Julia Child: American Chef and WW2 Spy

Julia Child is most famous as a popular TV chef and author. Born in Pasadena California in 1912 Julia knew she wanted to be a chef. After studying abroad at culinary school Le Cordon Bleu in France and the publication of her first cook book "Mastering the Art of french cooking" Child became an icon. She cookbook which was a bestseller in 1961 was followed by many of her other works including "Baking with Julia" and "In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs". Childs became even more renowned when in 2009 there was a movie done called Julie and Julia starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep which chronicled her childhood.

While Child was a renounced chef her 2nd it was recently released along with 24,000 employee names that Child was a spy during WW2. Long before any of her cook book days during the summer of 1942 Child worked as a "civilian volunteer in Los Angeles with the Aircraft Warning service, which tracked shipping along the California coast in an effort to prevent enemy attacks. She soon applied for the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), but at 6'3 was rejected for being too tall" (History.com)

Before becoming famous as a chef Julia worked at the raw age of 28 for "clerical work with the intelligence agency and later worked directly for the OSS Director William Donovan." (NBC). She originally begun as a typists but quickly moved up to head secretariat.  Only a year after young Julia was transferred to a new group called the "Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section". Through this group Childs helped develop technology that allowed downed pilots that were stranded  to survive in remote locations. From their Childs took on projects from out of the country; places including, Sri Lanka, China etc, where as the head of the OSS registry she was incharge of some very important documents. While she was technically not out in the fields spying on people the agency categorized her as a "senior civilian intelligence officer."



https://www.history.com/news/6-people-you-didnt-know-were-wwii-spies
https://www.biography.com/people/julia-child-9246767
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26186498/ns/us_news-security/t/julia-child-cooked-double-life-spy/#.Wv5__y_Mz_Q