What James Beard & Julia Child can teach you about Public Speaking.
I recently found a second-hand copy of Julia Child’s, My Life in France. I love food and I love France, I knew I would like this book.
If you are not familiar, the book is Child’s autobiography which tells the back story of how she came to be the iconic TV Chef as we know her today. I am sure you know all about her resurgence in popularity from the recent book and movie Julie & Julia.
But how does this relate to presenting? I will tell you.
James Beard is an icon in the culinary world; some consider him the Auguste Escoffier of America (Google “Escoffier” if you do not know who I am talking about). Even if you are not a foodie you have probably heard of the James Beard award; a highly prestigious accolade given out to the best of the best in the culinary world. We have a few of those chefs right here in Denver.
Another fun fact about James Beard, he hosted the first cooking program ever to be featured on television. “I Love to Eat” was on in 1946 on NBC. Even with a good title – that gets right to the heart of the program - the show did not last long.
In her book, Julia explained what made Beard’s show not so great. Keep in mind these two were VERY close, personal friends. According to Julia, Beard’s knowledge in the kitchen did not come across well on camera. Here is an excerpt from her book.
“Jim Beard had done some experimental cooking shows sponsored by Borden’s Elsie the Cow, but although he had trained as an actor and opera singer, he came across as self-conscious on television. He would spend long silent periods looking down at the food and not up at the camera; or he’d say, “Cut here,” without explanation, rather than, “Cut it at the shoulder, where the upper arm joins.” Unfortunately, his shows never drew a large audience.”
Julia certainly did not have the same problem. What she did RIGHT were two things; first, she learned from the mistakes of others. Second, she practiced and prepared.
“We broke our recipes down into logical sequences, and I practiced making each dish as if I were on TV. We took notes as we went, reminders about what I should be saying and doing and where my equipment would be…” Child explained.
I am not saying Beard did not do the same thing as Julia, he may have prepared twice as long and worked twice as hard to be camera ready… but for some reason, his presentation did not translate well to his audience.
In addition to practice and preparation another reason Julia was good on camera, she included her audience (always keeping them in mind) in her thought process. She is not over-thinking it to the point of making herself frantic; if she stumbles over a word she kept right on going; very conversational, very real.
When I ran across this section of her book, I felt I had to share to MY audience so you could know – just because someone is an expert in their field, it does not mean they are an expert in sharing that information with others.
Beard and Child, courtesy of JamesBeard.org - James Beard Foundation website.