Julia Child's life had no real direction until she volunteered in Europe during World War II and ultimately met her two lifelong loves - her husband Paul and French food.

Nothing was more reassuring than watching Julia Child, standing 6'2"and speaking in that often imitated lilting soprano, pat a raw chicken's rear end and promise that, if she could prepare coq au vin, so could we. But the free spirit and endearing antics of "The French Chef" should not be confused with carelessness. Julia was exacting and disciplined, as passionate about a perfect soufflé as she was about teaching us how to make one. Born into a conservative upper-class Pasadena, California, family and educated at Smith College, when it was a finishing school for women, Julia's life had no real direction until she volunteered in Europe during World War II and ultimately met her two lifelong loves - her husband Paul Child and French food. She spent years writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then the rest of her life changing the way Americans cooked, ate and thought about food. Her television kitchen, opened in 1963 and active for 40 years, is now on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC - as treasured a national artifact as Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.