PBS: "Julia! America's Favorite Chef"

The Documentary is Part of the "American Masters" Series

As part of the PBS series " American Masters," the life and career of Julia Child is featured in the film "Julia! America's Favorite Chef." It aired on Wednesday, June 15, at 10 p.m. ET (check local listings).

The film highlights the 6'2" chef's passion for a perfect souffle, as well as her passion for teaching her audience how to make one. Child, who was born into a conservative upper class Pasadena, Calif., family and educated at Smith College, wrote "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and spent the rest of her life working to change the way Americans cooked.

Food writer at The Atlantic Monthly Corby Kummer and filmmaker Marilyn Mellowes were online Thursday, June 16, at Noon ET to discuss Child's life and career and the PBS documentary.

Kummer is recognized as one of the most widely read food writers in the United States because of his work in "The Atlantic." His book, "The Joy of Coffee," which is based on his 1990 "Atlantic" series about coffee, was heralded by the New York Times as "the most definitive and engagingly written book on the subject to date." Kummer's recent book, "The Pleasures of Slow Food," features local artisans who raise and prepare the foods of their regions.

Mellowes's most recent production is "Julia! Celebrating America's Favorite Chef," which was first broadcast in 2004. She has worked in public affairs programming at WGBH/Boston for twenty-five years, and during this time she has developed new series and produced programs for the three major on-going strands. She served as Associate Producer and Co-Producer for the 13-hour series "Vietnam: A Television History," which won the Dupont, Peabody and Emmy awards.

The transcript follows.

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Marilyn Mellowes: Hi, everyone! I'm Marilyn Mellowes, the producer and writer of the Julia film, and I'm delighted that you have watched the program and are participating in the chat room. I welcome the chance to share my experience of making the program with you and hope that you will feel free to send in questions about Julia and about the actual production of the film. Marilyn.

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Mobile, Ala.: Hello -- I am sorry to say that I missed last night's broadcast of your film on Julia Child's life and career! I have searched the entire PBS Web site for another broadcast date, but it appears there is not one scheduled at this time. Is it possible to purchase a videotape or DVD of your documentary? I teach high school French and would truly love to share this look at the American icon of French cuisine with my students. Please reply with ordering details if available. If not, when will this program air again? Thank you for your work and interest in Julia Child!

Marilyn Mellowes: There does seem to be a little confusion about the broadcast dates -- the best thing to do is to check your local listings or even call your public broadcasting station. I believe that American Masters will repeat the broadcast, but not sure when. And yes, there is a DVD of the program as well as a DVD of selected programs from The French Chef. Go to www.pbs.org and go to "Julia Child" on American Masters. Hope this helps!

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Corby Kummer: I'm Corby Kummer, honored guest on Marilyn's program. What a fine piece of work she did--and how much I learned about Julia! I've been working in and around Boston for 24 years, and was lucky enough to visit and sometimes work with Julia often. All reminiscence questions welcome, along with comments on her place in American food--and how the state of it has changed today both because and in spite of her enormous influence.

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washingtonpost.com: Check local listings

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Washington, D.C.: Julia has been known as a "down to earth" individual and bringing food to every household. Her eating at McDonald's and other fast food places aside, what do you think Julia's response to the current epidemic of overweight individuals and stick thin celebrities has done to the image of food's role in society?

Corby Kummer: Julia was indeed fanatical on the food-health question--fanatical the people eat and enjoy food, and make sure they did it in moderation. At one of the earliest diet-health conference, in the mid-80s, there was a ready audience full of nutritionists and a few food writers, then as now on very different sides of the food fence. The star speaker was a well-known health writer who recounted having been quite fat as a child and learning to combat that through diet and exercise soon after college. She was somewhat evangelical. After her speech Julia said, "No more sick speakers!"

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West Bloomfield, Mich.: I heard that Julia Child did not consider herself a chef but a cook. Is this true? I always thought of her as a teacher, one who got to eat homework.

