Season 1

José Andres and Eric Ripert are amazed by Julia Child’s hands-on treatment of a whole fish. They discuss her ability to dive in to fish filleting while encouraging viewers to attempt this difficult preparation. José jokes about his debt to Julia for popularizing fish in America and both are impressed with the information Julia conveys in the show and her ability to work without any retakes.

Celebrity chefs Vivian Howard, Marcus Samuelsson, Carla Hall and Sara Moulton follow Julia Child’s bread making recipes for classic pain de mie and a raisin bread. Sara highlights Julia’s role in re-orienting people’s perception of food, while Carla notes Julia’s skill in making ingredients and techniques accessible. And all the chefs note that by this point, Julia had her on-camera look honed.

Chef Rick Bayless marvels over Julia Child’s knife skills and what great technique training she provided. José Andres and Eric Ripert are also impressed with her teaching – how she took the time to include skills and techniques in her programs, and they wonder how many tips are in her two hundred episodes of The French Chef.

Chefs Sara Moulton, Carla Hall, José Andres and Eric Ripert discuss Julia Child’s first episode of The French Chef, remarking on how purposeful she was as a teacher, and how comfortable and magnetic she was, even in her first episode. Martha Stewart weighs in on how influential Julia was in completely changing how viewers thought about food and cooking.

Chef Rick Bayless supplies commentary on Julia Child’s high wire performance preparing potatoes and her comfort in the kitchen. Then chef, frequent Julia collaborator, and dear friend Jacques Pépin weighs in later in the show on Julia’s love of butter and her gracious approach to meeting all of the staff, down to the dishwasher, at the restaurants where they dined.

Chefs Vivian Howard and Marcus Samuelsson enjoy Julia Child’s presentation of chickens, which includes an entire counter filled with raw poultry. They note how she invented cooking on television with no existing rulebook and discuss her mission to educate viewers about the value of prime ingredients, including how to shop for them as well as how to prepare them.