Name	French Fries
Caption	A dish of French fries
Alternate name	Belgian fries, chips, fries, French-fried potatoes, steak fries, wedges, potato wedges
Country	Belgium
Course	Side dish or, rarely, as a main dish
Served	Hot, generally salted, often served with ketchup, vinegar, barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, or other sauces on the side
Main ingredient	Potatoes and oil

French fries (American English, sometimes capitalized), fries, or French-fried potatoes are thin strips of deep-fried potato. Americans often refer to any elongated pieces of fried potatoes as fries, while in other parts of the world, most notably the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of fried potatoes are called fries to distinguish them from the thickly cut strips called chips. French fries are known as frites or pommes frites in French, a name which is also used in many non-French-speaking areas, and have names that mean "fried potatoes" or "French potatoes" in others.

Etymology

Thomas Jefferson at a White House dinner in 1802 served "potatoes served in the French manner". In the early 20th century, the term "French fried" was being used in the sense of "deep-fried," apart from potatoes, for foods such as onion rings or chicken.

It is unlikely that 'French fried' refers to 'frenching' in the sense of "julienning" and is not attested until after 'French fried potatoes'; previously, Frenching referred only to trimming the meat off the shanks of chops.

Culinary origin

Belgium

The Belgian journalist Jo Gérard recounts that potatoes were fried in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. The poor inhabitants of this region allegedly had the custom of accompanying their meals with small fried fish, but when the river was frozen and they were unable to fish, they cut potatoes lengthwise and fried them in oil to accompany their meals."

Many Belgians believe that the term "French" was introduced when American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, and consequently tasted Belgian fries. They supposedly called them "French", as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time.

"Les frites" (French) or "Frieten" (Dutch) became the national snack and a substantial part of several national dishes.

Great Britain

Chips

.]] The first chips fried in Britain were apparently on the site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market in 1860. In Scotland, chips were first sold in Dundee, "...in the 1870s, that glory of British gastronomy – the chip – was first sold by Belgian immigrant Edward De Gernier in the city’s Greenmarket." Traditional "chips" in the United Kingdom and Ireland are usually cut much thicker, typically between 9.5–13 mm (⅜ - ½ inches) square in cross-section and cooked twice (although double frying is less commonly practiced today), making them more crunchy on the outside and on the inside. Since the surface-to-volume ratio is lower, they have a lower fat content. Thick-cut British chips are occasionally made from unpeeled potatoes to enhance their flavor and nutrional content, and are not necessarily served as crisp as the European French fry due to their higher relative water content.

Chips are part of the popular take-out dish fish and chips. In the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, few towns are without a fish and chip shop. In these countries, the term "French fries" refers to the narrow-cut (shoestring) fries that are served by American-based fast food franchises.

France and French-speaking Canada

In France and French-speaking Canada, fried potatoes are called "pommes de terre frites", "pommes frites", "patates frites", or more simply (and commonly) "frites". Pommes frites are somewhat different than American French fries in that they are often fried twice, use different oils to fry them, use the left over bits, and different types of potatoes are used.

Eating potatoes was promoted in France by Parmentier, but he did not mention fried potatoes in particular.

Many Americans attribute the dish to France and offer as evidence a notation by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. "Pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches" ("Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings") in a manuscript in Thomas Jefferson's hand (circa 1801-1809) and the recipe almost certainly comes from his French chef, Honoré Julien. In addition, from 1813 on, recipes for what can be described as French fries, occur in popular American cookbooks. By the late 1850s, one of these mentions the term "French fried potatoes".

Frites are the main ingredient in the Québécois dish known as poutine, comprising fried potatoes covered with cheese curds and brown gravy, a dish with a growing number of variations.

Spain

In Spain, fried potatoes are called "patatas fritas". Another common form in which the potatoes are cut into irregular shapes and seasoned with a spicy tomato sauce, are called "patatas bravas".

Some claim that the dish was invented in Spain, the first European country in which the potato appeared via the New World colonies, and assumes the first appearance to have been as an accompaniment to fish dishes in Galicia, from which it spread to the rest of the country and further to the Spanish Netherlands, which became Belgium more than a century later.

Professor Paul Ilegems, curator of the Friet-museum in Antwerp, Belgium, believes that Saint Teresa of Ávila fried the first chips, referring also to the tradition of frying in Mediterranean cuisine.

Spreading popularity

United States influence

Although chips was already a popular dish in most Commonwealth countries, the thin style of French fries has been popularized worldwide in part by U.S.-based fast food chains such as McDonald's.

