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Julia Child’s Kitchen – the most famous Kitchen in Washington, D.C.

  • Susan
  • September 16, 2009
Washington DC - National Museum of American Hi...

Foodies making a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. always look forward to eating at some of the city’s finest and most prestigious restaurants, such as Citronelle, Kinkead’s or the historic Old Ebbitt Grill.  You could spend months in our nation’s capital and the surrounding suburbs before running out of fine places to dine.   But one thing serious foodies may overlook during their visit to D.C. is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where Julia Child’s entire, original Massachusetts kitchen is on display.

No, you can’t get a meal at the Smithsonian that equals anything Child might have created in her kitchen.  But you will get a unique glimpse into her culinary environment.

Child donated her Cambridge kitchen to the museum in 2001 when she relocated to California.  Since it opened to the public a year later, Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian has had a resurgence of visitors since the film Julie & Julia opened this summer.

The 14 x 20-foot kitchen was carefully disassembled, moved, and then reassembled at the museum, where curators painstakingly labored to ensure everything was put in the exact same spot Child had it.   No detail was overlooked — even the refrigerator magnets were meticulously placed in the same locations on the door.

Visitors are able to walk around the freestanding exhibit and get a glimpse into what Child’s  life in the kitchen must have been like. Her collection of cookbooks, the place settings on the table and the hundreds of kitchen tools and gadgets are all exactly where the French chef kept them.  There are video monitors surrounding the exhibit running clips of Child’s shows, which museum visitors watch with fascination.

The museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.   Make a visit to this exhibit a priority next time you’re in Washington, D.C.

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