My daughter and I enjoyed watching her TV programs on PBS and even ventured to try a few recipes. My most favorite recipe came from not the PBS program but Phil Donahue's program in Dayton, Ohio! I got a chance to thank her and have her autograph it for me.

Julia Child will be missed for eons.

Thank you

Marilyn Mellowes: Yes, you are right! She thought of herself as a cook, a home cook, but not a chef -- the traditional definition of "chef" is someone who works in a professional kitchen or restaurant, which Julia never did. So glad that you enjoyed watching her programs, and would love to know what recipe you got from the Phil Donahue show! Marilyn.

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: Last time I was in D.C. I saw that Julia's final (?) kitchen was on display at the American History Museum -- did Julia want that to happen, or did it happen after she passed away?

Marilyn Mellowes: Julia was very surprised that the Smithsonian wanted her kitchen - she was apparently baffled. But also flattered. The exhibit went up while she was still alive,and she was present at the opening event. I am told by someone who was there with her that her gaze became fastened on a particular object -- a heart mold, which I am guessing she associated with her late husband Paul.

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Washington, D.C.: I adore Julia. I grew up watching her and still stop whenever I find her re-runs on PBS. What I find so wonderful is the pleasure she took in food. Butter! Wine! More butter! But she firmly believed that moderation was key and if you were only going to eat that way once or twice a week, you might as well do it right. I know her techniques seem a bit fussy in 2005, but she was sure having fun. My kids both like to cook with me and I like to think she's out there watching. More butter!

Corby Kummer: She did love food and wanted people to enjoy it too, and hated the idea of preventing people from ordering or eating anything. You're absolutely right in saying that "More butter!" was her mantra. Even in the face of the olive-oil craze of the 90s. She would be delighted if everyone at the Framingham Heart Study not only said that margarine is worse for us than butter but that butter was in fact the greatest prophylactic against heart disease. Sadly that day is not *quite* in sight. But you never know.

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Chincoteague, Va.: Hi, Ms. Mellowes,

How was producing this special? Watching it last night I got the impression that it was interesting and fun -- is that the wrong impression?

Thanks for a great show ...

Marilyn Mellowes: Ah! a very interesting question. Yes, mostly fun, because she is such a remarkable figure, and I was able to access her archives and also the photo archives that belonged to her late husband Paul (I write a little about this in the " interview" on the Julia web site). And it was a real challenge to try to tell the story of her life in an hour - actually, it's not a full hour, more like 53 minutes. However, the budget for the film was very modest, and so money was a constant worry. But people seem to really respond to the film and her friends and family liked it a lot.

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Philly, Pa.: Hi Corby!

Did you ever meet Julia? Can you give some firsthand impressions if you did?

Thank you.

Corby Kummer: Met her many times, and as Russ Morash, her longtime producer, says, and Geoff Drummond, who produced her later series, confirms, wysiwyg--or however what you see is what you get is abbreviated. She wasn't one of those smiling entertainers who's a misanthrope behind the scenes. She was courteous, generous, interested, lively.

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Frederick, Md.: Was Julia ever offended by the way Dan Akroyd portrayed her on Saturday Night Live?

Marilyn Mellowes: Actually, she LOVED it. And oddly, she and Paul just happen to turn on the television the night that the skit was on. A pure accident, but a happy one.

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Arlington, Va.: Any comments from Julia over the years about the parodies and impressions of her? Bill Cosby, the Muppets (Swedish Chef), etc. It's a sure sign that you've influenced popular culture when you can be poked fun at in so many ways.

Corby Kummer: Here's what you shouldn't do when sitting next to her at your own dinner table, as I did one night at my house (she had no compunction about accepting invitations, and I was young and reckless enough to invite her). She asked me a question about a mutual acquaintance, and I remembered a very sharply observed remark she had once made about that person that settled that person's hash for good. I quoted it back to her--using my own version of her falsetto and New England-California accent, which at the time was quite good though not as good as others in our circle, let alone Dan Ackroyd. She cocked her head, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "I don't talk that way."

