The French Chef


The French Chef is a television cooking show created and hosted by Julia Child, produced and broadcast by WGBH, the public television station in Boston, Massachusetts, from February 2, 1963 to January 14, 1973. It was one of the first cooking shows on American television.
The show grew out of a special presentation Child gave on WGBH based on the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking which she co-authored. The French Chef was produced from 1963 to 1973 by WGBH for National Educational Television. Reruns continued on PBS until 1989, and were airing on Cooking Channel as of 2010. As of September 2016, episodes were being rerun on the new Canadian cooking channel Gusto. As recently as March 2017, reruns of the show were also seen on the American Public Television Create channel.
The original episodes were available on the PBS streaming service as of 2020.

Format

The French Chef introduced French cooking to the United States at a time when it was considered expensive restaurant fare, not suitable for home cooking. Child emphasized fresh and, at the time, unusual ingredients. All of the recipes used on The French Chef had originally appeared in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but for the show, Child chose mostly the more domestic recipes from the book, although such showpieces as Beef Wellington, various sorts of soufflé, and some ambitious pastries also made it into the mix if they seemed within the reach of a home cook without staff.
The show was done live-to-videotape from start to finish, leaving little room for mistakes. The resulting occasional accidents became a popular trademark of Child's on air presence, used as "teachable moments" to encourage viewers to relax about the task's demands.
Certain elements became motifs: Julia's fondness for wine; her distinctive voice; her staunch defense of the use of butter and cream; her standard issue "impeccably clean towel"; and her closing line at the end of every show: "This is Julia Child, !"

History

Child's first appearance cooking on TV had been by happenstance: a guest for another show on WGBH had cancelled their appearance, as did the backup guest. Child was invited to do a cooking demonstration, which received positive feedback and prompted executives to order a pilot.
When the show began, the budget was so low that "volunteers had to be recruited to wash dishes, and the food sometimes had to be auctioned to the audience afterwards to cover expenses."
In 1964 Child received a Peabody Award, crediting her for doing "more than show us how good cooking is achieved; by her delightful demonstrations she has brought the pleasures of good living into many American homes." In May 1966, her show won a Primetime Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television – Individuals.
The August 27, 1968 episode of The French Chef ended with the unexpected collapse of an Apple Charlotte.
The October 31, 1971 episode of The French Chef was the first U.S. television show to be captioned for deaf viewers.
The show was produced by Ruth Lockwood and directed by Russell Morash, Russell Fortier, David Griffiths and David B. Atwood. Film composer John Morris wrote the 2nd theme song of The French Chef.
The show eventually became so popular that Child's use of a particular ingredient each week would sometimes cause a surge in demand and lead to grocery stores across the country temporarily selling out of it.

Legacy

As part of its growing Twitch Creative content, Twitch streamed every episode of The French Chef over a four-day period starting on March 15, 2016, to launch its new food channel. Twitch reported that almost a million viewers watched the marathon.

List of episodes

Pilots (1962)

The three pilot episodes were subsequently taped over by the studio, a common practice at the time. No copies are known to exist today.
EpisodeSubjectAir Date
PilotThe French OmeletJuly 28, 1962
PilotCoq au VinJuly 1962
PilotOnion SoupJuly 1962

Season 1 (1963)

Child wrote that the first 13 episodes were lost at one point, but then 7 were found; if so, this would add an additional 6 episodes between episode 7 "Fruit Tarts" and what is listed here as episode 8 "Chicken Breasts and Rice".
EpisodeSubjectAir Date
E01Boeuf BourguignonFebruary 2, 1963
E02French Onion SoupFebruary 9, 1963
E03Casserole Roast ChickenFebruary 16, 1963
E04The French OmeletteFebruary 23, 1963
E05ScallopsMarch 2, 1963
E06Quiche LorraineMarch 9, 1963
E07Fruit TartsMarch 16, 1963
E08Chicken Breasts and RiceMarch 23, 1963
E09Vegetables à la FrançaiseMarch 30, 1963
E10Veal ScallopsApril 6, 1963
E11French Salads- MayonnaiseApril 13, 1963
E12Chicken Livers à la FrançaiseApril 20, 1963
E13Roast Duck à l'OrangeApril 27, 1963
E14Chocolate Mousse and Caramel CustardMay 4, 1963
E15PâtésMay 11, 1963
E16AspicsMay 18, 1963
E17BouillabaiseMay 25, 1963
E18Lobster à l'AméricaineJune 1, 1963
E19French CrêpesJune 8, 1963
E20French Crêpes II - SuzetteJune 15, 1963
E21Steaks and HamburgersJune 22, 1963
E22The Potato ShowJune 29, 1963
E23Soufflé on a PlatterJuly 6, 1963
E24Dinner in a PotJuly 13, 1963
E25Pâte à ChouxJuly 20, 1963

Season 2 (1963-1964)

Season 3 (1964-1965)

Season 4 (1965)

Season 5 (1965-1966)

Season 6 (1966)

Season 7 (1970-1971)

Season 8 (1971)

Season 9 (1971-1972)

Season 10 (1972-1973)

Companion books

Two companion cookbooks were written along with the show. The French Chef Cookbook was a show-by-show breakdown of the black and white series, while From Julia Child's Kitchen was a somewhat more ambitious work that was based on the color series but also added considerable extra material.

DVD releases