Julia Child has been inspiring me since I was a child. It first started when I spent summers in Maine at my grandparent’s home. My Grandmother introduced me to amazing French dishes like cheese soufflé, cream of sorrel soup and mouth-watering fish chowder. The inspiration for my Grandmother’s kitchen came from having met Julia Child at a country club they both belonged to and became friends.

Later, as an adult pursuing a career as a chef, I was inspired by Julia Child’s zany approach to cooking and when I attended culinary school, my Grandmother game me one of the books from her own collection, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I used that book to research cooking techniques that instructors did not elaborate on, which allowed me to shine in culinary school. For everything that Julia Child has done for the understanding of food I take my hat off to her.

We were part of Julia’s 75th birthday celebration at the then famed Citrus on Melrose for 75 guests, in Los Angeles with Michel Richard. We had lamb on the menu as an entree, but when it came time to serve, it was discovered that the chefs had not turned on the ovens. Of course, Julia led the charge and we all pitched in to further butcher, then pan roast each of the 75 portions in record time, all the while drinking bottle after bottle of Chateau Lynch Bages to give us sustenance…

Growing up in southern Ontario, close enough to the border between the United States and Canada, I spent a lot of my childhood watching the PBS station out of western New York. I come from a family of cooks, so cooking programs were what we watched on television, and Julia Child was often the person looking back at us from the screen. Back then, I didn’t wholly understand who Julia was — what she’d already achieved by that point (this was the 80s), or what she meant to the culinary world. She was simply this tall, funny, bossy lady with a trilling voice, who knew her way around a stove, who made delicious-sounding food but hardly made a fuss of it. She struck me as unapologetic in her opinions, and I liked her for that. And she seemed to genuinely enjoy the company of those who joined her in the kitchen, which made me like her even more.

It looked like everyone was having the best time, especially her.

Later on in life, when I really started cooking, I finally connected the engaging personality I’d come to adore with the formidable Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Despite its size, with Julia’s voice in my mind as I read the words, the book didn’t seem as imposing as it could have been. That right there may have been Julia’s greatest gift to all of us: as much as she gave us the recipes and lessons to cook well, she also gave us her wit and passionate interest with similar generosity. She made us believe that with practice and perseverance, we could be cooks.

Or anything else, really, and it was never too late to try. Happy birthday Mrs. Child, with thanks.

Tara O’Brady is a freelance food writer with an ongoing column in UPPERCASE Magazine and frequent contributions to Kinfolk; she has also written for Saveur Magazine, Parenting Magazine and others. More of her work can be found on her award-winning site, Seven Spoons. Tara lives with her husband and their two young lads in a brick and wood house on the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario, Canada.

You can find Tara at her website Seven Spoons, as well as on Twitter.

While there are matsuri (festivals) all year long in Japan, summer is when they’re at their peak. Like a local fair, the dates vary from place to place with many festivals celebrated at the city or even neighborhood level.

Themes range from celebrating the harvest to remembering the dead. Bon Odori is a matsuri that’s typically held during Obon (known as the ghost festival in other parts of Asia) where locals come out dressed in yukata (a light cotton kimono) and dance to the beat of a taiko drum.

Whenever there’s a matsuri, there’s bound to be games for the kids. This one is called kingyosukui, which literally means “scoop the goldfish”. As the name implies, the object is to us a fragile paper “net” to scoop up as many goldfish as you can before the net breaks.

But for me, the most important part of a matsuri, is the food. It’s unhealthy, a little trashy, and about as far as possible from the food most people associate with Japan. Here’s a guide to some matsuri favorites both old and new:

Takoyaki – Literally meaning “grilled octopus”, takoyaki is made by pouring a savory batter into a hemispherical iron mold along with a piece of octopus in the center. As the outside of the batter cooks, someone with very fast hands uses a skewer to rotate the takoyaki so it grills up in the shape of a sphere. While the dough is fully set on the outside, the inside is soft and gooey and the whole lot is doused in chunou sauce, a sweet and tangy sauce that’s like a thicker, sweeter Worcestershire sauce. It’s garnished with green nori flakes and shaved smoked bonito before being served with two toothpicks to eat while scorching hot.

