Julia Child Gets Cooking at Smithsonian

By Louise A. Barile

08/20/2002 at 01:00 PM EDT

The monthlong celebration of TV chef Julia Child's 90th birthday concluded Monday with the unveiling of a new exhibit featuring her famous kitchen at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. "It looks exactly right -- it makes me homesick to look at it," Child told Reuters, before officially opening the display to the public. "I wish I could come in and turn everything on." The kitchen, which was designed by her late husband, Paul Child, comes from her longtime Cambridge, Mass., home. The chef donated it to the Smithsonian after she moved back to her native California late last year. The only replicas are the walls and floors, which were designed by the Smithsonian to duplicate the originals seen in three of Child's popular cooking shows. Child, who celebrated her birthday August 17, is largely credited with introducing more sophisticated fare to American palates. Her first 1963 PBS cooking series, "The French Chef," made the 6'-2" cooking teacher a household name. Over the years, as food fads have come and gone, Child has been unapologetic about proclaiming the joys of meat, butter and cream. At 90, she still indulges in her favorite foods, like baked potatoes with butter. "I don't eat so much butter and cream -- just enough!" she told reporters, according to Reuters. "And no snacking. That's very, very important." Child's kitchen will remain on display at the Smithsonian until February 2004.