Julia Child Used Almost 800 Pounds Of Butter In One Of Her TV Shows Alone
Just how much did Julia Child love butter? So much so that, when asked by a rose grower if they could name a bloom after her, she refused for years — until she spotted a delicious-looking, butter-yellow rose among the options and agreed that the buttery beauty was the perfect one to bear her name. She also famously advised that anyone who was afraid to use butter in their cooking should "use cream" (per WGBH). Cream, of course, is just deconstructed butter. The very first dish she tasted upon arriving in Paris with her husband Paul? Sole Meunière, which in her memoir "My Life In France," Child wrote was "the most exciting meal of my life." The recipe consists of tender fish filets, lemon, parsley — and lots and lots of melted butter.
PBS shared even more proof of Child's love affair with butter in an infographic created to honor what would have been her 100th birthday. Child welcomed other well-known chefs and bakers to cook with her on her '90s program, "Baking With Julia." In the post, PBS shared that, over the course of this show, Child went through a mind-boggling 753 pounds of butter. That's the equivalent of 3,012 sticks!
More TV shows equals even more butter
It's hard to fathom thousands of sticks of butter going into the dishes that Julia Child and her guests created on "Baking With Julia." However, considering the recipes they were making — dishes like French croissants, from-scratch puff pastry, and delicate tuile cookies — it makes sense. The coup de grâce of the butter-filled series was a three-tier wedding cake Child made with Martha Stewart. Between the cake layers and the frosting, this recipe alone requires 3 ½ pounds of butter.
The 753 pounds of butter statistic is already pretty startling, but even more astounding considering it's for just one of her TV shows. Child had a total of 10 television cooking shows and specials spanning 35 years, including her groundbreaking "The French Chef," which debuted in 1963. And don't forget all the butter she must have gone through to write her 15 cookbooks. The first of which, "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking," took almost 10 years to research and test.
Given all this, it seems impossible to know just how much delicious butter Child used throughout her career. One thing is for sure: French cooking wouldn't be the same without butter or Julia Child.