When Virginia Museum of History and Culture curator Paige Newman found an article describing a traveling Julia Child exhibit, she knew she had to bring her infectious joie de vivre to Richmond.

“It wasn’t until Julia was in her 40s that she really started to learn how to cook,” says Newman. “She’s a role model – you can go your own way and take your time.”

The VMHC’s exhibitions typically explore topics such as “The Story of Virginia,” “Landscapes of Virginia” and “The Lost Cause.” An exhibit devoted to a Francophile, California-born, larger-than-life American celebrity chef and former member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), may seem a bit of a stretch for the museum’s scope of interest.

To the contrary, says Jay Brown, the principal and managing director at Flying Fish, which works with museums to bring traveling exhibits.

“That’s the thing about Julia,” says Brown. “Every locality in the United States can find a tie to her, whether it’s within the community or through a culinary arts program. That’s part of the reason it’s doing so well – America is fascinated with Julia Child.”

Brown and his Flying Fish team have been researching, creating and installing traveling exhibits at museums from Michigan to Melbourne since 2013. Topics range from “Apollo: When We Went to the Moon” (exhibited at VMHC in 2023), to deep dives on movie director James Cameron, Asian comics and the “Art of the Airport Tower.”

Brown says Flying Fish exhibitions focus on uber popular, yet evergreen subject matter. “I know Julia Child is going to be relevant 30 years from now,” he says, adding that most exhibits travel from museum to museum for at least seven years.

“Bringing in traveling exhibits lets our curators focus their attention on in-house exhibits,” says Newman. “And we’re also able to enhance these traveling exhibits with our Virginia content.”

And the Virginia content? As deliciously layered as Julia’s famous coq au vin.

The French connection

French culture and cooking have been part of Virginia history pretty much from the beginning, Newman says. “Daniel Webster once said that, at Monticello, dinner was served in half-Virginia, half-French style.”

It was not Thomas Jefferson himself, of course, who learned and perfected the art of French cooking, spending hours over hot stoves preparing multi-course meals for society’s elite. It was his enslaved chef, James Hemings.

In May 1784, Jefferson traveled to Paris with Hemings. During their five-year French stay, Hemings taught himself the language while training under caterer and restaurateur Monsieur Combeaux before serving as head chef at Hotel de Langeac, a “Paris townhouse that served as the home and embassy of the American delegation.”

In his position as head chef, Hemings was serving the upper echelon of society, making a name for himself as a burgeoning culinary artist. But even with his internationally honed skills and experience, which Jefferson witnessed firsthand for years, Hemings was still treated as less-than.

Jefferson legally freed Hemings in 1796 and, five years later, asked Hemings to come serve as chef de cuisine at the White House. “Hemings ultimately refused this position as Jefferson would not write to him directly,” says Newman.

While he never received proper credit in his lifetime, Hemings is now recognized as having introduced America to French fries, mac-and-cheese and ice cream, says Newman.

In another lifetime, would Hemings have crossed paths with Julia when she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 1949? Perhaps.

At the very least, their paths are crossing now in Richmond, with the history of Hemings and his culinary contributions displayed equally alongside the story of Julia.

Recipes for life

For the first 17 years of her career at the VMHC, Newman was not a curator, but an archivist. She specializes in going down rabbit holes, digging deep to find the oft-overlooked connections between people, places and things.

Newman says she would be remiss not to include a section of the Julia Child exhibit devoted to Mary Randolph’s 1824 cookbook, “The Virginia House-Wife,” widely considered to be the first Southern/regional cookbook in the country.

“We’ve pulled out recipes that explore Virginia cuisine and Virginia cooking. Southern food is American food – barbecue, apple pie,” she says. “We’ll show how ‘The Virginia House-Wife’ ties into the culture of Virginia, representing French, English, African and indigenous influences.”

Randolph’s recipes, including oyster soup, a “rich fruit cake” and ice cream, are the culmination of her family recipes as well as knowledge she gleaned from her own enslaved cooks. While not as glamorous as Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” Randolph’s cookbook was written with similar intent – to assist both the novice and the expert in the kitchen.

Julia Loves Virginia

“What Julia did for all of us, and we should be forever grateful, was to demystify food and cooking,” Richmond celebrity chef Jimmy Sneed once said in a 2012 interview with PBS.

After graduating from Cordon Bleu, Sneed worked under famous French chef Jean-Louis Palladin in Washington, D.C., the city where he first met Julia Child in 1987. “He was in consideration to be on her show and, lo and behold, he got picked,” says Newman.

Sneed appeared on Child’s “Cooking with Master Chefs” twice, whipping up soft-shell crabs with fresh pasta and a stuffed turkey leg. “They worked so well together and became good friends,” says Newman. “He joined her for cooking demos and on tour.”

In 1995, Sneed’s renowned Shockoe Slip restaurant, The Frog and the Redneck, hosted Child for a dinner in her honor. Then a few years later, a couple hours up I-95, another Virginia restaurant hosted Child.

In 2002, chef Patrick O’Connell helped Child celebrate her 90th birthday at the acclaimed Inn at Little Washington. “O’Connell used ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 1’ to teach himself how to cook,” says Newman. “She is one of his culinary icons.”

O’Connell and Child would eventually become friends – don’t meet your heroes unless they’re Julia, then you’ll be endlessly delighted – and Child would often stay at the Inn, America’s first five-star country house hotel.

For her birthday dinner, Newman says Child did not request the three-star Michelin restaurant’s foie gras or duck breast or caviar. The menu? Cheeseburgers and hot fudge sundaes.

“Julia Child: A Recipe for Life” events:

Family Film Screening

Friday, April 5 at 5:30 p.m.

Watch the movie “Ratatouille” during First Fridays at VMHC.

Julia Child Cookoff

Friday, April 12 at 6 p.m.

Tasting event featuring local Richmond restaurants as they
create dishes inspired by
Julia Child.

Representing a Region and Its Cuisine: Appalachia on the Table

Thursday, April 25 at 6 p.m.

Hear a lecture by author Erica Abrams Locklear.

Virginia Eats: Farm to Table Bus Tour

Saturday, June 1 at 8 a.m.

Take an excursion to local Virginia farms and artisanal producers—tastings, lunch and Virginia wine included.

Kids Cooking Demonstration

Friday, June 7 at 5 p.m.

Young Chef’s Academy hosts a hands-on pasta- making demonstration and sampling.

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life Highlight Tours

Saturdays, June-August,
at 11:30 a.m.

VMHC Education hosts summer “highlights” tours of the special
Julia Child exhibition.

“Julia Child: A Recipe for Life” opens at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture on March 16 and runs through Sept. 2. General admission tickets are available online or in-person.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the use of spelling of the acronym OSS for Office of Strategic Services.