Christine Tobin can still taste Julia Child’s Duck a l’Orange—or at least the recipe as made by her father, a French Chef devotee whose Sundays were often reserved for cooking Child’s creations. “He would stand in line to get her autograph on a cookbook, which I still have,” she tells Vanity Fair.
Tobin grew up in the town of Holliston, located about an hour from the Boston studio where Child filmed her PBS series. “I grew up with Julia on the television every weekend, with parents who really enjoyed food and community,” she says. “Being on a dead-end street in a town with no restaurants, they took to cooking at home for their own sense of enjoyment. They started a group called The Gourmet Club on Pinecrest Road, and every month, they’d get together and cook from various parts of the world.” On Saturdays, Child’s show would air following The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. “I received my early childhood education between the two of them.”
Tobin has amassed an impressive list of films and TV show credits, styling food on Oscar-nominated productions including American Hustle, Little Women, and Don’t Look Up. But it wasn’t until her thirties that she landed the ultimate gig: food stylist on Max’s Julia, which stars Sarah Lancashire as the beloved chef. “Everything just made sense when I landed Julia,” Tobin says on a recent Zoom. There’s only one other current show that can compare: “The Bear. Come on, like C-O-M-E on! You can quote me,” Tobin says of the series, which features work by culinary producer Courtney Storer and executive producer/real-life chef Matty Matheson. “It’s a masterpiece.”
In an early episode of Julia season two, which is now streaming Thursdays on Max, Child proclaims: “If you want to get to know a person, take them out to dinner and watch them eat.” Ahead, a conversation with the woman in charge of setting the table—from her fear of angering French chefs to the famous projects in which she’s cameoed.
Vanity Fair: Julia’s second season has a meta quality, with Julia facing the pressures of making a second season of The French Chef and a new edition of her cookbook. Did you feel those same feelings? What did you learn on the first season that you were eager to build upon?
Christine Tobin: Well, first off, we went immediately on location to France for seven weeks. So I was lucky to have the first season to prep for that. We were lucky to have a lot of the same crew members return for season two. The longer you get to work together in episodic, those bonds between departments and people really strengthen and grow.
Season two I found more ambitious in the food. There isn’t just one person cooking on set, it’s multiples. And so with that comes a lot of planning. While I was in France, I had an assistant here in Boston, Carolyn White, who handled that second unit. I think we only had a week in between landing and starting up again. It just went super smooth, honestly. It’s shocking. I think that comes from working with food professionals and being instinctual about what is to be expected.
You once compared the delicacy of a food scene and what could go wrong to filming a car crash. Was there a scene this season that felt like it had the most potential to crash and burn?
Who coined that phrase is Melanie Mayron, one of our directors. So I adopt that from her, because it absolutely describes what a lot of people don’t assume is needed when dealing with food on set. A lot of people think it’s fluff, but no—the amount and the ambitiousness of what we are expected to do on set, it needs that planning, especially when actors are handling it or preparing it, just even for safety reasons.
The scene at the White House [which comes later in the season] took incredible planning, because we were off-set in a location that was being completely restructured by the art department. We were working off actual historical footage. That was a real set dec[orating] triumph. We had to do one scene at one certain point of the day, then we had to flip the whole kitchen to a totally different [set-up] the next day. It was a huge operation that came down to literally having a floor plan printed—like a blueprint. That was our Super Bowl. When we finished that… I’m still shaking.
Two seasons into recreating so many of Julia’s recipes, has your relationship to them changed? Is there one you’re really itching to execute?
My relationship to her writing has only deepened. I haven’t read the cookbooks end-to-end for pleasure. But I always look forward to reading her and hearing her and envisioning it. She’s just a nice person to visit.
[Creator] Daniel [Goldfarb] and [showrunner] Chris [Keyser] always—I laugh out loud many times in the kitchen after or during my script reading, because they get really ambitious with the recipes. I’m like, of course, Daniel wants this. I would love to see more pastry work. She was more of a cook than a pastry chef. But especially when you’re rewatching The French Chef footage, that’s when she gets really messy and things could get a little shaky and awry. Those are always fun moments to revisit.
I saw on Instagram that you recently visited Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, which is obviously a huge part of Julia’s trajectory. What was that experience like?
Well, never in my life would I ever have thought that would happen, or even talking to you for that matter. This whole thing is bananas. They have her photograph up and a description of who she was and what she meant to the school. I had this wonderful experience, walking in history in her footsteps in some regard.
I definitely thought by meeting the head chefs there that I would just be called out. The French are really, and rightfully so, very traditional, very tight. Their training is tight. And I go similar to Julia—I blow it up a little bit, because that’s what the job entails. But everyone there was just super nice.
We sat through an incredible demonstration of ripon crute, and it was very much more advanced than what we see on screen on Julia. I’m still thinking about the flavors of it. Definitely, that was the most delicious dish I had in France, period. And it was just a delight to follow that presentation with me talking about the craft of food on film.
When you’re watching a dining or cooking scene on screen, is there something you’ll see that really irks you styling-wise?
What’s interesting is as a food stylist, especially ones that are trained in still photography, our purpose is to make something look beautiful on camera and desirable for a consumer. And it’s really hard to let go of those tendencies on motion work, because a lot of times, people are like, “We’ve got no time for that, scram.” There were no inserts. There were no resets. It was just a rolling steady motion where you see the actors interact with and eat the food.
I gripe when I see my own work. But then I have to say, you know what? That got pulled out of an electric stove from the 1960s. Of course it’s not going to have this pornographic, cheesy, bubbly top. So those pet peeves I would’ve had in the past, I now have a better acceptance for. But I think seeing work that is to be period correct and it actually looks futuristic because it’s wanting to be this food porn enticement—I don’t know if that’s meeting what is the purpose of the role on film.
More recently you’ve worked on Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and next year’s Challengers, starring Zendaya. Does styling on standalone, less food-centric projects require a different approach?
I always take the same approach. I’m working closely with the prop master, and then I always weasel my way to the director. I have to, to understand what it is that they’re expecting. And I think the more experience I’ve had, and Julia’s a massive one, there’s a lot of trust that goes into having me deliver what is not only scripted, but also what a director is wanting. I still do my mood boards. I still send a million…I shouldn’t say a million emails.
What’s something that was on the moodboard for Challengers, anything you can tease?
There was a party scene—it’s not a food-heavy movie, but it was a fun set to be on, for sure. You’re going to see a little chopping in the lights of the cafeteria [from me]. That was now the third time a director pointed at me, said, “Come here,” and asked me to change into a costume. I don’t know if you saw me in The Holdovers—that was another cameo. Alexander Payne, he was hilarious. I had to wear pantyhose for that. I haven’t seen it yet. I’m planning on seeing it this weekend. And that was a delightful show to be on as well—working with Da’Vine [Joy Randolph] closely about her character being a kitchen boss, chef, mom, and a woman of color from this area in town. I really took to her and look forward to celebrating her.
When a director asks you to jump into a scene, how do you react?
I’m sure you can tell, but I like being behind the camera. But if it helps out—Labor Day [Jason Reitman’s 2013 drama starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin] was the first time I got put in, and it’s because they wanted someone there who could peel a peach. So, it’s just like a hand double. My comfort zone is in the kitchen. I like to be in the kitchen, and I like to be watching the monitor, and that is the extent of it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.