Like so many great memories, it all started with a meal.

The restaurants of Chungking and Kunming were full of unfamilliar and exotic looking dishes, but the woman who grew up in Pasadena was eager to try new things with the encouragement of her older and more worldly fiance who also worked for the O.S.S.

It felt like an adventure eating strangely wonderful foods in an ancient land; the beginning of a new life in an old country for however long their time in China lasted.

Eventually, they ended up in Rouen, France, on the cobblestoned walk where Joan of Arc had met her fate. There, in the oldest restaurant in France, Julia Child learned to drink wine in the afternoon like a European and ate a butter browned Sole Meuniere that changed her life.

A few bites of a perfectly prepared fish led to her transformation from (as she put it) “an eater” to a cook; training at the Le Cordon Bleu, writing the first of many books (Mastering the Art of French Cooking), as well as putting together a series of beloved cooking shows for PBS.

But first, like so many who didn’t grow up cooking at an early age, she made mistakes in the kitchen. Big mistakes. And then gave herself permission to take out a new pan and try again.

And that’s what every future good cook needs; permission to try and fail. Permission to make all the inevitable yet necessary mistakes one needs to make before one becomes truly comfortable in the kitchen. Permission to start over in a new pan. Permission to let one’s ingredients breathe.

Below are a selection of recipes by (as well as inspired by) Julia Child…enjoy!

• The Julia Child and Jacques Pepin Recipe for Souffleéd Potatoes from Almost Vegetarian

• Julia Child’s Clafouti Recipe from Cooking With Amy

• Julia Child’s Perfect Chocolate Mousse Recipe from David Lebovitz

• Julia Child’s Bouillabaisse with Rouille Recipe from FamilyStyle Food

• Julia’s Cooked Egg Mayonnaise Recipe from Serious Eats

• Julia Child’s French Bread Recipe from Andrea’s Recipes

• Baked Cucumbers Recipe (Concombres au Beurre) from La Fuji Mama

• Julia Child’s Sabayon Recipe from Foodista

• Julia Child’s Lentil Salad Recipe from A Veggie Venture

• Croissants - A La Julia Child Recipe from Mamaliga

• Julia Child’s 16-Hour Baked Beans in 8-Hours Recipe from A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen

If you’d like to enjoy many more recipes by Julia Child, Whisk Blog has a great collection of Julia’s recipes here.

Please join us tomorrow to read our newest Fish for Friday Recipe: Scallops With Mussels and Shrimp in Cream Sauce on HuggingtheCoast.Com.

If you liked this article on HuggingtheCoast.Com, you might also enjoy:

• Gut Instinct: Trusting Yourself in the Kitchen
• The Jumbo Shrimp Death March: A Culinary Catastrophe With a Side of Remoulade
• 7 Pasta Shapes I Have Loved (Plus 1 That Made Me Gag)
• The Most Important Ingredient
• Guilty Pleasures: What Do You Cook When No One’s Looking?
• Yesterday’s Post: Magical Peanut Butter Moon Pie Ice Cream Milkshake Recipe

(Photo Credits: Knead! Be Tough! by gabstero, Photo of Julia Child’s Sabayon by Foodista.)

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