Julia Child

Julia Child was a chef, author of numerous cookbooks and founder of the American Institute of Wine and Food. After her early education and service during World War II, she met and married her husband and they eventually moved to France. The food experiences she had there ignited Child's interest in all things culinary, and she began studying French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu school of cooking. She parlayed her passion into her first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking which launched her long career as one of America's most beloved chefs. She brought her technique and personality to a wider audience with her television show The French Chef, which began airing on public television in 1963 and ran for ten years.

Secret documents released to the American National Archives on August 14, 2008, revealed that, during World War II, Julia Child, along with thousands of other individuals from a variety of industries and backgrounds, performed intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Services. The now-defunct department was eventually folded into the CIA after being dissolved by President Harry Truman. Child worked with the agency while stationed in China and Sri Lanka.

1. Mastering the Art of French Cooking
2. The Way to Cook
3. The French Chef Cookbook
4. Baking With Julia
5. From Julia's Kitchen
6. Julia's Delicious Little Dinners
7. In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs
8. Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home
9. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking

Meryl Streep and Amy Adams star in the 2009 film Julia & Julia. Streep portrays Julia Child as she discovers her love for cooking. Adams plays a woman several decades in the future who is determined to cook her way through Julia Child's cookbooks.http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=a81aad9b-777a-41b9-ae87-3bae130576a6

• Note: Some of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• 1912: Born

• 1961: Mastering the Art of French Cooking published

• 1963: The French Chef television program premiers

• 1966: On the cover of Time Magazine

• 1978: Julia Child & Company airs

• 1981: American Institute of Wine & Food founded

• 2004: Julia Child dies