'Bio Remembers: Julia Child'

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This Delectable Tribute Airs Monday, August 16th at 10pm ET/7pm PT

The Biography Channel is found only on Digital Cable and Satellite

NEW YORK, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Julia Child could barely boil an egg when she attended the famous French cooking school, the Cordon Bleu at the age of 35. Today, more than 50 years later, she is credited with revolutionizing the way Americans eat. Child, the celebrated gastronome, cook, author and twinkling television personality who lifted America out of the kitchen doldrums, passed away early Friday morning at the age of 91. To commemorate this pop icon's light-hearted and spirited legacy perhaps best summed up with the mantra, " ... and above all, have a good time," THE BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL will air an encore presentation of BIO REMEMBERS: JULIA CHILD on Monday, August 13 at 10pm ET/7 pm PT.

Born Julia McWilliams in 1912 in Pasadena, CA and raised as a child of privilege, Child was decidedly not encouraged to begin a career in the kitchen by the bland foods served up by her mother and the hired cooks -- baking powder biscuits, codfish balls and Welsh rarebit. After graduating from Smith College, she set out for adventure, and eventually ended up joining the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where instead of becoming a spy, she was assigned to India as a clerk in charge of filing secret documents. However, if she didn't find adventure, she did meet Paul Child, the multi-talented head of a chart-making division 10 years her senior -- and the man who would become her husband and life-long partner.

Soon after they were married, Paul was assigned to Paris, and it was this trip to an enchanted land which would forever change Child's life. Paul, a serious food lover, enjoyed good cooking and, thusly, Julia was prompted to enter the kitchen. And, it was courses at the demanding Cordon Bleu which introduced her to two French women who wanted to write a cookbook for Americans. For the next decade, the tome - which was to become her best- selling "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" -- was a work in progress. When it was finally and exhaustively completed, the end product was 800 pages long and filled with exotic recipes made more "approachable" for the American housewife who, at the time, was mastering Jell-o molds. After the book was rejected -- twice -- it was finally published by Knopf. And the rest -- from her sparkling debut on WGBH at age 50 to her Time Magazine cover five years later, Dan Aykroyd's "SNL" imitation, her Emmy®, George Foster Peabody and National Book Awards, multiple cookbooks and eventual pop icon status -- is history.

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