The making of the cultural phenomenon that was Julia Child had three key ingredients: a man, a meal, and a TV camera. Five years after Child’s death, as Meryl Streep plays the woman who revolutionized America’s relationship with food, the author recalls the wartime romance between Julia McWilliams and Paul Child, the bride’s life-altering first lunch (sole meunière) in France, and the 1962 television appearance that turned her into a star—and her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking into a bible.

The full article on Julia Child can be read here.