Napa Valley: A Day in Julia Child’s Kitchen Country
Napa Valley: A Day in Julia Child’s Kitchen Country
From a museum exhibit built around her batterie de cuisine to a working culinary garden at the CIA, a day tracing the valley's food story — one stop, one bite at a time.
We had the chance to head up to Napa for the day, and it turned into exactly the kind of trip I love best — one built entirely around food, history, and the people who've spent their lives caring about both. Julia Child has always been a huge influence on me, both in the kitchen and in how I think about teaching. She's my inspiration for passing on the knowledge and love of cooking to others, and this day felt like walking through her whole philosophy, one stop at a time.
We started at The MAC's exhibit on Julia's life and kitchen, then wound through a bakery, an olive oil press, a farm-to-table lunch, a public market, and finally the Culinary Institute of America's teaching garden — ending, fittingly, at the place where the next generation of cooks is being trained.
Napa By the Numbers
The MAC: Julia Child, A Recipe for Life
Napa Valley Museum of Art & CultureJulia Child has always been a huge influence on me in the culinary world — my inspiration for passing on the knowledge and love of cooking to others. This exhibit traced her path from a novice cook in postwar Paris to the woman who demystified French cooking for an entire generation of Americans. Recreated kitchen counters, her actual pots and pans, and clips of her show played on loop throughout the space.
“A Recipe for Life” — the exhibit's centerpiece, framed by Julia's own copper pots.
Her entire batterie de cuisine — the full collection of tools she and Paul organized on pegboard walls — is now part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection, and a reproduction hung throughout the exhibit. But it was Paul who actually built that wall. When the Childs designed their Cambridge, Massachusetts kitchen in 1961, he customized the counters to 38 inches instead of the standard 36 to suit Julia's 6'2" frame, and chose the light blue-green panels seen in nearly every photo of her at the stove. Julia laid all her pots and pans on the floor in the arrangement she wanted, grouped by task, and once it felt right, Paul traced the outline of every single tool onto the pegboard by hand — giving each pot and pan a permanent, designated silhouette to return to. Small Polaroids were added later so her kitchen assistants could tell apart tools of the same shape but different color. One biographer called it simply “his gift to her.” When Julia's kitchen was eventually broken up, the section with her copper pots — the one recreated here at The MAC — went to Copia in Napa; the rest is now at the Smithsonian. We even got to recreate her famously playful “Wish You Were Here” Valentine's Day bathtub photo.
Julia's batterie de cuisine, recreated in full — every tool traced by Paul so nothing was ever lost.
A closer look at Paul's outlines — cast-iron skillets and fish molds, each sized to fit exactly one tool.
Before she was a television star, Julia trained at Le Cordon Bleu and, in 1952, co-founded L'École des Trois Gourmandes — the “School of the Three Hearty Eaters” — with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, the same two women she'd later co-write Mastering the Art of French Cooking with. An original class photo of the three of them teaching American women in Paris hung near looping clips from The French Chef, including the famous “Chicken Sisters” episode.
Left: Julia, Simca, and Louisette teaching in Paris, 1952. Right: “The Chicken Sisters,” playing on loop in the exhibit.
Recreating Julia and Paul's playful “Wish You Were Here” Valentine's Day bathtub photo.
The three of us outside The MAC, on the giant stick of butter.
Under-Study Bakery & Cafe
Attached to The MACYou can peek into the bakery straight from the museum and watch all the delicious goodies come together. Bailey had to get the croissant — one of the best ever made. Butter, charcuterie, and cheese cases lined the counter, plus an Everything Twist croissant filled with chive cream cheese and fried shallots.
Proper lamination — you can count every single layer.
The pastry case alone was worth the stop — lemon tea cakes, chocolate croustade, almond brioche, and a fresh apricot tart.
Napa Valley Olive Oil Manufactory
St. Helena, CaliforniaOlive oil is like a fine wine, and NVOOM has an amazing OO vintage. This working press has been bottling extra virgin olive oil by hand for generations, since the Guidi family first began pressing for their neighbors — the walls covered floor to ceiling in decades of business cards from regulars. Garlic, lemon, basil, blood orange, and honey ginger balsamic all lined the shelves, each labeled in handwriting.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, packed and labeled right on site since the family first opened its doors.
A decades-old cast-iron salame press in the back of the shop, still hung with cured meats and years of visitor business cards.
