Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Riddle Me This (French Chef Department)

Riddle me this, Batman! Why is a French chef like the Batman?



It can't be their cooking skill. Why do you think Bruce Wayne keeps Alfred on staff? It's because Bruce can't cook an omelette for his life. Not true of Julia Child:



No, to determine how the Caped Crusader and the French Chef are similar we have to delve back into her WWII origin. Or, as Wikipedia has it (and doesn't Wikipedia have it!):
...after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, [Child] joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after being turned down by the United States Navy for being too tall.

She started out at OSS Headquarters in Washington, working directly for General William J. Donovan, the leader of OSS. Working as a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, Julia typed up thousands of names on white note cards used to keep track of officers.

For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section in Washington, D.C., where she was a file clerk and also helped in the development of a shark repellent to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats.
Yes, you read that right.

SHARK

REPELLENT.

Ladies and gentlemen, please salute Julia Child. Made cooking accessible and fun for a whole new generation. Inspired an entire field of television gourmets and chefs. Cooked up a kickass shark repellent. Julia Child: as tough and as smart as Batman.

Julia Child



2 comments:

Novice said...

Does the navy not like tall people? I guess it would make it harder to fit into a submarine.

SJ said...

I've watched Julia Child cook an omelette so many times trying to learn how to do it like her...still not there. She was one grand dame. Still think there's no one like her on the Food Network or any of the other food shows.