Julia Child Was a WWII Spy

I read the headline on August 13, 2008. I couldn’t believe it. The French Chef was an American spy. Cleverly disguised as a flamboyant TV cooking show host, Julia Child was in reality a recruit in the organization that would eventually become the CIA.

Well, not exactly. But she did serve in an international spy ring called the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, for a few years during World War II. And she’s not the only OSS agent who was or would later become famous for something completely unrelated. Other recruits include two of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons, actor Sterling Hayden, and the father of Stewart Copeland, the drummer in The Police.

Is this a joke?

No, but it sounds like one. The reality of this is probably rather ordinary, important, but not particularly interesting. Julia Child’s job at the OSS was more clerical than cloak and dagger. She was an employee more than an “agent.” It’s the idea of it that’s entertaining. Julia Child, who died in 2004, was not French, her cooking was. Mrs. Child herself was as American as Apple Pie. After graduating from college and armed with a degree in History, she got a job in Advertising. She volunteered for the Red Cross, then joined the OSS. She couldn’t get into the Navy because she was too tall.

But Americans will always remember her as The French Chef. She wrote cookbooks. She hosted TV cooking shows. Her unique manner of speech is more memorable to many than her cuisine. She was spoofed on Saturday Night Live. She’s an icon.

And now we can say with a straight face, “Julia Child was a World War II Spy.” Imagine what Dan Ackroyd could do with this.

Our French Chef took the secret of her OSS service to her grave. Surviving OSS agents can now finally admit, “Yes, I was an OSS agent.” They were under a gag order for over 60 years. Can you imagine having to keep a secret like that? Especially when you end up with your own TV show. At times, in the middle of mixing sauces and explaining how to stir them correctly with the cameras rolling in her own home’s kitchen, the urge to say, “You know, I was a spy during the war” surely must have welled up in Julia’s throat. But we’ll never know. She never said a word.

So now we have one more reason to admire Julia Child. And Kermit Roosevelt. And Stewart Copeland’s father. But we can also laugh, a little, at the thought of it. Picture Julia Child as a character in a comedy spy movie. Or even a serious Hitchcock film, but her character would surely have had comedic undertones. On a day when the headlines included politically driven murder, turmoil in Eastern Europe, and police corruption, this headline was the one that made me smile.