Charlie's
St. Helena, CaliforniaWe stopped at Charlie's for lunch and enjoyed our mocktails, oysters, and Regiis Ova caviar. Tomales Bay oysters came with a seaweed-tomato mignonette, and the alcohol-free cocktail program was every bit as thoughtful as the wine list — cold brew, peach shrub, and fresh citrus standing in for spirits.
Charlie's alcohol-free cocktail menu builds real flavor without spirits — a good reminder that a well-made mocktail is a craft in its own right, not an afterthought for the table.
One of Charlie's alcohol-free cocktails, and a quiet corner just outside against the ivy wall.
Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch
St. Helena, CaliforniaA separate stop on Long Meadow Ranch, a working farm established in 1872 that still grows much of what its restaurant serves. A vintage red Farmall tractor greets visitors under a canopy of redwoods and olive trees, and a white picket gate marks the entrance to the restaurant's garden paths.
The property's working herb and flower beds are labeled plant by plant — this Abrial lavender variety, introduced in 1920, was once France's most popular choice for oil distillation, and here it's grown for cocktail garnishes and the ranch's farmers' market booth. A towering iron sculpture strung with pigs, cows, tomatoes, and rabbits stands watch over the vegetable garden, a playful nod to everything the ranch grows and raises.
Oakville Grocery
Oakville, CaliforniaFounded in 1881, Oakville Grocery is the oldest continually operating grocery store in California, and it looks the part — a white clapboard building with a hand-painted Coca-Cola mural still on its wall. It served the valley's earliest vineyard pioneers back when Napa was still more wheat field than wine country, and by 1880 the surrounding area had grown into a bustling railroad hub with more than 430 acres of premium wine grapes already planted nearby. Such adorable gift items and foods from local farms.
We found Rancho Gordo heirloom beans at Oakville — bags of Mayocoba, Garbanzo, and Christmas Lima beans, each stamped with the company's signature vintage pin-up art, grown just up the road at Rancho Gordo's own farm in Napa. Next time we're back, the farm itself is on the list.
Rancho Gordo heirloom beans, grown at the company's own Napa farm.
The self-serve Wine Vault, tucked behind the main grocery floor — a modern touch inside a 140-year-old building.
Oxbow Public Market
Napa, CaliforniaOur journey continued to Oxbow Public Market, where we looked at work from local artists and stopped at the Whole Spice shop — jars sold by weight off a scale, from classic garlic and celery salt to a maple salt meant for glazing roasted vegetables. The market hall is built around dozens of small producers under one roof, from Eiko's Fish Market to empanadas to a gift shop with more attitude than your average gift shop.
Hand-thrown ceramic bowls from a local Oxbow artist — and the Napa Pedal Crusher rolling by outside.
CIA at Copia
The Culinary Institute of America, NapaWe finished our trip going home to the CIA — and this property is my dream. A literal farm-to-table set-up. I loved everything about it, including the seed library. I was able to grab a few seeds; we'll see if they grow in my garden. The Culinary Garden supplies produce straight to the school's teaching kitchens and restaurants, labeled bed by bed, tree by tree.
The Culinary Garden at CIA Copia — every bed, tree, and citrus variety labeled and mapped.
Even the rows of cucumbers and summer squash are labeled bed by bed on the garden's posted map, and a small seed library near the entrance — stocked by the CIA, Oxbow, and the Napa County Seed Library — lets visitors take home seeds for cover crops and heirloom vegetables to try in their own gardens.
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
— Julia ChildJulia Child's Classic Vinaigrette
bright, mustardy, and endlessly usefulIngredients
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Optional: 1 small minced shallot or garlic clove
Directions
- Whisk together the mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
- Slowly whisk in the olive oil, a little at a time, until the dressing thickens and emulsifies.
- Stir in the shallot or garlic, if using. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Store in a sealed jar at room temperature for up to a week — shake well before using.
Reine de Saba
Julia's Queen of Sheba chocolate almond cake — a birthday recipeIngredients
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate, melted with 2 tbsp coffee or rum
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar, divided
- 3 egg yolks
- ⅓ cup ground almonds
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 egg whites, pinch of salt
- Glaze: 3 oz chocolate, 2 tbsp coffee, 4 tbsp butter, ⅔ cup powdered sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan.
- Melt the chocolate with the coffee or rum over low heat; cool slightly.
- Cream the butter with half the sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, then the melted chocolate, ground almonds, and flour.
- Whip the egg whites with salt to soft peaks, gradually add remaining sugar, and whip to stiff, glossy peaks.
- Fold a quarter of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in the rest.
- Bake 25 minutes — the center should stay slightly underbaked and fudgy. Cool completely, then glaze.