Pre-made French fries have been available for home cooking since the 1960s, usually having been pre-fried (or sometimes baked), frozen and placed in a sealed plastic bag.

Later varieties of French fries include those which have been battered and breaded, and many U.S. fast food and casual-food chains have turned to dusting with kashi, dextrin, and flavors coating for crispier fries with particular tastes. Results with batterings and breadings, followed by microwaving, have not achieved widespread critical acceptance. Oven frying delivers a dish different from its traditionally fried counterpart.

Variants

(covered with cheese, grilled onions, and spread) from In-N-Out Burger's secret menu]]

There are variants such as "thick-cut fries", "steak fries", "shoestring fries", "jojo fries", "crinkle fries", and "curly fries". Fries cut thickly with the skin left on are called potato wedges, and fries without the potato skin are called "steak fries", essentially the American equivalent of the British "chip". They can also be coated with breading, spices, or other ingredients, which include garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, and salt to create "seasoned fries", or cheese to create cheese fries, or chili to create chili fries. Sometimes, French fries are cooked in the oven as a final step in the preparation (having been coated with oil during preparation at the factory): these are often sold frozen and are called "oven fries" or "oven chips". Some restaurants in the southern and northeastern United States, particularly New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Louisiana, offer French fries made from sweet potatoes instead of traditional potatoes.

cheese fries]]

In France, the thick-cut fries are called "Pommes Pont-Neuf" or simply "pommes frites", about 10 mm; thinner variants are "pommes allumettes" (matchstick potatoes), ±7 mm, and "pommes pailles" (potato straws), 3–4 mm (roughly ⅜, ¼ and ⅛ inch respectively). The two-bath technique is standard (Bocuse). "Pommes gaufrettes" or "waffle fries" are not typical French fried potatoes, but actually crisps obtained by quarter turning the potato before each next slide over a grater and deep-frying just once.

fries served in a restaurant in Harvard Square.]]

Jean Ceustermans, a Belgian chef patented "steppegras" ("prairie grass"), his variety of extremely thin-cut French fried potatoes developed in 1968 while working in Germany. The name refers to a dish including its particular sauce, and to his restaurant.

In an interview, Burger King president Donald Smith said that his chain's fries are sprayed with a sugar solution shortly before being packaged and shipped to individual outlets. The sugar caramelizes in the cooking fat, producing the golden color customers expect. Without it, the fries would be nearly the same color outside as inside: pasty yellow. Smith believes that McDonald's also sugar-coats its fries. McDonald's was assumed to fry their fries for a total time of about 15 to 20 minutes, and with fries fried at least twice. The fries appear to contain beef tallow, or shortening.

Curly fries

Curly fries are a kind of French fry characterized by their unique spring-like shape. They are generally made from whole potatoes that are cut using a specialised spiral slicer. They are also typically characterized by the presence of additional seasonings (which give the fries a more orange appearance when compared to the more yellow appearance of standard fries), although this is not always the case.

Sometimes they are packaged for preparation at home, often in frozen packs. In the US they can also be found at a number of restaurants and fast food outlets like Arby's and Hardee's, where they are served with condiments such as ketchup, cheese, fry sauce, or sweet chili sauce and sour cream.

Accompaniments

Fries are almost always salted just after cooking. They are then served with a variety of condiments, notably salt, vinegar (malt vinegar, or, in Canada, white vinegar), ketchup, curry, curry ketchup (mildly hot mix of the former), hot or chili sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, bearnaise sauce, tartar sauce, tzatziki, feta cheese, garlic sauce, fry sauce, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, gravy, aioli, brown sauce, lemon, piccalilli, pickled cucumber, gherkins, very small pickled onions, honey or hot sauce.

Health aspects

French fries can contain a large amount of fat from frying. A 13 year long observation performed by the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, on 120,000 subjects between 55 and 70, has shown that increased intake of acrylamide (formed when potatoes are baked or fried) raises the chance of kidney cancer by 60%. (see acrylamides). However, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found no association between the consumption of foods high in acrylamide and increased risk of three forms of cancer: bladder, large bowel and kidney.

In the United States about ¼ of vegetables consumed are prepared as French fries and are proposed to contribute to widespread obesity. Frying French fries in beef tallow, lard, or other animal fats adds saturated fat to the diet. Replacing animal fats with tropical oils such as palm oil simply substitutes one saturated fat for another. Replacing animal fats with partially hydrogenated oil reduces cholesterol but adds trans fat, which has been shown to both raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol. Canola oil could also be used, but beef lard is generally more popular, especially amongst fast food outlets that use communal oil baths. Many restaurants now advertise their use of unsaturated oils. Five Guys, for example, advertises their fries are prepared in peanut oil.

