Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California, and graduated from Smith College in the class of 1934. After college she worked in publicity and advertising in New York, and during World War II she served with the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, DC, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and China. After the war, at the end of 1948, her husband, Paul Child, was assigned to the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris. It was in Paris that Julia started her culinary career, at the Cordon Bleu.

Together with her two French colleagues, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertolle, Julia opened "L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes", which eventually resulted in a book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking which appeared in 1961. Following a television interview at WGBH-Boston, after the Childs' return, the station asked her to try out a session of TV cooking shows, and "The French Chef" was born. The program first aired in February 1963.

After some 200 programs on classical French cooking, which was immensely popular at the time, she branched out into contemporary cuisine with the television series, "Julia Child and Company", "Julia Child and More Company", and "Dinner at Julia's."

Following a break from production to work on her definitive The Way To Cook, Mrs. Child went on to host a 16-part cooking series "Cooking With Master Chefs", with each program featuring a different master chef teaching in his or her own home kitchen. The Master Chef series first aired in October of 1993, and earned Julia a nomination for a national Prime-Time Emmy award, the first ever for a cooking series. The next project was a two-hour special for PBS, "Cooking In Concert", in which Julia cooks on stage with Jacques Pepin in front of an audience of 500 at Boston University. During the summer of 1994, Julia invited 26 chefs from all over the country to come to her home kitchen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to cook their specialty dishes with her. The result is 39 episodes of her series, "In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs". The new series began airing in the Spring of 1995.

Her books include: The French Chef Cookbook (1968), Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol II, co-authored with Simone Beck (1970), and Julia Child's Kitchen (1975). Julia Child and Company and Julia Child and More Company, published in the late 1970s, have been combined into one volume, Julia Child's Menu Cookbook, (Wings Books, 1993) and her large, fully-illustrated basic book issued in October of 1989, The Way To Cook,

is now available both in hard and soft cover and paperback. In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs and Cooking With Master Chefs, issued in conjunction with the airing of the television programs, and written by Mrs. Child for the home cook, contains all of the chefs' recipes seen on the shows.

Julia Child has been interviewed and written about in numerous publications, and appears regularly on "Good Morning America", and has also appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman", "The Late Show with Johnny Carson" and "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee". She has received honorary degrees from Boston University, Bates College, Rutgers University, Smith College, and Harvard University.

In April, IN JULIA'S KITCHEN WITH MASTER CHEFS, won two James Beard Foundation awards. The awards are for "Best Television Cooking Series: National" and for "Best Book award in the category of Restaurants and Chefs". Also, Julia and the series IN JULIA'S KITCHEN WITH MASTER CHEFS, received two emmy awards. The awards are for "Outstanding Service Show" for the series and for Julia, "Best Host, Service Show".

Mrs. Child is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and a co-founder of the American Institute of Wine and Food.