From Julia Child to The Victory Garden: How My Grandparents Changed the World of Cooking and Television
By Madeleine Cohen, via Oldways
I’ve always known that my grandparents were cool.
It first hit me when they told me of their close friendship with Julia Child, who I had learned at a young age was a major player in the culinary world. As I got older, though, I discovered that Julia Child’s friendship was relatively low on their long list of collective accomplishments.
I learned that my grandfather, Russell Morash, introduced “Do-It-Yourself” television to the world—as the producer and director of This Old House and The Victory Garden—and that my grandmother, Marian Morash, was known on TV as “Chef Marian” and was the founding chef of a notable restaurant at a time when kitchens were predominantly male-run.
While I’ve known for a while about my grandparents’ many achievements, it wasn’t until this summer when I interviewed them for this blog that I realized just how extraordinary their stories are. So, in only a few paragraphs, I will do my best to sum up the highlights and explain how they came to be the trailblazers they are today.
The Founding Father of How-To Television
The year was 1955. In Boston University’s theater department, a sophomore girl studying scenic design caught a glimpse from across the studio of a sophomore boy studying to become a theater director.
“I saw this really quite good looking fellow and I thought, Hmm, I wonder who he is,” Marian recalls today. “I made sure I got introduced, and well, that was that.”
The two both graduated in 1957, and upon graduation Russell was faced with a big decision. Should he accept a job offer of assistant stage manager for a Samuel Beckett play in New York, a first step toward fulfilling his Broadway director dreams? Or should he accept a position as a production assistant/cameraman for WGBH TV, a Boston-based Public station that sought out Russell for his theater experience?
In those days, the TV industry included cameras the size of refrigerators and on-screen talent with no experience performing. Russell was a catch—his background in theater made him desirable for this new field.
He chose WGBH, likely due in part to the fact that if he stayed in Boston he could continue his love affair with Marian (which became a marriage in 1958), but also because he believed he could work his way up in the budding television industry and ultimately make a difference.
Russell Morash (far left) shooting an episode of “The Victory Garden” in 1977.
Russell went on to produce and direct a number of television programs for WGBH, beginning his career with science programs and children’s shows like Science Reporter and Ruth Ann’s Camp and going on to specialize in DIY programming including shows such as The French Chef with Julia Child, The Victory Garden, This Old House, and The New Yankee Workshop, among others.
Often called “the founding father of how-to television,” Russell believed that the world could benefit from instructional programs teaching people how to improve their lives, from growing and cooking vegetables to building and fixing furniture in their homes.
The public was incredibly receptive to these programs at the time, and his shows kick started an entire industry, one that prevails today with the hundreds of cooking shows and home improvement shows still on TV.
Russell (right) directing an episode of “This Old House.”
Television’s “Chef Marian,” Woman in Charge
Marian experimenting with a recipe from Julia Child in 1963.
My grandmother wasn’t always comfortable in the kitchen. It was only when Russell began working on The French Chef with Julia Child in 1963 that Marian first started cooking. Russell would bring home leftover food from the show and instructions from Julia on how to prepare and cook it. Suddenly, Marian went from cooking her usual tuna fish casserole to preparing things like whole goose stuffed with prunes that were stuffed with foie gras.
Inspired by Julia’s entertaining personality and love of food, Marian and her friends began watching the show and experimenting at home. This marked the beginning of her successful cooking career as a television cook, cookbook author, and restaurant chef.
In 1975 Russell asked Marian to cook vegetables as “Chef Marian” on his show, The Victory Garden. Up until this point, the show taught people how to garden and grow their own vegetables, but with Marian’s added cooking segment, viewers could now learn how to prepare and cook what they grew. Her segment became a hit, and the show inspired Marian to write The Victory Garden cookbook series, the first of which was published in 1982.
Marian Morash (center) with Laine Gifford (left) and Julia Child (right) in 1983.
The same year that Marian began cooking on The Victory Garden, she and her friend Susan Mayer were approached by Jock and Laine Gifford, friends of theirs who wanted to start a restaurant on the island of Nantucket. The restaurant would not be a professional kitchen, but rather a place that would serve the simple and delicious food Marian and Susan prepared at dinner parties, which Jock and Laine often attended.
Marian agreed to give it a try, and the restaurant opened in 1976. Through trial and error, and by reading the cookbooks of Julia Child and Joe Hyde, Marian taught herself what she needed to know to be a chef and run a restaurant. She went on to run Straight Wharf Restaurant for 11 years and received the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America Award in 1984.
For a period of time, Straight Wharf had an all-women kitchen, aside from a young man who shucked oysters. This was unusual for a restaurant in those days, a time when many male chefs believed that women didn’t have a place in the kitchen, that women weren’t cool in the kitchen. Chef Marian defied the norm and proved just how successful a woman head chef could be.
I’ve always admired the ways in which my grandparents were able to pave their own paths, so I sat down with them one-on-one and asked them a little bit more about what it takes to be a pioneer. Even though I interviewed them individually, I was struck by how similar their answers were.
Russell and Marian in Russell’s garden in Nantucket, MA.
OW: What qualities does a “trailblazer” need to have?