Legal issues

In 1994 Peter Stringfellow, the owner of Stringfellows nightclub in London, took exception to McCain Foods' use of the name "Stringfellows" for a brand of long thin chips and took them to court. He lost the case (Stringfellows v McCain Food (GB) Ltd (1994)) on the basis that there was no connection in the public mind between the two uses of the name, and therefore McCain's product would not have caused the nightclub to lose any sales.

In June 2004, the United States Department of Agriculture, with the advisement of a federal district judge from Beaumont, Texas, classified batter-coated French fries as a vegetable under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Although this was primarily done for trade reasons – French fries do not meet the standard to be listed as a "processed food" – it received significant media attention partially due to the documentary Super Size Me.

See also

Chip pan

Carne asada fries

Deep fryer

Deep frying

Freedom fries

Fry sauce

Home fries

Potato wedges

Poutine

Pommes soufflées

Vacuum fryer

Tater Tots

References

;Notes

;Bibliography

External links

The Official French Fries Pages -- information and fan site (1996-pres.)

News on French Fries and Potato Processing

Category:American cuisine Category:Belgian cuisine Category:British cuisine Category:Spanish cuisine Category:Fast food Category:Street food Category:Potato dishes Category:World cuisine Category:Deep fried foods

Name	Julia Child
Caption	1988 portrait of Julia Child by Elsa Dorfman
Birth place	Pasadena, California
Death date	August 13, 2004
Death place	Montecito, California
Spouse	Married September 1, 1946
Style	French
Education	Smith College B.A. History 1934Le Cordon BleuLe Grand Diplôme
Television	The French Chef, "Julia Child: bon appétit", Julia Child & Company, Dinner at Julia's, Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking with Julia, Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home
Awards	Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show Host1996 In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs2001 Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television—Individuals1966 The French Chef Peabody Award1965 The French Chef

Julia Child (née McWilliams) of three children, she had a brother, John III (1914–2002), and a sister, Dorothy Dean (1917–2006).

Child attended Westridge School, Polytechnic School from fourth grade to ninth grade and then The Branson School in Ross, California, which was at the time a boarding school. At six feet, two inches (1.88 m) tall, Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a child and continued to play sports while attending Smith College, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in English. A press release issued by Smith in 2004 states that her major was history.

Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked as a copywriter for the advertising department of upscale home-furnishing firm W. & J. Sloane. Returning to California in 1937, she spent the next four years writing for local publications and working in advertising.

World War II

Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, but because of her education and experience soon was given a more responsible position as a top secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan. As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, she typed 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment Section (ERES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. In 1944 she was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia. She was later posted to China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.

For her service, Child received an award that cited her many virtues, including her "drive and inherent cheerfulness." later moving to Washington, D.C. Child, a New Jersey native who had lived in Paris as an artist and poet, was known for his sophisticated palate, and introduced his wife to fine cuisine. He joined the United States Foreign Service and in 1948 the couple moved to Paris when the US State Department assigned Paul there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency.

Books and television

of 1989]] The three would-be authors initially signed a contract with publisher Houghton Mifflin, which later rejected the manuscript for seeming too much like an encyclopedia. Finally, when it was first published in 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf, the 734-page Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a best-seller and received critical acclaim that derived in part from the American interest in French culture in the early 1960s. Lauded for its helpful illustrations and precise attention to detail, and for making fine cuisine accessible, the book is still in print and is considered a seminal culinary work. Following this success, Child wrote magazine articles and a regular column for The Boston Globe newspaper. She would go on to publish nearly twenty titles under her name and with others. Many, though not all, were related to her television shows. Her last book was the autobiographical My Life in France, published posthumously in 2006 and written with her husband's nephew, Alex Prud'homme. The book recounts Child's life with her husband, Paul Child, in post-World War II France.

The French Chef and related books

A 1962 appearance on a book review show on the National Educational Television (NET) station of Boston, WGBH, led to the inception of her first television cooking show after viewers enjoyed her demonstration of how to cook an omelette. The French Chef had its debut on February 11, 1963, on WGBH and was immediately successful. The show ran nationally for ten years and won Peabody and Emmy Awards, including the first Emmy award for an educational program. Though she was not the first television cook, Child was the most widely seen. She attracted the broadest audience with her cheery enthusiasm, distinctively charming warbly voice, and non-patronizing and unaffected manner.

