Where did I see Julia Child's kitchen?

August 18, 2015 9:54 AM

I seem to remember seeing an exhibit of Julia Child's kitchen sometimes in the last 10 years. But it WASN'T at the National Museum of American History (I hadn't even been to Washington D.C. until this past summer).

Could I have seen Julia's kitchen on display somewhere other than the Smithsonian, and if so, where? Thanks!

posted by batonthefueltank to Society & Culture (11 answers total)

Could it be you just saw the pots and pans?

"So how is that the pots and pans didn't make it into the original donation? As luck would have it, another museum got there first. Just days before negotiations began, COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, in Napa, California, asked for and received the pots and pans. Smithsonian curators were of course disappointed but they, after all, got the mother lode—up to and including the kitchen sink.

In 2008, COPIA closed and the Child family estate sent word to the Smithsonian that the pots and pans were available and the rest, as they say, is history.
posted by larrybob at 9:56 AM on August 18, 2015

"Copia was a non-profit center that offered visitors wine and food tasting programs, exhibitions, organic edible gardens, films, concerts, dining, and shopping. Julia Child lent her support to the venture which established a restaurant named Julia's Kitchen."
posted by larrybob at 9:58 AM on August 18, 2015

Came to say the same. From Wikipedia:
[Child's] 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 National Museum of American History

The rest of the article, which is about the kitchen, not Julia herself, indicates no other travelling by the kitchen set since it moved from Cambridge (our fair city) MA to Washington DC.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:01 AM on August 18, 2015

I went to Copia once! IIRC they had the pans displayed in a full-scale replica of the kitchen, so I also thought I was seeing the original set.
posted by theodolite at 10:12 AM on August 18, 2015

Child donated her Cambridge house to Smith College, and it's possible they had a display of (maybe a mock-up of) the kitchen -- either in the house before it was sold, or in some on-campus location.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:15 AM on August 18, 2015

Is it possible you're conflating memories of the end of "Julie & Julia" with real life?
posted by katemonster at 10:41 AM on August 18, 2015

Are you positive it's not Smithsonian's National Museum of American History? Did it move?
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:44 AM on August 18, 2015

It's such a weirdly specific museum that I feel like you'd remember if this was the place, but I think Mill City Museum in Minneapolis has a replica of her kitchen.
posted by lindseyg at 11:27 AM on August 18, 2015

We had a twelve-hour layover in Boston Logan Airport back in the spring of 2010, and for whatever reason there was a bunch of Julia Child ephemera on display in one area. I recall pages of hand-written notes describing what she was planning for specific episodes of her show, and some photographs. I want to say there was some kind of mock-up of the kitchen.
posted by Rat Spatula at 12:17 PM on August 18, 2015

I thought I'd seen it at LACMA in recent years, or a facsimile of it, but Googling isn't turning up any evidence of that. There is a replicated version of the Eames' living room at LACMA, which I visited. I lived in DC for a decade before moving to Los Angeles, and I suppose I'm just transposing my memories of visiting it there (many times) to my time in LA. Memory does weird things to the past.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 2:27 PM on August 18, 2015

Thank you everyone for your answers! I definitely didn't see it at the Smithsonian. I could have sworn I saw a special showing of her kitchen at some other museum or exhibit space. It most likely would have been in the Eastern U.S. somewhere from 2010 to 2013. But you all are right - I could be conflating the movie Julie and Julia with some other exhibit I had seen or read about. It's amazing what the memory can make up!
posted by batonthefueltank at 5:51 PM on August 18, 2015