Marian Morash: Curiosity is a big thing. You don’t get anywhere if you’re not curious and want to learn. I would go back to Julia on this one.
I remember once that she had a Cuisinart. The first food processor in the U.S. was the Cuisinart, and then gradually other companies began to make food processors. She had to get every single one of them because she was curious. Does this one work better than this one, can I make more with this one than that one?
That was the story of her life. If she was walking down the street and somebody stopped to ask her about a recipe, she would then get curious about what they were making and how they were making it and who they were making it for. I think that’s a very important part about doing well in life.
Russell Morash: Curiosity. One of the great things about Julia Child was that she was a curious person. She would ask you what your job was before she’d tell you anything about herself because she was truly interested in it and how you worked and what you needed.
OW: What’s one quality that your partner has that you wish you had more of?
MM: Confidence. He’s very confident. He’s very sure of what he’s doing. He doesn’t think about it and say oh maybe I should do this or do that.
RM: I wish I could cook. But she’s so good at it there’s just no point.
Reposted with permission of Oldways.
Thanks Madeline. That is a lovely story, and a tribute to two delightful and accomplished folks.ou could have full confidence that things would get done, and get done well and with style.
It has been a pleasure to know them both.
How delightful, Madeline, for you to explore Russ and Marian’s amazing contributions to television. What a treasure of programming in the ‘GBH and PBS vaults from those two. Thanks for the memories. I, too, was cast in that Shakespearian Imagination show, and managed to blow my lines – twice – in an era when editing tape was a major chore; Russ was not pleased. I knew then that I should never be an actor. I sincerely thank Russ for that. So nice to see the work of these two talented people – your grandparents – remembered so warmly. And of course we are still watching Julia, and This Old House, and all the others, 50+ years later! Standing the test of time.
I really enjoyed this, Madeline, especially the pictures.
I worked on the studio crew when Russ directed “The Advocates” (a co-pro with KCET that won a Peabody Award in 1970), and I was still hanging around WGBH when Crockett’s Victory Garden launched in 1975.
The original plot for CVG on the side of the building turned out to have been the location of a dump, requiring that all the dirt be sifted to remove a ton of trash. To what was left Jim then added massive amounts of peat moss – his secret ingredient – to create actual “soil” in which a vegetable could survive.
Better than anyone, Russ could find a personable, knowledgeable host and enable them to do their thing them in a well-paced, visually compelling way.
It was a privilege to be among the many staffers at WGBH back in the 60’s. “Can’t” was not a part of our lexicon. “Why not” was the standard. So much of what we take for granted as a television standard — began at WGBH. Russ is surely among the most talented, creative, courageous, inventive and successful production leaders in the development of television production. Many, unknowingly stand in his shadow. And where would Russ be without Marian? What a team! I still remember my first meal on Long Wharf.
Some of us are old enough to remember Crockett’s Victory Garden’s origin. There was a little piece of land outside of the WGBH studios on Western Avenue — adjacent to the parking lot and beside the loading ramp — and where the mobile unit truck was parked. Perfect! A remote in the back yard.
Thank you Russ. Thank you, Marian. And thank you all who dreamed and dared at WGBH.
Madeline, I worked @ WGBH in 80s. Your grandparents started the how to gardening & cooking show movement. One of my best memories was the small gathering that my team arranged to honor Julia Child when a conference room was named after her. The only guests Julia wanted were Russ & the crew!
Dear Madeline, your story about your grandparents brought back a lot of memories for me. I was the first production assistant for Crockett’s Victory Garden featuring the esteemed Jim Crockett. Crockett’s Victory Garden, as you probably know, was the predecessor of The Victory Garden. As memory serves me, one of my first duties was to go around to all the ‘GBH offices and “beg” for any extraneous videotapes since the budget for those first shows was only $500!
No Lord and Burnham greenhouse back then…but it was one more frontier that your grandfather, later joined by your grandmother, made a huge success. Fond and fun memories and I wish both Russ and Marian the very best.
What a beautiful story, and such a lovely photo of your grandparents, too! My days on the crew at WGBH were brief…before I became Traffic Manager there and later left for a career PBS. I never had the pleasure of knowing your grandmother, and I dare say I was never much more than a cable-puller for one your grandfather’s shows, but he was such a nice and talented person. WGBH (and public television in general) owes Russ a huge debt of gratitude for creating so many early successes. Thanks for the memories.
Great story. Good to see those I remember. Thank you.
When I was a freshman fledgling actress at BU Theatre School, I was cast by your father, Russell Morash, in two TV productions he directed for the series, The Shakespearean Imagination. I played Juliet and Perdita, and I remember that there was no costumer so I wore a discreet nightgown for at least one of the roles. He was a lovely man and so supportive of us young actors in the productions. In later years, I went on to work in the news dept at WGBH. All happy memories!
Madeline, thank you for sharing such an inspiring story. Russ and Marian truly are two-of-a-kind. It was great to read this intimate portrait of them.
Great story, Madeline. I worked at ‘GBH in the ’70s and ’80s and found it amazing what the early episodes of the Victory Garden could produce in such a tiny garden.