📍Pasadena, California, USA
1912 – 1930“I was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California, in August 1912, the eldest of three children of John McWilliams, a Princeton-educated land manager, and Julia Carolyn Weston, whom we called Caro, the daughter of a Massachusetts paper-company family. Pasadena was a sunny, prosperous town at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, full of big houses, orange groves and gardens, and we lived comfortably, with a cook in the kitchen. I didn't cook a thing as a girl; our meals were plain American fare. I was a tall, gangly, high-spirited tomboy, always into mischief with my brother, John, and sister, Dorothy. I loved the outdoors: tennis, golf, hiking in the mountains and hunting small game with my father. I went to the Polytechnic School and the Westridge School in Pasadena, and later boarded at the Katherine Branson School in Marin County, where I was the tallest girl in my class at six feet two. I was full of energy and fun but had no idea what I wanted to do, except perhaps write novels. In 1930 I went east to Smith College, my mother's old school, and later worked in advertising in New York. During the war I joined the Office of Strategic Services, where I met Paul Child, and when he was posted to Paris in 1948 I discovered French food at a restaurant in Rouen and found my life's passion. I trained at Le Cordon Bleu, co-wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking and taught America to cook on The French Chef. That tall Pasadena girl who never cooked became a chef at last.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today