CMC exhibit focuses on Julia Child’s ‘Recipe for Life’

The Cincinnati Museum Center’s new “intimate and immersive” exhibition aims to help visitors “fall in love all over again with the person who made America fall in love with cooking.” 

“A Recipe for Life” shows how culinary pioneer Julia Child’s curiosity and tenacity drove her to learn how to cook, test and experiment with recipes and – most of all – communicate the love of cooking to her audiences. Child played a major role in transforming American cuisine and food culture.

The exhibit runs Feb. 1 through May 18.

“Julia reveled in cooking’s joy, not in its perfection,” said Elizabeth Pierce, CMC president and CEO. “Because Julia broke a few eggs, we see a generation of amateur chefs trying, sometimes failing, often succeeding, but always enjoying the communal act of cooking.”

The exhibition features a “French Chef” TV studio and other interactive features for visitors to participate in the craft of cooking, including the ability to add a dash of STEM to the culinary arts by converting recipes from metric to imperial units, just as Child did for her readers.

The exhibit also features various details about French cuisine’s influence on Greater Cincinnati, drawn from the Museum Center’s collections. These details range from the introduction of the cooking style to the Queen City by Edith Hern Fossett, an enslaved cook who worked in the kitchens of Thomas Jefferson’s White House and Monticello, to the history of Cincinnati’s longtime five-star restaurant, The Maisonette, and the culinary life of the late Jean-Robert de Cavel.

Admission to “A Recipe for Life” is free for CMC members or included with museum admission.

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life