City Holds Feast For Departing Julia Child

Cambridge bid farewell to its most famous culinary citizen, Julia Child, last night in a gourmet dinner to benefit the culinary program of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS).

Child, 89, an icon of American gourmet cooking, will leave Cambridge on Saturday for a retirement community in California.

Cambridge Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio presented Child with a key to the city, saying, “Cambridge loves you.”

Members of the City Council said they had passed a resolution expressing their regret at Child’s departure. She has lived in Cambridge for 43 years.

The Harvard Krokodiloes performed as guests at the dinner, which featured braised duckling and pasta pillows. Their set culminated with one member descending from the stage amid whoops from the crowd, to lean in and sing to Child.

The cost of the dinner was $125, and $250 for a VIP reception.

Child mingled among students, guests and chefs, patiently posing for photo after photo.

Proceeds from the evening went to a scholarship fund for post-secondary culinary instruction to graduates of the Rindge School of Technical Arts’ culinary program at CRLS.

During the evening’s festivities, chefs from restaurants around Cambridge donned patterned chef’s hats and sunglasses to serenade Child with a goodbye song set to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.”

The crowd erupted with laughter and cheers when Child obligingly slipped on her own pair of oversize sunglasses and a chef’s hat.

An auction of photographs and Julia paraphernalia followed, in which bidding for a whisk reportedly purloined from Child’s own kitchen hovered at $300. When a 10-person dinner cooked by chefs from Rialto and Oleanna was tacked onto the offer, the closing bid came to $2500.

Jody Adams, chef of the Rialto restaurant in Harvard Square, said Child had been her mentor for the past 20 years. “She has a sense of integrity, of love, of sharing,” Adams told the guests. “When Julia walks into a restaurant, the world stops. It has to do with food, but it also has to do with who she is.”

Child’s ample influence on cooks both amateur and professional was emphasized throughout the evening. Said Steve Spofford, executive director of the culinary program at the school, “I will never look at a green bean the same way again.”