A New Book Applies Julia Child’s Sensibilities to Modern Kitchen Design

Julia Child at her kitchen table in Cambridge.

Six-foot-two frame aside, Julia Child is a towering figure in American home cooking. As the country’s first celebrity chef, she showed housewives—and their sons—just how much joy can be found in the kitchen on her long-running PBS show The French Chef, and several other spinoffs. Some of these shows were filmed at her Cambridge home, whose kitchen has been preserved at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

But a new book gives an even more intimate look into the room Child called “the beating heart of the home.” In Julia’s Kitchen: Practical and Convivial Kitchen Design Inspired by Julia Child, by architect and Smith College alumna (just like Child) Pamela Heyne and Boston photographer Jim Scherer, includes exclusive photos of the Cambridge kitchen that Scherer took in 1989, before TV producers tidied it up to film Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home there.

The 160-page paperback features 73 visuals (58 in color) of Cambridge, as well as La Pitchoune, Child’s vacation home in France; her TV studio kitchens, other celebrity home kitchens (including Pepin’s), architectural designs by Heyne, and more. While Child’s meticulously organized tools cluttering her walls and countertops, and three separate walk-in pantries, may look different from the today’s typical kitchen setup, Heyne sets out to use the French Chef’s ideas to inspire modern home cooks.

In Julia’s Kitchen, a new release from ForeEdge, comes out today and retails for $24.95. It’s a must-have addition for the bookshelves of any Julia Child fan, and it is an insightful read for anyone who spends time in the kitchen.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Photographer Jim Scherer shooting “The Way to Cook” in Julia Child’s Cambridge dining room.

Child with asparagus in her Cambridge kitchen.

Child’s Garland stove.

Copper pans and more storage.

Countertop storage.

Magnetic knife storage with labels.

Julia Child rolling pastry in one of her Cambridge pantries.

Images from In Julia’s Kitchen: Practical and Convivial Kitchen Design Inspired by Julia Child by Pamela Heyne and Jim Scherer published by ForeEdge, an imprint of University Press of New England.