Julia Child believed pots and pans were for cooking — not looking. But in the case of Child’s own cookware, it’s been given the chance to do both.
This past week, the culinary legend’s pots and pans were very publicly retired at the National Museum of American History, a Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. An NPR story this weekend explained that they add the final touch to the “Bon Appetit” exhibit, which reunites the pots and pans with the rest of Child’s kitchen.
“Julia Child brought the art and joy of cooking to new audiences and became a culinary heroine,” said Brent D. Glass, director of the museum, said in a statement. “Her kitchen and the countless gadgets within it are a lasting representation of her wonderful character and the legacy she left behind.”
The Museum of American History got their white-gloved hands on the kitchen back in 2002, when curators painstakingly disassembled it from her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen and erected it again inside the museum. Every detail was perfectly in place — down to the Skippy peanut butter jar on the counter top — but never felt fully complete without the famous cookware she used to make dishes that introduced Americans to the joy of French cuisine.
Child promised the pots and pans to a California cultural institution, but her heirs recently made arrangements for the cookware to join the rest of the kitchen. Once the items were back they were placed perfectly along her blue painted pegboard, following the black outline her husband Paul had drawn for each item.
So go have a look next time you’re in D.C. We’re hungry just thinking about it.
Photo via stock.xchang