Learning from Julia child.

Julia Child did more than entertain and teach some of us to enjoy and appreciate French cooking. She played an unacknowledged role in the women's movement through the example she set. She made it okay for women to be big, smart, funny, and go on from mistakes. She helped many of us to understand how alternative tools and methods produced the wonderful tastes that they did. Long before Margaret Thatcher, she made it seem okay to be out front and successful while a husband did his own quiet thing at home. And long before Martha Stewart, she enabled millions to appreciate fine tools as well as fine ingredients, and understand the contribution of rigorous techniques to creating wonderful flavors. Following one of Julia's conversational recipes meant understanding how one got from the group of ingredients over here to the wonderful flavors and textures over there. People like Julia live on like parents because they are so much part of who we have become.

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The Shopper Report[R] Copyright 2004, edited by Mona Doyle, is published 11 times a year by The Consumer Network, Inc., P.O. Box 42753, Philadelphia PA 19101. Phone (215) 235-2400 FAX: (215) 235-6967. The Consumer Network provides consulting and research services including focus groups, shopping partnerships, home visits, and mail and e-mail surveys.