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Courthouse, Va.: Have you visited Julia's kitchen at the National Museum of American History? It seems like it's become one of Washington's signature attractions!

Marilyn Mellowes: Yes, absolutely! Actually we filmed there, as you will see at the end of the film. After being in her kitchen when it was still in her Cambridge home, it was strange to see it mounted as an exhibit. But I think that the Smithsonian did an outstanding job with this exhibit, thanks in part to the curator, Rayne Green. And you are right, it is a very popular exhibit - perhaps the most popular of all.

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Silver Spring, Md.: A question for both:

Today there are several cable channels whose main staple is cooking shows (Food Network and to an extent, Travel Channel). Do you think Julia's influence is the reason why these shows are popular?

Thanks!

Marilyn Mellowes: Yes, I do. I think it was Julia who turned American on to food, and without her tremendous influence, I doubt that we would see so many food programs on cable channels. That said, Julia has observed that if she hadn't come on the scene, someone else would have. But she brought something so special to the screen that no one could have done what she did.

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Northwest Washington, D.C.: Hi, everyone,

I know that from the program Julia was a big supporter of French cooking. Now in the age of freedom fries, do you all think that French cooking is no longer "cool"? (Granted, this question may only be applicable to those living around D.C.! We're always fighting about something ...).

Corby Kummer: French food will always be the basis of classically trained chefs, and was really Julia's alpha and omega. Cool or not, it was her test of a chef--her highest praise was "She/he's got technique." This in Italian or Chinese restaurants.

As for whether it's cool today--it goes in and out, but never really out, and in Boston, where I live, there has been a recent resurgence. I still meet many chefs in their twenties and thirties who say that they learned to cook from Julia, and that of course means French technique, whatever they apply that to.

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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Great show last night! As a woman who began cooking later in life, it was such a treat for me to learn that someone as amazing as Julia Child followed a similar path. For Mr. Kummer -- did you begin appreciating food at an early age, and what led you to being a food critic as opposed to a chef?

Thanks again for the brilliant show!

Corby Kummer: Was always interested in food, and went through all of Mastering and my favorite book of all, From Julia Child's Kitchen, in high school. In college I wrote an essay for a writing class on making her tarte tatin and having it turn into blackened sugary mush (wouldn't come out of the iron pan), and sent it to her with an invitation to a tailgate picnic--I went to all the football games. She wrote back a very nice note, declining as it wasn't a game on her home turf, and inviting me to come visit if I was nearby. She was an incredibly generous correspondent, and I'm one of probably thousands who treasure notes from her on her little red-printed note paper.

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Atlanta, Ga.: Who will be the next great chef of TV? Although I am hooked on the Food network I don't see the Rachel Rays or Wolfgangs with quite the same character she brought to the table and television. Who would you profile next?

Marilyn Mellowes: This is a very good questions, and I wish I had an answer that I could give you with confidence. But I honestly don't know!

Corby Kummer: The field has so expanded that there won't be another Julia, I think I can say confidently after twenty-five years of hearing one ambitious TV chef or producer after another saying that she or he will be or present the next Julia Child. She was unique not only because of her outsize personality and hamminess and discipline and skill and so on but because she blazed the trail. Now people are accustomed to watching food shows, it's a whole and huge and competitive genre with a cable network dedicated to it and public TV still hoping to garner contributions and magazines like Cook's Illustrated cannily exploiting it to sell magazines and books. There are so many that there just won't be another Julia. Hence Marilyn's brilliance in focusing so sharply on the context in which Julia worked and came to prominence. That's archaeology, as far as contemporary chefs are concerned, but the foundation they all stand on.

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Washington, D.C.: Did she ever really drop a chicken on the floor and then cook it, or was that just in an SNL skit? It seems an urban legend.

