By CHARLES FERRUZZA
Was anyone really surprised that the legendary TV chef Julia Child – who would have celebrated her 96th birthday tomorrow if she hadn’t, well, died in 2004 – has just been outed as a former OSS spy during World War II?
I wasn’t.
Child, who became a TV star in the 1960s when her cooking show, The French Chef, turned into an unexpected national hit, always seemed to be keeping secrets. Not unlike one of her later TV competitors, Methodist minister-turned-foodie Jeff Smith of The Frugal Gourmet, whose public image as a happily married Christian was turned upside down in 1998 when two of his male assistants charged him with sexual harassment (he settled the claims out of court but never returned to TV again).
As far as I know, Kansas City's never had a spy-turned-chef, but it does have a chef-turned-crime solver. Former restaurateur Lou Jane Temple, who ran the popular Café Lulu on 39th Street for several years, began writing culinary murder mysteries in 1996. Each of her first seven novels featured the character of Heaven Lee, loosely based on Temple herself (although Temple had been a caterer for rock bands and a vintage clothing store owner in her early years and not a former stripper like Heaven Lee). Still, no one knows if Temple might actually have been a spy in her past. She’s the first to admit that she’s had more lives than Thomasina.
But that’s a book she hasn’t written – yet.
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It had never been a secret that Julia Child (or Julia McWilliams as she was then) had worked directly for the OSS director. She wrote about it in several of her books. Although she was somewhat cagey about her specific duties, it did not take any imagination to believe that she had been involved in covert activities - hey, that was what the OSS did!
loujane and i used to strip at the OLDE CHELSEA in the mid 70's. she had a great sense of rhythm; we used to call her shak-n-bake. she liked the booze too. one night she fell off the stage and killed her pet cockatoo. then she got into cooking and such. i never knew she wrote books. the only thing i ever saw her open was a can of spaghetti o's
loujane and i used to strip at the OLDE CHELSEA in the mid 70's. she had a great sense of rhythm; we used to call her shak-n-bake. she liked the booze too. one night she fell off the stage and killed her pet cockatoo. then she got into cooking and such. i never knew she wrote books. the only thing i ever saw her open was a can of spaghetti o's
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