Julia Child's Last Meal Was Her Own French Onion Soup - The Daily Meal (2024)

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Julia Child's Last Meal Was Her Own French Onion Soup - The Daily Meal? ›

Child's last meal of French onion soup was actually prepared by someone else; though, The Los Angeles Times reported when the news of her death broke. Though Child was in her own home when it happened, her assistant Stephanie Hersh was the one who had cooked the French onion soup.

Let's test her vichyssoise recipe to find out! Soup was one of Julia Child's favorite things to eat, and reportedly, her absolute favorite was vichyssoise.

Growing to a height of six feet, two inches, Child was the natural choice to be captain of the school's basketball team. She was also president of the Vagabonds, a hiking club. Child's parents always intended for her to go on to college after high school.

At the time, the modest onion was also thought to have restorative properties, making it the go-to ingredient for making broths. For several centuries, the onion soup was regarded as the poor man's food, until one night in France during the 18th century, which forever changed its reputation.

With such a soup, a knife is your friend, not your enemy. Using both the soup spoon and the knife, push the baked cheese against the rim of the cup or bowl and cut it gently with the knife. Once you've broken the cheese barrier, you can use the knife again to nudge bits of cheese onto the spoon.

Vichyssoise. Well-known as one of Julia Child's favorite dishes, this chilled leek and potato soup is startling in its simplicity. Aside from the leek, potato, and water, Child's version of the soup calls for barely any additional ingredients.

Child's last meal of French onion soup was actually prepared by someone else; though, The Los Angeles Times reported when the news of her death broke. Though Child was in her own home when it happened, her assistant Stephanie Hersh was the one who had cooked the French onion soup.

Ten years later, in 2004, Julia Child died two days short of her 92nd birthday. In the last year of her life she suffered knee surgeries, kidney failure, and a stroke.

GBH put The French Chef on the air on Feb. 11, 1963, and Julia Child became public television's first and most enduring star. Audiences fell in love with her wavering voice, fondness for wine and butter, eagerness to hack away with a knife, and customary closing phrase, "Bon appétit." The series ran for 10 years.

Julia Child was 6'2" and wore a size 12 shoe. She played basketball at Smith College (and apparently she was pretty good, too!).

Do they actually eat French onion soup in France? ›

The Onion Soup, a traditional and warming dish

It has even become a trendy dish that tourists are eager to try to experience French gastronomy. However, onion soup is in fact not part of French people's daily meals. It was originally meant to be eaten after a family reunion in the middle of the night to cure hangovers…

First, French onion soup calls for a ton of onions. While onions aren't expensive, there's a lot of labor involved in halving, peeling, and slicing 10, 12, 50, or one billion onions (I don't know how much soup you make).

A few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf elevate the soup even more, but I take it a step further, adding a splash of fish sauce for complexity and depth—don't worry, it won't taste fishy—and a hit of cider vinegar to balance some of that oniony sweetness.

Eating with your hands is considered impolite, so make sure to tuck into that steak frites with your knife and fork. Notable exceptions include bread and certain dishes including asparagus. One thing you may have noticed in France is people do not cut their salads. Do so, and you might receive a few funny looks.

Onions are a great source of soluble fibre and therefore a good prebiotic; food for the good gut bacteria. Optimal gut health is crucial for weight loss and this delicious soup provides great nutrients to help boost weight loss as part of a weight management programme.

French onion soup is the ultimate comfort food. Onions get slowly cooked until sweet and caramelized, then simmered in rich broth until they're practically falling apart. To finish it off, toasted bread is added to give it that lovable crisp-gone-soggy texture and a generous amount of Gruyère cheese is melted on top.

Dehillerin: The 19th Century Parisian Cookware Store Where Julia Child Was a Regular. Cooks ponder copper-lined pots and carbon knives outside E. Dehillerin.

A Reine de Saba cake is a French, rich, sophisticated, chocolate cake made with ground almonds, rum, meringue and of course chocolate. It's topped with a chocolate ganache and can be decorated with almond slices. It's said to be one of the first French cakes that Julia Child ever ate and fell in love with!

She used an exorbitant amount of butter — even later in life. According to PBS, Child used a whopping 753 pounds of butter during the time she filmed "Baking with Julia." That program aired for just four seasons, from 1996 through 1999, so that's a pretty impressive amount of dairy.