In 1972, The French Chef became the first television program to be captioned for the deaf, albeit in the preliminary technology of open captioning.

Child's second book, The French Chef Cookbook, was a collection of the recipes she had demonstrated on the show. It was soon followed in 1971 by Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, again in collaboration with Simone Beck, but not with Louisette Bertholle, the relationship with whom ended acrimoniously. Child's fourth book, From Julia Child's Kitchen, was illustrated with her husband's photographs and documented the color series of The French Chef, as well as providing an extensive library of kitchen notes compiled by Child during the course of the show.

In 1981 she founded The American Institute of Wine & Food, with vintners Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff, and others, to "advance the understanding, appreciation and quality of wine and food," a pursuit she had already begun with her books and television appearances.

Later shows and books

In the 1970s and 1980s, she was the star of numerous television programs, including Julia Child & Company and Dinner at Julia's; at the same time she also produced what she considered her magnum opus, a book and instructional video series collectively entitled The Way To Cook, which was published in 1989.

She starred in four more series in the 1990s that featured guest chefs: Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking With Julia, and Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home. She collaborated with Jacques Pépin many times for television programs and cookbooks. All of Child's books during this time stemmed from the television series of the same names.

Child's use of ingredients like butter and cream has been questioned by food critics and modern-day nutritionists. She addressed these criticisms throughout her career, predicting that a "fanatical fear of food" would take over the country's dining habits, and that focusing too much on nutrition takes the pleasure from enjoying food. In a 1990 interview, Child said, "Everybody is overreacting. If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do. We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life."

Home as television set

Julia Child's kitchen, designed by her husband, was the setting for three of her television shows. It is now on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Beginning with In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, the Childs' home kitchen in Cambridge was fully transformed into a functional set, with TV-quality lighting, three cameras positioned to catch all angles in the room, and a massive center island with a gas stovetop on one side and an electric stovetop on the other, but leaving the rest of the Childs' appliances alone, including "my wall oven with its squeaking door." This kitchen backdrop hosted nearly all of Child's 1990s television series.

Other appearances

She appeared in an episode of This Old House as designer of the kitchen. This Old House was launched in 1979 by Russell Morash, who helped create The French Chef with Julia Child.

In popular culture

Child was a favorite of audiences from the moment of her television debut on public television in 1963, and she was a familiar part of American culture and the subject of numerous references. In 1966 she was featured on the cover of Time with the heading, "Our Lady of the Ladle."

In a 1978 Saturday Night Live sketch, she was parodied by Dan Aykroyd continuing with a cooking show despite ludicrously profuse bleeding from a cut to his thumb. Child reportedly loved this sketch so much she showed it to friends at parties.

Jean Stapleton portrayed her in a 1989 musical, Bon Appétit!, based on one of her televised cooking lessons. The title derived from her famous TV sign-off: "This is Julia Child. Bon appétit!" She was the inspiration for the character "Julia Grownup" on the Children's Television Workshop program, The Electric Company (1971–1977), and was portrayed (or more accurately, parodied) in many other television and radio programs and skits, including The Cosby Show (1984–1992) by character Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) and Garrison Keillor's radio series A Prairie Home Companion by voice actor Tim Russell. Julia Child's TV show is briefly portrayed in the 1986 movie, The Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long; the 1985 Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan and the 1991 comedy Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead. In 1993, she was the voice of Dr. Juliet Bleeb in the children's film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.

In 2002, Child was the inspiration for "The Julie/Julia Project," a popular cooking blog by Julie Powell that was the basis of Powell's 2005 bestselling book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, the paperback version of which was retitled Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. The blog and book, along with Child's own memoir, in turn inspired the 2009 feature film Julie & Julia. (Meryl Streep portrayed Child in half the narrative.) Child is reported to have been unimpressed by Powell's blog, believing Powell's determination to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year to be a stunt. Child's editor, Judith Jones, said in an interview: "Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn't attractive, to me or Julia. She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called 'the flimsies.' She didn't suffer fools, if you know what I mean."

Retirement

After the death of her beloved friend Simone Beck, Child relinquished La Peetch after a month long stay in June 1992 with her niece, Phila, and her family. She turned the keys over to Jean Fischbacher's sister, just as she and Paul had promised nearly 30 years earlier. Paul, who was ten years older, died in 1994 after living in a nursing home for five years following a series of strokes in 1989.

