How ‘Julia’ Brought Julia Child’s Paris to Delicious Life
Max’s Julia, which just wrapped its second season, chronicles legendary chef Julia Child (Sarah Lancashire) as she creates the television show, The French Chef, that would bring her international fame. Watching it is a symphony of delights, from seeing the delectable dishes, created with the help of food stylist Christine Tobin (duh) to the loving, horny relationship between Julia and her husband Paul (David Hyde Pierce). Over time, Child has become so steeped in our cultural consciousness that many of her fans know about her time spent in France, which became foundational as she launched her second act as a chef and TV personality (her first career was a researcher for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA).
But to really get a sense of her life there, as so beautifully dramatized in Julia, we took a culinary dream trip to Paris, and spoke to the creative team behind the series about bringing her time there to life. Now that the season has aired, here’s a look back at how the show pulled off the magical trip.
The first season of Julia established Child’s life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Paul, revealing the hoops she had to jump through to get The French Chef on air. Creators Daniel Goldfarb and Christopher Keyser knew they wanted to take Julia to France in Season 2, but needed to figure out the right way to go about it. Season 2’s first episodes show Child working on her second cookbook with Simca (Isabella Rossellini) at their home in the French countryside. But in Episode 3, “Pressed Duck,” the series heads to the City of Lights to show what Julia and Paul’s former life there was like.