The French Chef

I'm sort of a cooking show geek. I can watch Martha Stewart bake a pie or Alton Brown explain how a convection oven works any time of the day, even two in the morning. And it's not like I just started watching cooking shows in the past several years because it was hip to do so, I've been watching them since I was a kid. I was rather addicted to The French Chef and The Galloping Gourmet when I was younger.

Both shows make it to our sister site Slashfood's list of the ten greatest cooking shows of all-time.

Two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep does an amazing job of bringing Julia Child to life in the new movie Julie & Julia. Watch the clips that Bob posted recently and you'll understand why I'm sure this film will earn Ms. Meryl another Oscar nomination. That will be number 16, breaking her record of 15 nominations thus far.

But did you know that Dan Aykroyd steals the movie right out from under Meryl Streep's nose ... not to mention Amy Adams, too? It's true. Director Nora Ephron wisely included the famous Saturday Night Live sketch called The French Chef, in which Dan masterfully skewered Julia's TV show. The cry, "Save the liver" is still one of the funniest lines I've ever heard -- and still use when the occasion calls for it!

Julie and Julia opens today, so I thought it would be fun to compare the real Julia Child with Meryl Streep's movie version. Below are two videos. The first is the real Julia Child making an omelet on her show The French Chef, and the second is a clip from the movie.

Child had a deeper voice than most impersonators would have you believe, but it looks like Streep does a good job.