In 2001, she moved to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, California, donating her house and office to Smith College, which later sold the house. She donated her kitchen, which her husband designed with high counters to accommodate her formidable height, and which served as the set for three of her television series, to the National Museum of American History, where it is now on display. Her iconic copper pots and pans were on display at COPIA in Napa, California, until August 2009 when they were reunited with her kitchen at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

She received the French Legion of Honor in 2000 and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. Child also received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Johnson & Wales University in 1995, her alma mater Smith College, Brown University in 2000, and several other universities.

Death

On August 13, 2004 Julia Child died of kidney failure at her assisted-living home in Montecito, two days before her 92nd birthday. Child ended her last book My Life in France with "... thinking back on it now reminds that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite - toujours bon appétit!"

A film adapted by Nora Ephron from Child's memoir My Life in France and from Julie Powell's memoir, and directed by Ephron, Julie & Julia, was released on August 7, 2009. Meryl Streep played Child; her performance was nominated for numerous awards, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical or Comedy.

A film titled Primordial Soup With Julia Child was on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Life in The Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed.

Public works

Television series

The French Chef (1963–1973)

Julia Child & Company (1978–1979)

Julia Child & More Company (1980–1982)

Dinner at Julia's (1983–1985)

The Way To Cook (1989) six one-hour videocassettes

(1992)

(1993–1994) 16 episodes

Cooking In Concert: Julia Child & Jacques Pepin (1993)

In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs (1994–1996), 39 episodes

Cooking in Concert: Julia Child & Graham Kerr (1995)

Baking with Julia (1996–1998) 39 episodes

Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home (1999–2000) 22 episodes

Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom, (2000) two-hour special

DVD releases

Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom (2000)

Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home (2003)

Julia Child: America's Favorite Chef (2004)

The French Chef: Volume One (2005)

The French Chef: Volume Two (2005)

Julia Child! The French Chef (2006)

The Way To Cook (2009)

Baking With Julia (2009)

Julie and Julia (2010)

Books

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle—ISBN 0-375-41340-5

The French Chef Cookbook (1968)—ISBN 0-394-40135-2

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two (1970), with Simone Beck—ISBN 0-394-40152-2

From Julia Child's Kitchen (1975)—ISBN 0-517-20712-5

Julia Child & Company (1978)—ISBN 0-345-31449-2

Julia Child & More Company (1979)—ISBN 0-345-31450-6

The Way To Cook (1989)—ISBN 0-394-53264-3

Julia Child's Menu Cookbook (1991), one-volume edition of Julia Child & Company and Julia Child & More Company—ISBN 0-517-06485-5

Cooking With Master Chefs (1993)—ISBN 0-679-74829-6

In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs (1995)—ISBN 0-679-43896-3

Baking with Julia (1996)—ISBN 0-688-14657-0

Julia's Delicious Little Dinners (1998)—ISBN 0-375-40336-1

Julia's Menus For Special Occasions (1998)—ISBN 0-375-40338-8

Julia's Breakfasts, Lunches & Suppers (1999)—ISBN 0-375-40339-6

Julia's Casual Dinners (1999)—ISBN 0-375-40337-X

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (1999), with Jacques Pépin—ISBN 0-375-40431-7

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom (2000)—ISBN 0-375-41151-8

My Life in France (2006, posthumous), with Alex Prud'homme—ISBN 1-4000-4346-8

(collected in) American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes, ed. Molly O'Neill (Library of America, 2007) ISBN 1598530054

By Others

(1997), Fitch, Noel Riley—ISBN 0-385-49383-5

Gifts of Age: 32 Remarkable Women, Charlotte Painter (Chronicle Books, 1985) ISBN 978-0877013686. Interview with Child, with portrait on cover

References

External links

Julia Child: Lessons with Master Chefs from PBS

Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian

American television interview with Julia Child on June 25, 1999, at Google Video

Coverage of Julia Child in The New York Times

Interview in Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.

