The secret sauces of chef Julia Child

Host Antonia Lofaso wathces LED Julia Child on the TV, as seen on The Julia Child Challenge Photo courtesy of the Food Network

In "Julie and Julia," Julie Powell embarks on a mission to cook the 524 recipes in Julia's Child's seminal 1961 cookbook in 365 days. Before Julie's journey was immortalized in a bestselling memoir and Oscar-nominated film starring Meryl Streep, it was chronicled as "The Julie/Julia Project" on a blog hosted by Salon. Now, Julie is back to break down every episode of "The Julia Child Challenge."

On this week's episode of "The Julia Child Challenge," we tackle our namesake chef's spy years! Well, kind of . . .

The extent to which Julia Child was actually "spying" during her years in the O.S.S. (the precursor to the CIA) is much debated. As guest judge Alvin Cailan points out, Julia did for sure work on a formula for shark repellant. I wrote about this – it's a rather delightful anecdote.