U.S. #4926
2014 49¢ Julia Child
Celebrity Chefs
This stamp is part of a set of five that features men and women who introduced America to regional and international cooking. The other stamps picture James Beard, Joyce Chen, Edna Lewis, and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi.
“This is Julia Child. Bon Appétit!” echoes the famous sign-off of America’s beloved connoisseur of French cuisine. But Julia Child (1912-2004) did not start out as the illustrious chef we remember today. As an aspiring novelist, she took her first job as a copywriter. It was not until she met her future husband, Paul Child, that her course would change.
Following their marriage, Julia enrolled in a cooking school in L.A. to “prepare for married life.” Having never really cooked before, her early endeavors were disastrous. But when the couple moved to France, she became fascinated with French cuisine and again enrolled in cooking school – this time at the famed Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
Soon after graduating, she collaborated on a book of French recipes for Americans. After nine years and many edits, her first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was finally published to widespread acclaim. From there, “Our Lady of the Ladle,” as TIME dubbed her in 1966, went on to culinary fame.
From cookbooks to television, Julia influenced not only professional chefs, but all cooks. She took the “la-di-da” out of preparing French food so everyone could use her recipes. She always encouraged: “If I can make a soufflé rise, so can you.”
Jason Seiler created the digital illustrations for the Celebrity Chefs stamps. The images were made to look like oil paintings.
49¢ Celebrity Chefs, issued to satisfy the first-class mail rate
Issue Date: September 26, 2014
City: Chicago, IL, as part of the Chicago Gourmet food and wine celebration
Quantity: 4,000,000
Category: Commemorative
Printed By: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Lithographed printing in sheets of 180 with nine panes of 20 per sheet
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11 X 10 ¾
Self-adhesive