Abstract

"Julia Child as Entrepreneur and Business Woman"

Helen Horowitz, Smith College (hhorowit@smith.edu)

Julia Child (1912-2004) is remembered, revered, and enjoyed today as “The French Chef” and as the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). In this paper I propose to focus on her as entrepreneur and businesswoman, and foreground her ability to skillfully weave together entrepreneurial teams. She was a woman who, after a late education in French cuisine, understood that she was building a diverse team to develop a product with commercial value. Beginning in 1952, she entered into a working relationship with Simone Beck to develop a French cookbook for Americans. A highly disciplined worker, Child developed her product during Mastering’s nine-year development. She protected Mastering the Art of French Cooking from competitors. She formed an abiding friendship with Avis DeVoto, who brought their recipes first to a Boston publisher, and, when that failed, to the New York house, Alfred A. Knopf. There Child worked with the gifted editor, Judith Jones, and the house’s manager, William Koshland, who both supported her work and helped publicize it.
Mastering appeared in 1961. The book garnered highly favorable reviews from the day of publication. Using her own money for a book tour, Child and Beck traveled across the U.S. to talk about Mastering and present cooking demonstrations. Child carefully monitored book sales, which grew sufficient for the Book of the Month Club to take it on as a selection. Most importantly, Child took advantage of a book interview at WGBH, Boston’s local educational television station to demonstrate on air the making of an omelette. Positive public response led to The French Chef, where Child deftly employed her enthusiasm and spontaneity to make entertainment of a weekly television cooking lesson. Between 1962 and 1966, her TV audience became a national one, allowing Julia Child to breakthrough to new markets and generate the book’s wide sale, ultimately of 1.6 million copies. Analyzing Julia Child as an entrepreneur allows for