Testing Your Culinary Knowledge

Who doesn’t like trivia questions? Well, I have a few for you.

I had the absolute honor of having lunch with Julia Child many years ago. What a lady! I idolized her and the remarkable contribution she made to American cuisine. This was our second meeting. The first was at a conference where she was a guest speaker – along with the amazing lineup of Wolfgang Puck, Jacques Pepin and Jane Brody – in a lively discussion on Changing the American Palate. They talked at some length about how to make the American diet healthier – and no surprise that Julia refused to give up butter! She signed a book for me and I was thrilled.

1. Before her entree into the culinary world, where did Julia Child work?

- A British ship factory
- In Sri Lanka for an American spy organization
- At the Ritz-Carlton in New York
- At NASA

2. Tempura is originally:

- Japanese
- Chinese
- Portuguese
- Italian

Now, for the answers:

#1 Julia Child worked for the OSS, a predecessor to the CIA in Sri Lanka and China. Yes, rumor has it that Julia was an American spy. This is where she met her future husband, Paul Child. They later moved to Paris where Julia’s passion for the culinary arts was kindled. At age 37, she enrolled in the Cordon Bleu – and the rest, as they say, is history.

#2 Tempura, though known to us as a distinctly Japanese dish and/or preparation method, was originally introduced to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 1500′s.