What’s behind a revival of interest in Julia Child?

JULIA CHILD died almost 18 years ago, at the enviable age of 91, having done more to enrich American culinary life than anyone before or since. She wrote many books, including her two-volume landmark “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”; presented numerous television series; and won a cabinet full of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her life in food was public—so is her private life, thanks to several biographies and films. There seems to be little left to say about her.

And yet HBO Max and Sky Atlantic are airing a new series, “Julia”, dramatising the start of her TV career. On the Food Network, contestants on “The Julia Child Challenge” make Child’s recipes in a replica of her kitchen. And Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, a historian at Smith College, recently published “Warming Up Julia Child”, about the friends and colleagues who nurtured her career. Why the sudden burst of interest?