The Kitchen Tool Julia Child Called 'Revolutionary'

A good carpenter knows they need the right tools to get the job done effectively. The same can be said about a chef. Anyone who throws down in the kitchen knows they need an assortment of cookware to bake, flambé, sauté, and prepare general yumminess. No one embraced this concept more than legendary celebrity chef, Julia Child. Her ground-breaking cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was released in the 1960s and is among the best cookbooks of the century, allowing the iconic maven of home-making to introduce U.S. households to French cuisine from an American perspective. 

Child continued to share her recipes as a TV cooking show host and even customized her home kitchen with secret modifications to enhance her process. Her culinary toolbox was stocked with cutting-edge equipment, but the electric food processor was among Child's most cherished pieces of cookware. Labeling it as a revolutionary appliance on par with the mixer and blender, Child quickly adopted food processors early in her career.

In a 1977 volume of McCall's magazine, Child wrote that the food processor "is generally about the most useful machine a good cook — or even a semi-non-cook — can have in the kitchen since, by taking so much of the time and drudgery out of many otherwise arduous operations, it actually makes good cooking possible in a way it never was before." 

Julia Child was a pioneering force who had a defining impact on what Americans eat. Her long-awaited big-screen biopic shares details about her life and her monumental impact on American cooking. During her 40-year career, Child won Emmy awards, a Peabody award, and even a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among her many accolades. Her fearlessness in the kitchen was fueled by an insatiable interest in learning about new technologies and different ways to cook. The food processor captured and piqued Child's curiosity like no other cooking gadget. She raved that it could do the job of both mixers and blenders, but also chopped herbs and vegetables, ground meat, and could make pie crusts and cake batters. 

Food processors were also a huge time saver that made Child's job as a chef much easier. In a 1978 appearance on the "Dick Cavett Show," Child marveled at the efficiency of the new kitchen gadget while she showed Cavett how different processors cut down on chopping time — saving you from hand cramps and blisters — and explained how the appliance made cooking for large gatherings much more manageable.

"The important thing, I think, about the machine is that it makes it possible to do what we would consider old cuisine or really fancy dishes in just seconds," Child gushed, later adding that "if you're the home cook and you've got to get the meals out every single day on time, the faster you can do it, the better."