Marilyn Mellowes: So many people think that she dropped a chicken on the floor -- would SWEAR that they saw her do it! But we asked her about this, and she said absolutely not. She was jsut flipping a potato pancake and part of it went into the stove. I also asked her director Russ Morash about the chicken drop and he said "no way." And I personally screened every program from The French Chef in which she makes chicken, and she never dropped on. So it is an interesting question -- why are so many people convinced that they saw her do it? I think it must be in part that she made people feel comfortable about making mistakes, and her apparently casual attitude created an image embellished by her celebrity.

Corby Kummer: Absolutely right. She was very aware of her perceived daffiness and didn't mind, but there was such a steel-trap mind and discipline underneath what she did, such professionalism, that she would do something for effect, very knowingly, at least in the later years when I knew her, but would never allow an unintended botch to make it on the air.

By the same token, though, she loved admitting errors and worked like a demon to fix them. Was tireless in going home after a day's filming to get something right. And did get things wrong, often, and worked to fix them. Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder and owner of NYC's French Culinary Institute, remembers when Julia was her houseguest in Connecticut and an aioli broke (separated) for a lovely outdoor summer lunch, and when Dorothy went to her bed late Saturday night Julia was still in the kitchen working to get the formula and technique right.

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Baltimore, Md.: I missed almost all of last night's show, so forgive me if this was answered during the program:

What's the story about Julia and spying? For some reason I seem to remember her or her husband worked for the CIA or other foreign intel service?

Thank you!

Marilyn Mellowes: Glad you asked this question so that I can try to clear it up. Julia was not a spy, nor was her husband Paul. They both worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS, during World War II and were posted to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Julia was in charge of managing files that contained classified information -- some of it had to do with operations taking place behind enemy lines. Paul was a graphic artist in charge of what was called the "War Room." He was responsible for maps, graphs and other visual material that the allied generals used to plan strategy. He was apparently excellent at this work, and the person that Mountbatten always requested. While he had access to privileged information -- he had to, to do his job - he was absolutely not a spy.

Corby Kummer: And yet Julia didn't object to the spy rep, and was always a little cagey about it, at least when I saw her and it came up. Eg I was editing a piece about William Casey, founder of the CIA, and she talked about the OSS being known as "Oh So Secret" and reminisced about him as if she had been quite close. Yet if questioned directly about it she would say she certainly wasn't a spy, which was of course what any spy would say.

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Crofton, Md.: If someone were to create a list of the top American innovators of the 20th century, do you think Julia Child would belong on that list?

Marilyn Mellowes: Great question! And I would answer yes, because she changed the way that Americans cook, eat, and think about food. And there are few things more basic to human existence that food and eating. There were certainly other forces and factors at work that expanded America's sensibilities about food -- changes in the Immigration Act, for example. Also, the introduction of jet travel that allowed more Americans to travel abroad. And the Kennedy White House, with is sophistication and cosmopolitan flair. But Julia was central to the changes that occurred, and so I do think that she is a kind of innovator.

Corby Kummer: Very much an innovator, especially in popularizing the how-to format on television. Recall that This Old House grew directly out of Julia's shows, with the same producer, Russ Morash, using his long experience with Julia to create what became an enormously successful franchise. Also the cross-marketing of books and television might not have begun with her but she gave it jet propulsion.

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Washington, D.C.: Marilyn - how did you decide to make a film about Julia? What was the filmmaking process like? Thanks so much!