JULIA CHILD: 1912-2004 TV's French chef taught us how to cook with panache, Obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle

The IMDb page for the film "Julie & Julia" starring Meryl Streep

Julia Child Papers.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

Ms. Magazine Summer 2003">"Live Eat Enjoy: A Visit With Julia Child", Ms. Magazine Summer 2003

The Boston Globe August 31, 2009">"No beef with Julia’s kitchen: Her home’s new owner lacks the bone appetite", The Boston Globe August 31, 2009

Category:1912 births Category:2004 deaths Category:American food writers Category:American television chefs Category:American television personalities Category:Cookbook authors Category:Cultural history of Boston, Massachusetts Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Deaths from renal failure Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Female wartime spies Category:Food Network chefs Category:Légion d'honneur recipients Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Category:People from Pasadena, California Category:People from Santa Barbara, California Category:People of the Office of Strategic Services Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Smith College alumni *

Name	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut
Caption	Chestnut at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2009
Birth date	November 25, 1983
Birth place	Vallejo, California, U.S.
Occupation	Professional Competitive Eater with Major League Eating/ Construction Engineer
Parents	Waldo and Alicia Chestnut

Joseph Christian "Jaws" Chestnut (born November 25, 1983) is an American competitive eater. The , 218-pound engineering student is currently ranked first in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. He is a Vallejo, California native who currently resides in San Jose, California.

On July 4, 2007, Chestnut won the 92nd Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, beating six-time defending champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi by consuming 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, which set a new world record. The following year, he successfully defended his title by winning a 5 hot dog eat-off after tying Kobayashi in consuming 59 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. On July 4, 2009, Chestnut outlasted Kobayashi again, by consuming a new world record of 68 hot dogs and buns and winning his third consecutive title. On July 4, 2010, Chestnut took home his 4th consecutive Mustard Belt eating 54 dogs and buns. The 2010 contest was a runaway victory, as Kobayashi did not compete due to a contract dispute with Major League Eating.

Eating history

Chestnut, a San Jose State University student, entered the competitive eating scene in 2005 with a break-out performance in the deep-fried asparagus eating championship, in which he beat high-ranked eater Rich LeFevre by eating 6.3 pounds of asparagus in 11.5 minutes. That same year, during Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, he downed 32 dogs, placing third behind Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas.

Chestnut defeated Sonya Thomas in the Waffle House World Waffle Eating Championship and placed second to her in a Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship qualifier, downing 56 Krystal Burgers in eight minutes to her 57. He later beat her by eating 91 hamburgers in the finals, finishing second to the 97 hamburgers consumed by Takeru Kobayashi.

Chestnut qualified for the 2006 Nathan's Contest by eating 50 hot dogs with buns. As July 4 approached, there was speculation that 2006 might be the year when Kobayashi would be beaten. It was not to be, however. Although Chestnut turned in a great performance, leading Takeru Kobayashi through most of the contest, the final tally put Chestnut at 52 and Kobayashi at (a new world record).

In 2007, Chestnut won the Wing Bowl XV, another installment of the annual Philadelphia event at the Wachovia Center. In this competition, he ate 182 chicken wings in 30 minutes, becoming a Wing Bowl champion and record holder.

Chestnut was seen on a YouTube video drinking a gallon of milk in 41 seconds.

On July 4, 2006, Chestnut and Kobayashi battled the field in a record-setting hot dog eating battle in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, at Nathan's Contest. Chestnut knocked off Kobayashi 66–63, leading to the latter's first defeat in the contest in six years.

On October 28, 2007, between 2:33 and 2:41, Chestnut ate 103 Krystal burgers in the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was Chestnut's personal best, and is the new world record.

Starting off 2008 very well, Chestnut has already set two new world records. He devoured 241 wings in 30 minutes at the Wing Bowl XVI in Philadelphia on February 1, and he ate 78 matzo balls during Kenny & Ziggy's World Matzoh Ball Eating Championship in Houston, Texas on March 2.

On July 4, 2008, Chestnut tied Takeru Kobayashi in the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Contest after eating 59 HDB in 10 minutes. The tie resulted in a 5-hotdog eat-off, which Chestnut won by consuming all 5 hot dogs before Kobayashi. The 59 is a new record in the competition based on the reduction from 12 minutes to 10 minutes. Chestnut weighed in at 102 kilograms (225 pounds).

On July 28, 2008, Chestnut lost to Takeru Kobayashi in Chicken Satay eating in the MLE Asia inaugural event. He consumed just over 4 kilograms to Kobayashi's almost 5.5.

On August 23, 2008, Chestnut defeated #2 IFOCE ranked competitive eater Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti in the 2nd Gyoza Eating Championship in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California. He devoured 231 gyoza, setting a new world record; he beat his previous record of 212, set in the inaugural event in 2006 when he narrowly defeated Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas (210). Thomas did not attend the 2008 event due to budgetary and travel costs.

On October 12, 2008, he consumed 45 slices of pizza, winning the "Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship", which was held in New York's Times Square. This would be a brief record until Bertoletti would consume 47 slices a few weeks later.

