“Julia Child: A Recipe for Life” is featured at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix from June 20 through September 20, 2026. The exhibition explores the key ingredients in Julia Child’s personal journey, which became part of America’s culinary revolution, through a series of immersive experiences.
Child’s insatiable curiosity and tenacious spirit drove her to endlessly try, test and teach how to make delicious food. Learning to cook empowered Child, and she, in turn, empowered others, profoundly transforming American cuisine and food culture in the process.
Ashe Gibson from the Arizona Science Center joined “Arizona Horizon” to speak about the new experience.
This traveling exhibit is different from most that the Arizona Science Center usually hosts, according to Gibson. Although cooking, and the style that Julia Child did it in is more closely linked to science than most may think.
“Cooking is applied chemistry, it is gastronomy is another field of science. Like there’s so much science that goes into cooking and the particular way that Julia Child went about it, she valued the scientific process. That’s why we wanted to bring her to us,” Gibson said.
Gibson referred to Julia Child as a “master of experimentation”. They further added that Child inspired Americans to take risks and to make mistakes in the kitchen, as well as to have a more curious attitude toward cooking.
The curiosity that is curated to triumph and failure is part of what Gibson hopes people will take away from this exhibition. They noted that Child said in part that those who are afraid of failure will not be good cooks.
“We fail all the time. We fail on camera, we fail on stage and that’s how you learn. So I want everyone who comes in and sees this exhibition to look at whatever it is they want to try in their life and give it another shot,” Gibson said.
