It’s Child’s Day!

Statuesque culinary goddess Julia Child, who died two days short of her 92nd birthday in 2004, would have been 107 years of age last week, and many admirers of the first celebrity chef were determined she not be forgotten.

Mayor Cathy Murillo joined nearly 200 guests at Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner‘s beautiful Morocco-inspired Montecito Club to declare Julia Child Day, and Eric Spivey, chairman of the 15-year-old Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, announced the launch of the Santa Barbara Culinary Experience, a three-day event scheduled for March 13 next year.

The experience, in partnership with the foundation and inspired by Julia’s advocacy for sharing the education of food and drink, will be an epicurean celebration involving chefs, mixologists, restaurateurs and the local community.

As a longtime resident and fan of our Eden by the Beach, Child spent the last chapter of her wonderful life at Casa Dorinda, and the event aims to gather the community and visitors to celebrate the bounty of our tony town’s abundant resources found in local farms, ranches, vineyards, and oceans.

It will shine a broad ranging light on our rarefied enclave’s culinary, hospitality, tourism, and larger artisan communities.

Guests, including Bill and Sandi Nicholson, Bill and Barbara Tomicki, former mayor Helene Schneider, Doug and Marni Margerum, Peter and Gerd Jordano, Gina Tolleson, Janet Garufis, Robin Fell, Karen Earp, Judy Foreman, Merrill Brown, Michael Hayes, and Kimberly Phillips, noshed on club chef Jamie West’s eclectic comestibles, favorites of Julia, and cut a multi-layered birthday cake from Little Things Bakery.

Just 24 hours later Julia’s great-nephew, New York author Alex Prud’homme, 57, was feted at a bustling bash at winemaker Doug Margerum‘s tasting room at the Hotel Californian.

Alex described her as a 6’2″ powerhouse who led the food revolution in the ‘70s, writing the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, although he revealed her first “recipe” was actually for shark repellent!

He also collaborated with Julia, whose TV series The French Chef won Peabody and Emmy awards, on the book My Life In France, her memoir of discovering food and life in postwar Paris and Marseilles, which became a New York Times bestseller and inspired the charming movie Julie and Julia with Meryl Streep.

In 2016 he wrote The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act. His latest book, with photo curator Katie Pratt, is France Is A Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child, a selection of Paul Child’s photography from 1948 to 1954.

Alex, who has written for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Time, People, and The New York Times, is currently researching a book about the history of food at the White House, he tells me.

Julia would approve…