On February 21, 2009, he consumed 10 and a half pounds of macaroni and cheese in seven minutes during halftime at the San Jose Stealth lacrosse game, beating out his contestants and adding another world record to his name.

On July 4, 2009, Chestnut topped his previous record of 59 hot dogs and buns by consuming 68 hot dogs in the 2009 Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest.

On Man v. Food, San Jose, Chestnut ate Iguana's Burritozilla: a 5-pound, 17-inch burrito in 3 minutes, 10 seconds.

Chestnut has said upon many occasions that his favorite food is not hot dogs. "I like soy sauce," he says.

On July 4, 2010, Chestnut secured his fourth straight Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest, by consuming 54 hot dogs in what he himself describes as a disappointing performance.

On September 18, 2010, Chestnut ate his way to a First-Ever Pepto Bismol Bratwurst Eating Championship at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. Chestnut devoured 42 Queen City Sausage brats in 12 minutes.

On September 25, 2010, at the Phantom Gourmet Food Fest in Boston, Massachusetts, Chestnut won the Upper Crust Pizza Eating competition by taking down 37 slices in 10 minutes. He beat the Notorious BOB Shoudt by 1 slice.

Training

Chestnut trains by fasting and by stretching his stomach with milk, water and protein supplements. Three days before winning a chicken-eating contest in Boston, in November 2005, Chestnut drank gallons of water in under one minute and ate Buffalo wings to get his stomach accustomed to them. Since the start of his competitive eating career, his competition weight varies from .

World records held

Pork ribs: 9.8 pounds pork rib meat in 12 minutes at John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino Resort during the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off in Sparks, Nevada on August 27, 2008.

Steak: 4.5 pounds of steak, plus sides, in 8 minutes, 52 seconds at Big Texan Steak Ranch on March 24, 2008. Asparagus: 8.6 pounds of tempura-fried asparagus at the World Deep Fried Asparagus Eating Championship in Stockton, California, on April 26, 2008. Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs and buns (short form): 68 hot dog and buns in 10 minutes during the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, New York on July 4, 2009. Chicken Wings: 241 wings at Wing Bowl XVI in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 1, 2008.

Krystal burgers: 103 burgers at the Krystal Square Off in Chattanooga, Tennessee on October 28, 2007.

References

External links

Official Joey "Jaws" Chestnut Website

International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) profile

Sports Illustrated feature on 2006 contest

The Wave Magazine profile and interview

Photos from the TripRewards 2007 Ultimate Hotwing Eating Contest

Eat Feats Profile

Category:1983 births Category:American competitive eaters Category:Living people Category:People from San Jose, California Category:People from Vallejo, California Category:World record holders

Name	Chris Farley
Birth name	Christopher Crosby Farley
Birth date	February 15, 1964
Birth place	Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Death date	December 18, 1997
Death place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Death cause	cocaine and morphine overdose
Occupation	comedian, actor
Years active	1989–1997

Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's The Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He died on December 18, 1997 in his Chicago apartment of cocaine and heroin overdose.

Early life

Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Anne (née Crosby), a housewife, and Thomas "Tom" Farley, Sr., who owned an oil company. He had three brothers, Tom Jr., Kevin and John, and a sister, Barbara. His cousin, Jim, is a vice president at Ford Motor Company. Farley's family are traditionally Irish Catholic, and Farley and his siblings attended Catholic schools in his hometown, including Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart. According to Joel Murray, a fellow Second City cast member, Chris would "always make it to Mass". Many of his summers were spent as a camper and counselor at Red Arrow Camp, near Minocqua, Wisconsin.

Farley graduated from Marquette University in 1986, with a concentration in communications and theater. After college, he worked with his father at the Scotch Oil Company in Madison. He got his start in professional comedy at the Ark Improv Theatre in Madison, and at the Improv Olympic theater in Chicago. He then performed at Chicago's Second City Theatre, initially as part of Second City's touring group. He was eventually promoted to their main stage. While working at Second City, Farley befriended his Saturday Night Live colleague Lorne Michaels.