Marilyn Mellowes: Actually, I was assigned to make the film - a dream assignment. The filmmaking process was a challenge, in part because so many of the programs that I have worked on in the past have been on pretty heavy duty subjects -- Nixon, the Kennedys, the Vietnam War, and a program about the origins of Christianity, From Jesus to Christ. So, Julia presented a subject that was not political (although she herself was actually very interested in politics -- something that we did not have time to get into in the program. She was interested in much more than food!). It took me a while to get in the grove of a subject that was basically fun. Maybe that sounds a bit odd. But true. As you can see from the program, we shot a number of interviews, virtually all in Boston. I also had access to her papers at the Schlesinger Library, including her amazing correspondence with Simca Beck (that's a whole other story!) as well as the photo archives of her husband Paul and the photo albums of various nieces and nephews and her sister, Dort. Going through this material was very exciting because I found images where we had "holes" in the program. For example, there is a scene where she is basically depressed and she hangs out at a cottage that her father had built by the sea. We had nothing to visually carry this, but in one of the picture albums that Dort sent, there were a number of photos of this cottage, which we were able to combine with ocean footage and music to give a sense of her troubled mood. Of course, the real challenge is to put all this together in the editing room, and I was very fortunate to work with an exceptionally talented editor, Bernice Schneider, who brought to the film an visual style and sensibility that was elegant, lyrical, subtle and at times, humorous.

Corby Kummer: Can't help log-rolling and back-patting by saying that Marilyn used photographs and narration brilliantly to produce a far more nuanced picture of Julia and the society she grew up on than any biographer or writer has. I learned an enormous amount from the show and came to understand her far better, and am sure viewers did too.

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Washington, D.C.: What was Julia's favorite a. food to cook, and b. food to eat? What's your favorite Julia dish? Thank you both.

Corby Kummer: Don't know as she had a favorite but she loved red meat and eggs, and anything with butter. My favorites are so many, intertwined with basic repertoire as for most cooks who essentially learned to cook from her--navarin of lamb (French lamb stew), reine de saba (flourless chocolate cake, still a standard for many cooks I know), orange souffle, even salade nicoise, the hard-boiled egg lesson from From JC's Kitchen--the list is kind of endless.

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Anonymous: I'm so sorry I missed the film! How exactly did Julia get her start?

Marilyn Mellowes: Julia got her start when she moved to Paris with her husband Paul. En route to the city, he took her to the oldest restaurant in France, where Julia had her "epiphany meal." She just fell in love with French food, and eventually with everything about French gastronomy. In Paris, she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu -- she was the only woman in a class of GIs. The head of the school later said that Julia had no natural talent, and she was very reluctant to grant Julia her certificate.

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Arlington, Va.: If you could describe a day in the life of Julia, as far as you know, what would it be like? Thanks for the details!

Marilyn Mellowes: I think that her day depended on whether she was concentrating on writing another cookbook, or was working in production of another television series. Her days would have been very different. When she was writing, she was basically holed up in her office, alone with her typewriter. As you know, Julia was a very social creature, and the long and lonely hours could get frustrating. At one point she writes to Simca, "Screw it" - meaning, I've just had enough of this. When she was in production, she was always engaged with other people, because production is a group and communal enterprise. You don't do it alone. So I think she liked the social aspect of television, and she was shrewd enough to recognize that it kept her name in front of the pubic. Julia definitely had a canny side, as Judith Jones remarks in the film. At the end of the day, whether book or TV, I imagine that Julia would welcome the chance to sit down to a nice meal and have a glass of wine. She worked hard, but she knew how to enjoy life, and for her, food and people were intimately connected.

Corby Kummer: Well, when I was around her house a lot, in the late 80s and 90s, there were always people there. Her longtime assistants Liz Bishop, and then Stephanie Hersh, worked full time, and there was always plenty of correspondence and phone calls to manage. Julia listed her number! And answered the phone, herself a lot though in later years Stephanie screened calls.

This is not at all to say that she was lazy or dependent on others: the whole day she was working too, actively. Once I came by for drinks or something and she was complaining grouchily that the layout for The Way to Cook was all wrong, and she was rearranging all the pictures--a monumental task, and one she did herself, methodically, to get it right.

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Baltimore, Md.: Do you think Julia will be remembered as America's first "Celebrity Chef"?

