AM on 08/14/08
I miss her.
simon at 11:44AM on 08/14/08
She was awesome. Go Julia-this I did not know! Wonder if this was mentioned on the chefography...
Butrflygirly at 12:19PM on 08/14/08
I'm a little surprised this is just making news too, haven't people read the books written about her?
Along the lines of StripeyChef's remarks, one of the best cooking lessons I learned from Julia was not to apologize about anything I've made, even if it doesn't turn out right, or even that good.
This wasn't easy for me to put into action but I learned if I've taken the time and effort to prepare something even if it's not all that great, I'll just make it better next time. Usually people appreciate being fed and something may taste great to them that I find subpar, so no more apologizing from me!
If you want great entertainment, buy or borrow from your library, her French Chef series on dvd. I can watch them over and over I love her so much.
bobcatsteph3 at 1:19PM on 08/14/08
I miss her too; her tone, recipes and smiles.
@Cassaendra: that is so funny and true.
hungrychristel at 3:40PM on 08/14/08
Didn't see the news you are talking about, but today is Julia's birthday (1912). Could be why she is in the news today.
elizabethw at 3:52PM on 08/14/08
This is not news. Julia was a real hip chick. It is widely known she was recruited out of college and met her husband while she worked for the OSS.
JerzeeTomato at 4:16PM on 08/14/08
For more on Julia, listen to the audio of the program the NYPL had about her last October, featuring Dan Barber, David Kamp, Molly O'Neill, and Laura Shapiro, moderated by Melanie Rehak:
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/scholars/cswpepdesc.cfm?id=3361
eleeb at 6:01PM on 08/14/08
@All ~ I hope you guys know I was trying to be sarcastic?????
izatryt at 8:29PM on 08/14/08
@izatryt ~ of course! Just one more reason to still love Julia!
PerkyMac at 10:23PM on 08/14/08
BF and I were talking about this, as it was news to him, too. This is pretty common knowledge. It's been in any and every biography of JC ever printed. She and her husband worked for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.
therealchiffonade at 5:16AM on 08/15/08