Julia Child's Kitchen

Years

1961 – 2004

Location

103 Irving St., Harvard/Inman area

Profile

The Cambridge home of culinary icon Julia Child

 

 

History

Julia moved from Europe to Cambridge in 1961, where husband Paul accepted a job. They settled into a cozy house on tree-lined Irving St., nestled into her soon-to-be-famous blue and green kitchen. Paul would stir up "upside down martinis" while Julia would ready supper, on custom-sized counters built for her 6'2" frame. In short order came Julia's first big break: the publication of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book's popularity beget her second, and perhaps biggest break, as host of The French Chef, broadcast to 96 stations throughout America by Boston's WGBH, from 1963-1973. Seven more television series arose, and, starting in the 1990s, many were filmed here, in her home kitchen. Kitchenware unfamiliar to American cooks such as large balloon whisks, copper pots, and table décor appeared on her shows courtesy of Harvard Square's Design Research, a influential, modernist European home furnishings store. Unfazed by celebrity, Julia was often seen about the neighborhood visiting D/R, its neighbor, Harvest restaurant, and her butcher at Savenor's Market. 103 Irving has been renovated beyond recognition and inhabited by new owners. Julia's kitchen, however, will never change – deemed a national treasure, it was moved in its entirety to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. And charmingly, a sticker for one of her favorite local restaurants, Eat, is still visible on her refrigerator door.

Photo courtesy of the Cambridge Historical Commission