Corby Kummer: She might be remembered that way, but she wasn't. Duncan Hines was a real person, in the thirties. James Beard was probably the first to use television and media with the aim of making himself into a brand name (Hines used radio and some early TV, I think). Dione Lucas was a gifted French cook and teacher who also used television right before Julia but wasn't as gifted a performer or canny a financial manager. Marilyn explains in her wonderful essay on the Am Masters web site how Julia came along at exactly the right time to have the increasing power of the media coalesce around her, but the path had been trod. She trod it better and longer.

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Fells Point, Md.: Seeing all the questions about today's TV "chefs" (is Rachael Ray a chef?) makes me wonder --

Did Julia get corporate sponsorship for the various tools she used? Is there a Julia brand waffle iron, for example?

Corby Kummer: As you can hear her producer Geoff Drummond point out in outtakes posted on the American Masters site, Julia would never kowtow to a sponsor. She famously never gave blurbs for books (though some less than scrupulous authors would get around this by publishing nice things Julia had said in conversation about them, or the fact of having been a guest chef on one of Julia's shows, on their book jackets), and never ever endorsed products, as for example James Beard did nonstop. This was taken as high principle and conscience and a model for anyone else with integrity. But Julia started out comfortable and made a fortune from her books, and was very canny and conservative with money--so she could afford to take that stand. Beard was a spendthrift, and Julia liked to point out other cooks who let "money slip through their fingers." Most cooks today can't afford to turn down sponsorship. But Julia did set a good model--allowed corporate sponsorship of her shows but wouldn't specifically use their products on the show and would even be slyly subversive if sponsor reps visited the set--listen to Geoff Drummond's outtake to get that neat anecdote.

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Long Beach, Calif.: Thanks -- Julia was such a great ambassador to the kitchen especially as we lost the 1950's/60's battle of food to the packaging co's -- "plastic food-in-a-box" ... My question is: do you think it is possible that middle class/lower middle class americans will ever get back into the kitchen and forget their TV dinners?

How do we do that?

Thanks

Marilyn Mellowes: Wow. What a good question. So many people work and work very long hours, women included. So we are almost always really pressed for time. I don't know how we get back into the kitchen. I wish I had the answer to this, maybe Corby will have some thoughts. If anybody has thoughts about this, please let us know. Because food and cooking is intimately connected to larger social and economic trends.

Corby Kummer: Think about this all the time and if I may plug Atlantic column it's an underlying theme in most all of 'em, along with social service and saving rural economies, hiddenish agendas I've always got. I'm quite active in the Slow Food movement, which sounds elitist but aims to save small farmers by giving them access to all markets, especially those on restricted incomes. Farmers markets, at least in Boston, accept food stamps, and I see people using them there every week. Getting people to cook fresh food in their homes isn't easy, though, you're absolutely right. Demos at markets, getting fresh produce available year-round in poor neighborhoods, as it is *not*--they're the land of overpriced convenience stores with only packaged and some frozen foods--should be the real aim of food activists.

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Arlington, Va.: When I was small, I watched Julia with my mother in the '70s. What I loved (and still love) about her was that you could actually learn to cook a dish from watching and taking notes. Today's "cooking shows" seem to be all flash (and if you want to cook, buy the book). She was a great teacher, and we'll miss her.

Marilyn Mellowes: Agree! She was a great teacher, perhaps not a natural born cook, but I do think a she had an instinct and a passion for teaching. Which is not evident on so many of today's cookiing shows, which are basically a form of entertainment.

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The Next Julia: Of course, there could never be another Julia, but I think that Jacques Pepin is a phenomenal and charismatic chef. The cooking show they did together is my favorite show of all time. In terms of teaching technique I think that Alton Brown does a good job of teaching basics, just like Julia did.

Corby Kummer: Agree. Jacques is a brilliant teacher, and as a renowned cooking teacher once said, "I always learn from him." And he does have it all--incredibly background, charm, practicality, and sheer giftedness as a teacher.