Career

Saturday Night Live

Along with Chris Rock, Farley was one of two new SNL (Saturday Night Live) cast members announced in the spring of 1990. Popular characters performed by Farley included himself on The Chris Farley Show, a talk show in which Farley quite often "interviewed" the guest, got very nervous and asked simple-minded or irrelevant questions, such as what their favorite rock band was; Matt Foley, an over-the-top motivational speaker who constantly reminded other characters that he "lived in a van, down by the river"; Todd O'Connor of Bill Swerski's Superfans, a group of stereotypical Chicagoans who constantly shout "da Bears!";, a Chippendale's dancer, in a famous sketch that paired him with guest host Patrick Swayze; one of the "Gap Girls", who hung out together at a local mall; a stereotypical lunch lady, to the theme of Lunchlady Land performed by Adam Sandler; and Bennett Brauer, a Weekend Update commentator who often divulged his personal and hygienic problems via air quotes. Some of these characters were brought to SNL from his days at Second City. Farley also performed impersonations of Tom Arnold, who gave Farley's eulogy at his private funeral; Andrew Giuliani, Jerry Garcia, Meat Loaf, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dom DeLuise, Roger Ebert, Carnie Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Mindy Cohn, Hank Williams, Jr., and Rush Limbaugh.

Off-screen, Farley was well-known for his pranks in the offices of Saturday Night Live. A March 13, 1995, New York magazine article refers to Farley and Adam Sandler making late-night prank phone calls from the SNL offices in Rockefeller Center, with Sandler speaking in an old woman's voice and Farley farting into the phone, as well as Farley mooning cars from a limousine. Sandler told Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show that NBC fired him and Farley from the show in 1995.

Film career

During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, Farley made cameo appearances in the comedy films Wayne's World, Coneheads, Airheads, and Billy Madison. He also appeared in the Red Hot Chili Peppers music video for "Soul to Squeeze" which was a song featured on the Coneheads soundtrack.

After Farley and most of his fellow cast members were released from their contracts at Saturday Night Live following the 1994–1995 season, Farley began focusing on his film career. His first two major films co-starred his fellow SNL colleague and close friend David Spade. Together, the duo made the films Tommy Boy and Black Sheep. These were a success at the domestic box office, earning around $32 million each and gaining a large cult following on home video. They established Farley as a relatively bankable star and he was given the title role of Beverly Hills Ninja, which finished in first place at the box office on its opening weekend. However, drug and alcohol problems interfered throughout Farley's film work, and production of his final film, Almost Heroes, was held up several times so Farley could attend rehab. After his sudden death on December 18, 1997, his final completed films, Almost Heroes and Dirty Work, were released posthumously, and paid tribute to him in the end credits.

Unfinished projects

Farley was intended to record vocals for the title character of the DreamWorks animated film Shrek, but his death necessitated that the role be recast. He was replaced by his SNL co-star Mike Myers. He was also planning a Matt Foley film with his colleague David Spade. By the time of his death, Farley had also been in talks to co-star with Vince Vaughn in the film The Gelfin and also to star in a biopic film about Fatty Arbuckle.

Later life and death

By early 1997, a decline in Farley's health was frequently noted in the press. Following his final guest appearance on SNL on October 25, his hoarse voice, continual perspiration and flushed skin were the subject of public scrutiny. In the final years of his life, Farley had sought treatment for obesity and drug abuse on seventeen separate occasions. On December 18, Farley was found dead by his younger brother John in his apartment in the John Hancock Center in Chicago. An autopsy later revealed that Farley had died of an overdose of a combination of cocaine and morphine early that morning. Advanced atherosclerosis was cited as a "significant contributing factor". Notably absent was former SNL castmate and frequent film co-star David Spade, who was later quoted as saying that he declined to attend Farley's private funeral because he "could not be in a room where Chris was in a box." In his memoir Gasping for Airtime, Jay Mohr recalled a moment involving Farley and his SNL colleague Phil Hartman. In the show's cast's goodbye song-and-dance performance to Hartman, the final scene featured Farley (in his Matt Foley costume) and Hartman embracing each other as the latter sang "Goodbye" to the camera. This was seen on the "Best of Chris Farley" SNL special, but omitted from video versions of the special. The authorized biography of Farley, The Chris Farley Show, was written by his brother Tom, Jr. and Tanner Colby. The Australian hip-hop group Hilltop Hoods wrote their song in Farley's honor in their album, State Of The Art. Lucas Grabeel will take over Farley's lead role in the sequel to 1997's Beverly Hills Ninja, titled Dancing Ninja.

Filmography

References

External links

Chris Farley Animations

Maxim Rated Top SNL performer

Review of Chris Farley biography

Category:1964 births Category:1997 deaths Category:Accidental deaths in Illinois Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:Actors from Wisconsin Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Cocaine-related deaths in the United States Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in the United States Category:Drug-related deaths in Illinois Category:ImprovOlympics Category:Marquette University alumni

Category:People from Madison, Wisconsin Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Second City alumni