Furankufuruto- Japanese style frankfurters skewered on a stick and grilled. If you think hot dogs are mystery meat, these furankufuruto will put any Oscar Meyer to shame. They’re an iridescent shade of orange, and after being grilled, the thin skin crisps up around a moist spongy center that reminds me a bit of matzo balls. After being doused in ketchup, hot sauce or fake cheese sauce, you’ll finish eating it long before you figure out what it is you just ate.

Yakisoba – While it may have soba in the name, this noodle dish doesn’t actually use buckwheat noodles. Instead, yakisoba is made with Chinese style ramen noodles, which are fried on a griddle with vegetables and meat and seasoned with chunou sauce.

Okonomiyaki – Literally means “grilled as you like it” and is often described as a Japanese pizza. As the name implies you can put whatever you want into it, but it usually involves shredded cabbage, other vegetables and meat or seafood, held together with a thin batter. This is all topped with chunou sauce, green nori flakes, a few squirts of mayonnaise, shaved smoked bonito, and red pickled ginger. Some regional variations include a fried egg, or a layer of yakisoba folded between two layers of the pancake.

Oobanyaki – This is a specialty of the Kansai region of Japan but can be found almost anywhere there’s a Matsuri going on. Oobanyaki is made by pouring batter into a round mold, and then filling it with an assortment of meat and vegetables. Sometimes, it’s filled with sweet bean paste, which turns it into a dessert.

Wataame – Lest you think that Japanese people eat weird stuff at festivals, here’s one that’s shared in common with western fairs. Wataame or cotton candy is sold in colorful bags featuring pop culture icons, making them irresistible for kids (and the occasional grownup).

Marc Matsumoto is a food blogger and photographer who spreads his passion for food through his websites norecipes.com and wanderingcook.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blogs in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marc’s been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.

By Paul Qui, Top Chef Season 9 winner

Julia Child pioneered food culture in the United States and opened the door for Chef’s like me. I’ve learned to be fearless and determined in the kitchen and that the biggest hurdle is the fear of failure. But the most important thing is that cooking is about having fun.

Paul Qui has quickly made a name for himself as one of the next best chefs in the country. He began his culinary career in Austin, Texas at Uchi, a Japanese farmhouse dining and sushi restaurant, in 2003. He progressed to become Executive Chef at Uchiko and also founded East Side King, a series award-winning of food trucks. In 2012, Paul won Top Chef Season 9, the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest. Chef Paul is currently working on his latest concept, soon to be announced.

Seven years old, standing on a wooden chair in the kitchen, baking biscuits and cookies alongside my mother on a Saturday morning. This is one of my earliest memories.

Did I immediately fall in love? I think I did.

I loved watching Julia on PBS on the weekends. Intrigued by her personality and sense of freedom, I stared with awe at the TV and never wanted to look away. The way she carried herself in the kitchen was so different than anyone I’d seen before. Her low-stress, no-sweat attitude was what made her stand out to me. Julia took cooking from domestic drudgery to being a joy. She let the world know that cooking should be something fun and pleasurable.

As a child, time spent in the kitchen was full of excitement. Today, as an amateur cook and a true lover of food, I have a lot of Julia’s characteristics (something I likely gleaned from those early days of watching her on PBS). I love sharing the joy of cooking with my own kids and believe that food does not have to be perfect; you just have to enjoy it!

One of my favorite things to do in life is to make people happy. Some people buy gifts to show their affection and appreciation for others. My medium just happens to be food. I have Julia to thank for that.

Ever since I was a little boy, I have always been fascinated with food. From the days of helping mom bake in the kitchen to now preparing large family-style meals for a crowd, something about pleasing people with food has always excited me. In 2008, I founded zestycook.com to share my ideas and communicate with the food community. I strive to create an interesting place for readers to stop by and see lots of new ideas, as well as a place for like-minded (OK, food-obsessed!) people to interact with one another.

You can find Cory at his website Zestycook, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Julia Child was one of my culinary mentors and treasured friends. I first met Julia on August 15, 1990 when I cooked her a birthday luncheon in Litchfield, NH on Ken Ryan’s organic vegetable farm. We would later cook again, this time to celebrate the publication of my new cookbook, The Shaker Kitchen, in September of 1994. Julia joined me at Canterbury Shaker Village where we taped a segment for Good Morning America. We kept up our friendship over the years through dinners in Boston and letters when she resided on the West coast to avoid New England winters.

