The Spy Who Cooked
I had the pleasure of cooking for Julia Child once and more importantly the honour of being fed by Julia Child on two other occasions. Her influence on me was immeasureable. Other children watch the Saturday morning cartoons, I watched the cooking shows on PBS. I remember I made a Salmon & Scallop Mousse followed by a Chicken Tarragon with a Wild Mushroom Risotto. My mother, as always, made dessert, a Floating Island that as always stole the show. Julia did rave about my hors d’oeuvres my Stuffed Prunes with Bacon (recipe below the fold) and my Asparagus Rolls (you’ll have to buy my cookbook). Her story-telling abilities rank second to none and now I know why, she was a spy for the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA. Julia Child, the spy who cooked.
From the Associated Press:
Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world.
They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.
The full secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.
They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.