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Arlington, Va.: Corby - were you inspired by Julia's work? By Julia as a person? What was she like? Thanks!

Corby Kummer: Inspired by her endless curiosity and energy. She always wanted to know where an ingredient came from and how to use it. In the early days of microwaves she was a terrific skeptic, ignoring eg Barbara Kafka's masterwork Microwave Gourmet, but then a bread-in-the-microwave book came out and, passionate and experimental bread baker that she was, she went out and bought a big microwave (she had a small, early one she only heated coffee in, the standard gourmet claim at the time, just as no one's TV ever got anything but PBS) and started cooking every recipe in it. Few of them worked, but she saw the potential of the microwave and was less dismissive of it from then on.

And her discipline! If that could be bottled or put in a daily supplement, I'd pay just about anything for it. She was an amazingly hard worker, and she never complained. Equanimity, humor, energy, dedication, curiosity--anyone who saw that couldn't fail to be inspired for life.

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Mobile, Ala.: Julia Child and Jacques Pepin seemed to have a great collegial connection and produced more than one successful series together on the air and in print. How did they meet? Did she know French well enough to speak it with him in professional contexts? Whose idea spawned the public TV series that featured them both? How were their styles alike and different when they worked apart from each other?

I have met Monsieur Pepin and felt him to be the consummate professional. With her dedication to culinary standards, I suspect they became personal friends as well. Am I correct?

Thank you!

Marilyn Mellowes: You are absolutely right. They were great friends, and they had great chemistry together. I am trying to remember how they first met, and drawing a bit of a blank here . . . I rather doubt that they spoke French in a professional context. The idea for the programs that featured them came from Geof Drummond, the director who was in charge of her later programs, Cooking with Master Chefs, Jacques and Julia, etc.

I think they had very different styles -- Jacques was/is a chef in the classic French tradition - actually, you might want to read his biography, which I believe is titled "The Apprentice." (Nothing to do with Donald Trump!) He had formidable technical skills, including knife skills. Julia valued technique, but she was not as technically skilled. She was really a first class home cook, but she never ran a professional kitchen. They were very close friends -- if you get the book that they did together, you can see that they each have a different way of cooking each of the dishes and recipes included. And they describe why they like to do it "their" way. In the program, we used a very funny clip of them biting into hamburgers - cheeseburgers, actually. This was on a program about beef. Well, when it came time to dress the burgers, Julia had to have everything that Jacques had - and more. So by the time she tried to bit into her burger, she could hardly get it into her mouth. Very charming - they both laugh.

Corby Kummer: Another tie. Like real pros who know how to be famous and carefully tend a public persona, they recognized the power of their collaboration and liked being around people who were as good in front of the camera as they were. Also Julia admired and respected almost above all someone who came up through the incredibly rigorous, hide-toughening world of French kitchens, as Jacques did in the classic way from early teenage years on. And she was charmed and entertained by him, as everyone was and is.

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Washington, D.C.: Hello -- Fascinating discussion. My question is focused on who owns the tapes of the Julia Child shows? I think it would be wonderful to make some of them available -- on DVD or whatever. Is that possible? Thanks.

Marilyn Mellowes: Hi! WGBH has produced a DVD consisting of a number of programs from The French Chef. It came out recently -- we are trying to get the details for you, so you could order.

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washingtonpost.com: Shop PBS

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College Park, Md.: I suppose it doesn't surprise me that Julia was interested in politics. She seemed incredibly smart and well-rounded, and to have distinct opinions. What were her political leanings?

Marilyn Mellowes: Julia would probably have described herself as a a middle or the road, left leaning Democrat. She was highly influenced by Paul and I think to some extent her political views were a reaction to her father's extremely conservative Republican politics. Politics was one reason that Paul and her father did not get along. Julia was very concerned about birth control and was a very active supporter of Planned Parenthood. She did benefits for them, and there is a very charming photo of her wearing a big "Planned Parenthood" apron. I wish we had had time to get into this in the program.

