American TV chef Julia Child shows a salade nicoise she prepared in the kitchen of her vacation home in Grasse, southern France, in this Aug. 21, 1978, photo.

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Is it any wonder that Julia Child is now a movie star?

After all, Child (1912-2004) was arguably the most important American culinary figure of the past century — a cookbook author, TV personality and celebrity chef all rolled into one. And she did this all before Bobby Flay was even born.

Amy Adams as Julie Powell

True, Child is no longer with us, but her influence remains as strong as ever. Witness Julie & Julia (coming out on Friday), the new Nora Ephron-directed movie that tells the story of how Child (played by Meryl Streep) came of culinary age in France — and how her landmark cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking changed the life of one writer and home chef, Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams).
All that gave us an excuse to do a little assessing of our own and talk to chefs — in South Florida and beyond — about this remarkable woman. The result? A list of 10 reasons we love Julia Child. Maybe they will inspire you to work a little Child-like magic in your kitchen.

1. She taught America to cook French
Essentially, that’s all you need to know about Child. Before the 734-page Mastering the Art of French Cooking came out in 1961, Americans couldn’t pronounce bouef bourguignon or coq au vin, much less make them at home. Child demystified a cuisine that is the bedrock of, well, cuisine. And she did it at a time when homemakers — the “servantless American cook,” as Child celebrated them — were being encouraged to rely increasingly on convenience foods. Little wonder The New York Times called Child “The French Chef for a Jell-O Nation.” Even today, many chefs say they keep a copy of Mastering by their side. “That was the very first cookbook a family member gave me. Now, the pages are all stained with food, but I still have it,” says Mary Beth Lawton Johnson, a Palm Beach-based chef who works on yachts.

2. She was the Food Network (before there was a Food Network)
There may have been chefs on the air before Child, but there wasn’t anyone who so quickly understood and embraced the medium. Her first show, The French Chef, bowed on public television in 1963 and ran for 10 years. She followed it up with several more shows, including four in the ’90s alone. Along the way, she established that a cooking program could be both educating and entertaining, thus creating an approach that would be copied by many, many others. Think about it: Without Child saying her signature line — “Bon appétit!” — how would the Food Network’s first star, Emeril, ever have found his “Bam”?

3. She was larger than life
Literally. At 6-foot-2, Child towered over men and women. But the key was how she used her towering awkwardness and distinct warble of a voice to her advantage, so that she became a personality almost in spite of herself. Perhaps that’s because she wedded such attributes to an unerring confidence and a zest for food and life itself. “I always thought she was one of the sexiest women there was,” says Food Network rising star Claire Robinson (5 Ingredient Fix).

4. She made mistakes
No doubt about it: Child could be an incredibly sloppy cook, dropping items here and there, bumbling with utensils, burning an occasional dish. But that’s what made her all the more lovable in most of her fans’ eyes. Little wonder that she was so easily spoofed in a memorable Saturday Night Live where Dan Aykroyd (playing Child) nearly sliced off his finger, resulted in a faux bloody mess.

5. She wrote a mean recipe
Child put complicated dishes into simple but detailed terms, so that if you followed the steps, you couldn’t go wrong. “All of her recipes actually work,” says Vivian Liberman, a professor at the South Florida campus of Le Cordon Bleu, the famed French cooking school where Child got her start. In all, Child wrote more than a dozen cookbooks, many based on her TV shows.

6. She loved to get dirty
Even at the height of her fame, Child wasn’t one to let an assistant do all the slicing, dicing and other messy tasks in the kitchen. Renowned Florida chef Norman Van Aken, considered the father of New World Cuisine, recalls meeting her at a culinary event in California. “The memory I have is her standing in a tent in the 90-degree heat with an apron on, chopping her own zucchini and garlic. It certainly wasn’t all tea and crumpets,” Van Aken says. In just the same down-home manner, Child kept her number listed in the Boston phone book — and wouldn’t be at all opposed to talking a home cook through a dish.

7. She devoured it all
Before Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern were impressing TV audiences with their love for all sorts of foods from around the world, Child was eating — and drinking — everything in sight. “In grand establishments, she often ordered foie gras; in airports, she often ate hot dogs for breakfast,” recalled R.W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times in a 2004 appreciation, adding that Child’s favorite foods also included oysters, duck, beef and “anything chocolate.” Child herself confessed to CNN’s Larry King that she was a fan of some fast-food chains. “McDonald’s could be very good … and so can Burger King. But the Burger King’s french fries are very good, I think,” she said.

8. She went pop
As in pop culture. Child embraced her popularity and used it to promote cooking. She was on the cover of Time in 1966. She had a character based on her on the children’s TV program, The Electric Company. She even was portrayed by Jean Stapleton in a 1989 musical, Bon Appétit!

9. She was a spy
Well, not quite a spy. But Child, who went to Smith College, worked for the Office of Strategic Service (OSS)— the predecessor of today’s CIA — in the ’40s and certainly kept her pulse on all things in foreign affairs. Her husband, Paul Child, was a diplomat: When he was transferred to Paris, Julia went along — and discovered French cooking.

10. She fostered a community of chefs
So much for the notion of chefs as competitive back-stabbers. Child was determined to create an informal society of them, visiting them at their restaurants, welcoming them on her cooking programs and bringing them together for events. In many ways, Child probably got the idea from her first cookbook, which was a collaborative effort with two French chefs. “When she came back home to America, she said if it can happen there, it can happen here,” says Norman Van Aken. The result: Cooking became a collegial affair and chefs were able to build on each other’s success, helping create a “foodie” culture in America that lives to the present day.