The 'feminist love story' between Julia Child and her husband, Paul

While Julia Child was busy teaching her loyal public television viewers how to make boeuf bourguignon, her husband could be found crawling at her feet.

From the floor of "The French Chef" set, Paul Child would hold up signs to help his wife during filming. They called them idiot cards. "Move on!" "Wipe brow!" "Don't forget mushrooms!"

Julia was 51 when she started filming her cooking show at WGBH in Boston, and Paul, 10 years her senior, continued assisting her from the ground up well into his late 60s.

This was not always their relationship dynamic. Paul had already lived in France and Italy, was a black belt in judo and relished fine cuisine when they met in 1944. Julia, who had a cosseted upbringing in Pasadena, California, and a boarding school education in Marin County, had never lived abroad, though she'd worked as a copywriter in New York after graduating from Smith College. Against her wealthy family's wishes — and after turning down a marriage proposal from Harrison Chandler, son of Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler — she joined the Office of Strategic Services, the