At the age of twenty-six years old, and the youngest executive chef of the Walt Disney World company, I had the opportunity to meet Julia personally on three separate occasions. One as past National President of the American Culinary Federation; I was present at the ACF national convention when Burt Cutino, the chairman of the America Academy of Chefs and owner of the Sardine Factory in Monterey, California, awarded her the American Academy of Chefs Lifetime Achievement Award. I was also privileged to assist Julia at Walt Disney World for a demonstration, and at Johnson and Whales University. As I was growing through the ranks of this great profession, I have always taken the opportunity to gather as much information about Julia as I could. She had such an impact on French cuisine as it was becoming popular in this country.

She was without a doubt the driving force behind French cuisine as we know it today. As Julia Child traveled the United Stated it was very evident that thousands of students would be touched by her influence of French cuisine. Many of them are now enjoying a very successful career in the industry today. She was also responsible for the enormous amount of respect that we as culinary professionals now enjoy. I am honored to take part in the celebration of Julia Child. Her spirit will live on in our industry forever.

When other kids were out playing during summer vacation, I was inside, glued to my television watching cooking shows on PBS. One of my very favorites was Baking With Julia.

I didn’t really know who Julia Child was. I didn’t know that she was this larger-than-life icon and powerhouse. I didn’t know anything except that I adored her. She was simply marvelous in every way.

I can’t really explain my admiration for Julia except to say that I felt a real kinship with her. I was a little girl and she was an adult woman–a strong, influential woman at that. But I loved her. I wanted to be in that kitchen baking with her.

She treated her guests like they were the experts and she their student. She played the role like we viewers who were trying to glean a little expertise of our own by watching. I had never seen such beautiful cakes with dark chocolate ruffles and cream filling. I know Julia had, but she seemed just as delighted as I was to watch it magically come together. I didn’t know what a sponge cake was, but there I was learning the proper way to make one. Artisan bread? The only bread we had at home came in a bag from the grocery store shelf.

I’m an adult now and have turned my little cooking hobby into my livelihood. When I have a question about the proper way to cook something, of course, I first turn to Julia and her books on my shelf. I crack them open and I can almost hear her telling me exactly what I need to know—which sometimes only amounts to a adding little more butter or cream.

Lindsey Johnson is a blogger, freelance writer and photographer based in Utah. Her husband and three children are all very happy to sample any and every success and failure from her kitchen.

You can find Lindsey at her website Cafe Johnsonia, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

What would modern-day American cooking be without Julia Child’s enduring influence? Julia’s voice has filled living rooms with her encouraging attitude and instilled confidence in viewers for nearly 50 years. Thanks to her foolproof recipes and exacting methods, Julia has helped produce countless deliciously memorable homemade meals. What’s more, she has inspired home cooks to become more adventurous in the kitchen. Her impact as a catalyst for creative culinary endeavors should never be underestimated.

Julia was my grandmother’s age by the time I became familiar with her unmistakeable, warbly voice, but her can-do attitude in the kitchen left an indelible mark on me at a young age. Back then, she made my want to step into the kitchen and get my hands dirty. Now, as a young woman who found an unlikely path in food blogging, I aspire to echo Julia’s infectious enthusiasm every time I prepare to publish a new recipe.

Although my recipes may involve less butter and cream than Julia’s, I wholeheartedly share her attitude that food should be savored to the last crumb, that guilt should not override pleasure. I am too often torn between my desire to slow down and enjoy a home-cooked meal, and the frenetic external pressure to keep crossing items off the never-ending to-do list. Thankfully, in those moments, I can always choose to recall Julia’s attitude and choose good food. As she concluded in My Life in France, “The pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite–toujours bon appétit!”

Hello! I’m Kathryne, otherwise known as Kate, a 20-something self-taught photographer and cook. I live with my dog/assistant, Cookie, in Oklahoma. I believe in eating real food (also called whole foods), so you’ll find lots of fresh, vibrant and healthy recipes on my blog. I’m also an avid supporter of the occasional indulgence, and I laugh with friends over drinks as often as possible!

You can find Kate at her website Cookie and Kate, as well as on Facebook.