Julia Child's Complaint About Food Network Still Resonates Today

Julia Child was a visionary who had a unique prescience about what millions of Americans wanted from their food, and that prescience couldn't have been clearer than hearing her talk about the Food Network when it first launched. While shows like "The French Chef" and her many media appearances made her an icon in the '70s and '80s, Child was always a teacher for home cooks at heart. But later in life, she saw that times were changing as the Food Network had shifted away from the educational programming she championed and towards simple entertainment.

In a 1999 interview with the Television Academy Foundation, Child reminisced about her long career. When asked about Food Network, Child notes she had been somewhat involved at the start, hoping it would succeed, but was worried that it was more focused on entertainment than teaching viewers to cook. "They are having a difficult time because they have to get a big audience," she explained.

Child went on to note that while the Food Network's big stars at the time, such as Emeril Lagasse, were quite popular, viewers were still "looking at it for fun and amusement" more than anything else. "They're not going to watch the serious thing on how to bone a turkey," she continued. "They want entertainment." And while that may not be fair to the very accomplished Mr. Lagasse, she wasn't wrong about the direction of the channel overall.

What's funny about Child's Food Network complaint is that, at the time, the channel still felt far more educational than it does now. That was the year Alton Brown's "Good Eats" debuted, and while stars like Lagasse and Bobby Flay were certainly entertaining, they still walked the audience through each recipe. But Child could see that the era of cooking shows as a diversion had begun. In the 2000s, the network did eventually abandon many of its educational programs for competitions like "Iron Chef" and "Food Network Star."

Looking at Food Network's lineup today, we can see how Child's frustration has become full-on fulfilled prophecy. While there are still some instructional programs like Ree Drummond's "The Pioneer Woman" hanging on, the network's lineup is dominated by reality TV. From "Worst Cooks in America" and "Wildcard Kitchen" to Guy Fieri's new show "Flavortown Food Fight" and the long-running "Chopped," the network's future is clear. As if to hammer the transformation home, Food Network cancelled "The Kitchen," its long-running instructional series, this year too.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with these shows. Many are great, and you can certainly learn something by watching them, but Child's concern feels even more relevant today. Cooking is an essential part of life, and something that takes real work to learn. Those like Child, who were engaging but also taught fans essential skills, were truly important to millions who went on to become home cooks. That doesn't mean we can't kick back and enjoy food programming for fun, but something is lost when the educational side gets pushed to the sidelines.