Corby Kummer: She also thought that Judge Bork was exactly what the country needed to, and said so often. So maybe there was more remnant influence of her father, or maybe it emerged as she grew older. Also in the sixties and even seventies it was perfectly possible for a Republican to support Planned Parenthood, which was a stance that practically every college grad of her class took.

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Rochester, N.Y.: I'm sorry to say that I missed your film, as I very much enjoyed Ms. Child's shows and books -- and especially her personality. Can I watch the show online?

Marilyn Mellowes: You can go the Julia Child web site, which is part of the American Masters web site -- if you go to www.pbs.org, you will find it. There is an essay that I wrote, and also an interview. You can also order the program from shop.pbs.org in DVD. Cheers.

Corby Kummer: Read Marilyn's essay! It's wonderful. More log-rolling I can't resist.

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Albany, N.Y.: Mr. Kummer (Corby, if I may?),

Not specifically a Julia question, but what's your take on today's food trends -- they even have tapas places here in Albany!

Corby Kummer: That the more people who look for fresh food grown and produced as close to possible, the better--whether they make tapas or spring rolls or enchiladas with it, as long as they make it at home from local ingredients. But that's just my pie-(or heirloom carrot)-in-the-sky hope. Go to your farmer's market!

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Miami, Fla.: Sorry I missed your broadcast last evening. I hope PBS will show it again sometime soon.

My questions are: did she have any children and if so, do they like to cook? Also did she grow up liking to cook or was it something she developed as she got older?

Thanks.

Corby Kummer: She didn't have children, and I think that was a great regret, her biographers have addressed that and perhaps Marilyn will too. Not having a family did, however, free her to devote so much time and energy to her shows and especially books, which she valued as the contributions that would really last. And being a book rather than TV person myself, I hope and trust that they will be. She was also very devoted to her family--a great-nephew, Alex Prud'homme, is at work now on a book about her, and comes to Boston often to look at archives.

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Bel Air, Md.: Growing up in the '70s, I remember watching Julia Child on PBS. I caught up with her again over the last decade before her death. What do you think most attributed to her appeal to all ages and longevity?

Marilyn Mellowes: She was an open, generous and totally unpretentious person. And in todays world of artifice, that has tremendous appeal. As for her longevity, she was fond of saying "Pick your grandparents." Which of course, is not possible. Actually, on her mothers side of the family, there was a real bad history of high blood pressure. But she seemed to get some "good longevity" genes, and she was very careful about her weight, always going on a diet when that became necessary. She wasn't happy about it, but she did it. Also, I think she enjoyed life to the hilt, and that had to make a difference. She was just having a great time.

Corby Kummer: She did diet, and complained about her stooping posture, and grumbled about what her doctors said. But she always put pleasure first and enjoying honest food you cook yourself--and that with any luck will be he longest-lived legacy.

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Marilyn Mellowes: Thanks, everyone, for participating in this chat room. You asked some really great questions and it was fun "talking" with you. Also, many thanks to Corby for joining us -- he was a great friend of Julia and a fabulous interview. All the best, Marilyn.

Corby Kummer: Thanks all mine! And I was inspired by the way Marilyn worked too--everyone can see why and how by watching the American Masters show, which I hope PBS will repeat at every fundraiser.

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washingtonpost.com: Next week's American Masters , "Quincy Jones: In the Pocket," airs on Wednesday, June 22, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings ). A Live Online discussion will follow on Thursday, June 23, at Noon ET.

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washingtonpost.com: WGBH Enterprises says it has produced a three-disc set for The French Chef that includes 18 programs taken from different periods of her show (some black and white, some color, etc.). The set is $39.95, and it can be ordered directly from WGBH Boston Video by calling 800-949-8670 or by ordering online at shop.wgbh.org , or it's available wherever videos and DVDs are sold.

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Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.