Conversations from the Cullman Center: Julia Child in America

A discussion of the complex legacy of Julia Child, arguably America's first celebrity chef. Featuring culinary historians David Kamp, Molly O'Neill and Laura Shapiro; chef Dan Barber; and journalist and former Cullman Fellow Melanie Rehak as moderator.

About the Participants:

Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of the critically acclaimed Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico, NY) where he also serves as the Creative Director of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. He is a recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York City.

David Kamp is the author, most recently, of The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation, which was named one of the New York Times 100 Most Notable Books for 2006. His next book, The Food Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge, co-authored by Marion Rosenfeld, will be published in October. Kamp is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and GQ.

Molly O'Neill is the editor of American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes (Library of America), and the author of several celebrated cookbooks, including the award-winning New York Cookbook, and a memoir. She is a former food columnist for the New York Times.

Laura Shapiro's most recent book is Julia Child (Penguin Lives),an acclaimed brief biography of the chef. A former Newsweek senior writer, she is the author of the award-winning culinary histories Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century and Something from the Oven:Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.

Melanie Rehak (Moderator) is the author of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Made Her, which she researched while a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers. She serves as Assistant Poetry Editor of The New Republic and her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review, among others.