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Julia Child's The French Chef
-
Dana Polan
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2011
About this book
Dana Polan considers what made Julia Childs TV show, The French Chef, so popular during its original broadcast and such enduring influences on American cooking, American television, and American culture since then.
Author / Editor information
Dana Polan is Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University. He is the author of The Sopranos, also published by Duke University Press, and Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film.
Reviews
“[A] history of early American television telescoped through the persona and history of Julia Child. . . . [F]ascinating. . . . Mr. Polan’s meticulous work in Julia Child’s The French Chef contributes much to the growing literature on American food history.” - Cynthia D. Bertelsen, New York Journal of Books
“[Polan’s] writing is consistently engaging, whether he's discussing chicken carcasses being made to dance along the counter or the technical implications of a dropped soufflé. He also brings a steady influx of humor and interesting tangents to his account. . . . Thoroughly researched and wonderfully illuminating, Polan's book will earn admiration in both readers interested in television and those interested in Julia Child.” - Andi Diehn, ForeWord
“Julia Child’s The French Chef is a fabulous book filled with delicious nuggets about the television series that changed what Americans ate—and what Americans watched on television. The book is both entertaining and informative, and it is timely, for it has been nearly fifty years since the series first aired. Dana Polan is as bright, insightful, and companionable as was the television series. Bravo!”—Andrew F. Smith, Editor, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
“In Julia Child’s The French Chef, Dana Polan offers a fascinating new perspective on Child and her on-air persona. He demonstrates the crucial interplay among the celebrity (Julia), handler (her husband, Paul), and producer (the public television station WGBH), and the way they all came together into such a magical whole. This investigation is an important contribution to our understanding of Child’s seminal role in shaping American attitudes toward food.”—Darra Goldstein, Editor in Chief, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
“With a refreshing intellectual passion, Dana Polan offers a compelling glimpse into the industrial and cultural ethos of Julia Child and her television show, The French Chef. Polan carefully delineates a model for how to study the media through an individual program, and in so doing, provides a definitive reason for the need to study popular culture in a theoretically and methodologically rigorous way. Essential for those in food and food-related studies, this insightful and engaging book will also be a must-read for media studies scholars.”—Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of Kids Rule!: Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship
“[A] history of early American television telescoped through the persona and history of Julia Child. . . . [F]ascinating. . . . Mr. Polan’s meticulous work in Julia Child’s The French Chef contributes much to the growing literature on American food history.”
-- Cynthia D. Bertelsen New York Journal of Books
“[Polan’s] writing is consistently engaging, whether he's discussing chicken carcasses being made to dance along the counter or the technical implications of a dropped soufflé. He also brings a steady influx of humor and interesting tangents to his account. . . . Thoroughly researched and wonderfully illuminating, Polan's book will earn admiration in both readers interested in television and those interested in Julia Child.”
-- Andi Diehn Foreword Reviews
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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1. The Difference She Made
1 -
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2. Television Cookery B.C. (Before Child)
41 -
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3. French Cuisine, American Style
78 -
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4. The Beginnings of The French Chef
114 -
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5. Prepping The French Chef
137 -
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6. The Success of The French Chef
185 -
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7. New Beginnings and the Ending to The French Chef
214 -
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8. Kitchen Drama
231 -
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Notes
249 -
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References
277 -
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Further Readings on TV Cooking Shows
285 -
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Index
289
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 12, 2011
eBook ISBN:
9780822393474
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
312
Other:
34 illustrations
