Julia Child

Scarce Typed Recipe Card Signed by Julia Child, for “Tune-Cashew Casserole,” [sic] most likely typed by her personally, and meaning, of course, “Tuna…,” as she was known for poor spelling and awkward typing output—and the keystrokes compare favorably to other typed letters written by her. A wonderful and extremely hard to find memento of the grand dame of French cooking.

In a self-deprecating excerpt from her book My Life in France, Julia writes:

“Paul took letter writing seriously: he’d set aside time for it, tried to document our day-to-day lives in a journalistic way, and usually wrote three to six pages a week in a beautiful flowing hand with a special fountain pen; often he included little sketches of places we’d visited, or photos (some of which we have used in these pages), or made mini-collages out of ticket stubs or newsprint. My letters were usually one or two pages, typed, and full of spelling mistakes, bad grammar, and exclamation points; I tended to focus on what I was cooking at the time, or the human dramas boiling around us.”

JULIA CHILD (1912-2004) was a famous American cook, author, spy, and television personality, who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream, through her many cookbooks and television programs. Her most famous works are the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and, showcasing her sui generis television persona, the series The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.