“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook” is a much-cited food quotation that has been attributed to television chef Julia Child (1912-2004). The quotation has been cited in print since at least 2002, but it’s not known exactly when and where the quotation was made.
Wikipedia: Julia Child
Julia Child (1912-2004), television chef.
Sourced
The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.
. Indirect quote on The National (CBC TV), Aug. 13 (The year is not given. Julia Child died on August 13, 2004, so this citation probably doesn’t indicate when the quotation was made—ed.)
Google Groups: alt.quotations
Graham Weeks
Jun 10 2002, 11:20 pm
(...)
The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.—Julia Child
Google Groups: alt.quotations
dougk
Jun 5 2003, 1:55 pm
(...)
The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.
—Julia Child
14 August 2004, Great Falls (MT) Tribune, “The Edge,” pg. A6:
Quotes of the week
“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”
Google Books
Women Know Everything!:
3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Brilliant Remarks
By Karen Weekes
San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books
2007
Pg. 112:
The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.
-JULIA CHILD (1912-2004)
Google Books
Backstage with Julia:
My Years with Julia Child
By Nancy Verde Barr
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2007
Pg. 64:
In response to questions about her opinion of a low-fat diet, she retorted with such pithy statements as “You’ll get dandruff and your fingernails will fall out,” and “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”
Serious Eats
Food Quotations
shoneyjoe
5:48PM ON 01/17/13
“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” - Julia Child
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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