Fright Knife: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Julia Child called this 20-inch-long knife, with its serrated, stainless steel blade and rosewood handle, her “fright” knife. She wielded it in several of her early, televised cooking shows to great comic effect, memorably tapping each of the “Chicken Sisters” with its blade (“Miss Broiler! Miss Fryer! Miss Roaster! Miss Caponette! Miss Stewer! And Old Madame Hen!”) in a 1970 episode of The French Chef. A self-avowed “knife freak,” Julia accumulated a large collection of kitchen knives, and this one became a favorite prop for getting viewers’ attention on television.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: knife
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 51.5 cm x 7 cm x 3 cm; 20 9/32 in x 2 3/4 in x 1 3/16 in
• used: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
• used: Entertainment, Film
• ID Number: 2001.0253.0549
• catalog number: 2001.0253.0549
• accession number: 2001.0253
• Credit Line: Gift of Julia Child
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.