Did you know that the whisk was a French tool originally introduced to Americans by Julia Child? Quoting Julia Child, "The idea is to have the largest whisk and smallest bowl-it gets the egg whites in motion at once." We all fondly recall Julia's episode of the salad spinner, where she has an umbrella in hand as she dries the lettuce. Another French introduction to American cooks, the salad spinner is still very much in demand today as it was when Julia first showed it to us. When we buy pots and pans, they are meant to last us a long, long time. And so it was with Julia's enamel sauce pan which she bought in Paris in the 1940s and used up until the 1990s.

They had the warmest, most loving, relationship. They really had the 'secret' to an intimate marriage. In fact, I was so impressed, I encouraged my 19 year old daughter to see the movie, if for no other reason than to observe the relationship between Julia Child and her husband.

Although they spent most of their time in Europe, Paul and Julia would also spend summers in Maine. Julia made her first trip there in 1947, visiting Mount Desert, where Paul's family owned a 20 acre parcel. She continued to test and write even while visiting Maine. And according to her Brother-in Law Charles Child's book "Roots in the Rock", she used a stove nicknamed "John Henry", to cook her creative dishes.
It took Eight years to complete and in 1961, after it's rejection from publisher Houghton Mifflin, Alfred A. Knopf finally published the book. The final cookbook titled "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" was a total of 734 pages. It became a best seller and put Julia Child on the map.