American television cooking show created and hosted by Julia Child
The French Chef
Child demonstrating how to cook an omelette on the first season of The French Chef
Genre
Cooking
Created by
Julia Child
Directed by
Russell Morash
Russell Fortier
David Griffiths
David B. Atwood
Presented by
Julia Child
Theme music composer
John Morris
Country of origin
United States
Original language
English
No. of seasons
10
No. of episodes
201
Production
Producer
Ruth Lockwood
Production locations
WGBH Studios, Boston, Massachusetts
Running time
28 minutes
Production company
WGBH-TV
Original release
Network
NET (1963-66) PBS (1970-73)
Release
February 11, 1963 (1963-02-11) – January 14, 1973 (1973-01-14)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)
The French Chef is an American television cooking show created and hosted by Julia Child,[1] produced and broadcast by WGBH, the public television station in Boston, Massachusetts, from February 11, 1963 [2] to January 14, 1973. It was one of the first cooking shows on American television.
The French Chef was first shown with a pilot on July 26, 1962.[3] After two more episodes were broadcast in the summer, the show premiered as a regular weekly series on February 11, 1963.[4] The immensely popular show went on to air for 206 episodes. It is credited with convincing the American public to try cooking French food at home.[5]
The show grew out of a special presentation Child gave on WGBH based on the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking which she co-authored. The French Chef was produced from 1963 to 1973 by WGBH for National Educational Television (and later for PBS). Reruns continued on PBS until 1989, and were airing on Cooking Channel as of 2010. As of September 2016, episodes were being rerun on the new Canadian cooking channel Gusto, and later, Makeful. As recently as March 2017, reruns of the show were also seen on the American Public Television Create channel.
The original episodes were available on the PBS streaming service as of 2020. In July 2021, certain episodes were added to the Pluto TV lineup, together with other Julia Child cooking programs.[6]
^J.C. Maçek III (August 13, 2012). "Bless This Mess: Sweeping the Kitchen with Julia Child". PopMatters.
^Boston Globe Magazine TV Week, February 10, 1963
^"Thursday, July 26", "TV Week" in Boston Globe Magazine supplement (p. 22) to Boston Sunday Globe, July 22, 1962
^"Monday, Feb. 11", "TV Week" in Boston Globe Magazine supplement (p. 9) to Boston Sunday Globe, February 10, 1963
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