Museum exhibit explores the culinary backstory of one of America’s favorite TV chefs

On television and in the kitchen, Julia Child was one of America's favorite and most entertaining chefs. Off camera and out of the kitchen, she also was a devoted wife, an adventure-seeker, and a one-time low-level spy.

An exhibit telling that story, "Julia Child: A Recipe for Life," is on display at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation through Sept. 10.

Although limited to few real-life artifacts, the exhibit features a plethora of photos, documents and interactive displays that illustrate the life of the PBS TV show celebrity on the other side of the small screen.

The exhibition explores the key ingredients that led to Child's personal evolution and America's culinary revolution in a fresh and exciting way with immersive opportunities.

With her characteristic mid-Atlantic accent, this culinary pioneer's insatiable curiosity and tenacious spirit drove her to endlessly try, test, prove and communicate how to make delicious food through her TV show "The French Chef."

Learning to cook empowered Child and she in turn empowered others, profoundly transforming American cuisine and food culture.

Among walls containing reproductions of letters, notes and photos, attendees have an opportunity to interact with a virtual table setting, explore olfactory senses as they open containers to smell what's cooking, browse through a larger-than-life "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" cookbook, recreate a sudsy photo of Child and her husband Paul in a bathtub and even walk through a mock-up of the television kitchen set.

What may be most fascinating to many is the life Child had not only off set, but also before she became one of America's favorite TV chefs.

Born Julia McWilliams, she began working as a typist and senior clerk for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS was the first U.S. intelligence agency used to support both government and military operations during World War II. The OSS was responsible for research, espionage and tactical developments that provided valuable information and resources to both the United States and its allies.

Child first worked with the OSS in Washington before being transferred to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then to Kunming, China, where she was in charge of filing top-secret documents. Later, she was promoted to the chief of registry and transferred to Chunking, China. While stationed in China, she began to acquire a taste for Asian cuisine that would be influential to her later in life.

While stationed in Ceylon, she met Paul, who was 10 years older and led the Presentation Division responsible for designing maps, diagrams and maintaining a top-secret war room for allied commanders.

While working with the OSS, Child contributed to the development of an ocean survival kit. The kit includes a signal mirror and a shark repellent which contained copper sulfate and maleic acid. It is unknown if the repellent was ever tested.

When World War II ended, the Childs moved back to the U.S. where Paul took a job creating exhibits for the United States Information Service (USIS). Through his position, he was responsible for promoting American art and manufacturing throughout the world and thus gave both him and Julia ample opportunities to travel. It was during these travels that she developed a broad interest in the culinary arts.

While living in France, she started taking cooking classes to learn about French cuisine. She also graduated from the Cordon Bleu School of French Cooking.

Kate Morland, head of exhibitions and performances for the Henry Ford Museum, said the exhibit allows visitors to explore the innovations that initially led to today's food channels and celebrity chefs.

"Julia Child was innovative in that she was the first hugely popular celebrity TV chef," Morland said. "If you think of the Food Network, that really traces its roots back to Julia Child, because not only was she a good cook, not only did she have a passion for teaching people about good cuisine, as she would say, but she was charismatic and she was great in front of the camera."

Morland credits Child with the resurrection of cooking from scratch and with real ingredients at a time when America was beginning to find itself consumed with an interest in fast food, frozen food and TV dinners.

Child worked with two other women on ways to make contemporary French cuisine more accessible to the everyday housewife when the three published the now infamous "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

What made this cookbook so novel and groundbreaking was the way that it detailed and presented the culinary process that allowed people to find the ingredients they needed at their local supermarket.

The popular PBS television show, "The French Chef," which originated from WGBH in Boston, allowed people to cook along with Julia, Morland said.

"So, they would have ingredients and they would cook along with what she was doing," Morland said. "She was really a food educator that we didn't just have to assemble food and heat it up, but actually having joy in cooking rather than it being a chore was a contribution of hers."

The show first aired on Feb. 11, 1963, and ran for 10 years. Shortly afterward, Child produced other cooking shows for PBS. Her fame and celebrity status quickly rose, and she was a common guest on many news shows and cooking programs.

As a cultural icon, Child was kindly parodied on "Sesame Street" as "Julia Kid" and even on "Saturday Night Live" by comedian Dan Ackroyd in 1978. Ackroyd was inspired by a real-life instance where Child cut herself while preparing a meal alongside Jacques Pepin on the "Tomorrow Show."

In the SNL skit, Ackroyd's impersonation of Child cuts her thumb while attempting to debone a chicken. With massive amounts of fake blood spraying out from the wound, across the kitchen and all over herself, Ackroyd keeps repeating the line "save the liver" just before passing out.

Child also was an inspiration to many chefs, both professional and amateur.

A 2009 movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams entitled "Julie and Julia" traces how a real-life blogger, Julie Powell, attempted to create all 524 recipes in Child's famous cookbook in one year. A display within the exhibit examines how Child inspires both through film and in print to this day.

Museum exhibition technicians put in the final touches on "The French Chef" TV set prior to the opening of the "Julia Child: A Recipe for Life" exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. (Michael Kuentz - For MediaNews Group)

A video screen shows the famous Saturday Night Live skit where comedian Dan Ackroyd parodies Julia Child by pretending to cut herself while attempting to debone a chicken. (Michael Kuentz - For MediaNews Group)

(Michael Kuentz - For MediaNews Group)

"I think that there's a lot of people that will come to this exhibit having really positive memories of seeing Julia on TV," Morland said. "There is an element of nostalgia there. But then there's a lot of people, young people in particular, who may never have heard of Julia Child, but I hope that they’ll take away from this is that she was someone who was positive, she was tenacious, and she found her passion and she went after it with everything that that she had all of her talents."

"Julia Child: A Recipe for Life" is free for members and included with admission to Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

For more information, visit thf.org.

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