Young cook gets a wonderful gift

Food has been a passion of Athtlin Parmenter for decades. The 93-year-old’s cooking skills are legendary around her hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. She has also been acknowledged more broadly; Women’s Day magazine gave Parmenter its Silver Spoon award in 1980. She was a fan of Julia Child and has collected nearly every book written by and about Child, including some autographed copies.

Recently, Parmenter donated much of her cookbook collection, except for the Child books, to the Vincennes University library. She thought she would keep her Child assortment, but then “she saw Sabrina Richard’s story in the IndyStar. Richard is only 11 years old, but her cooking is already famous in her hometown of Indianapolis and beyond. She was a contestant this past summer on Food Network’s Rachael Ray’s Kids Cook-Off.”

After learning of the young cook’s love of Julia Child, she decided to give her entire collection to Richard, including books and other memorabilia like a 1997 menu of Child recipes Parmenter taught at a 1997 cooking class honoring The French Chef’s 85th birthday. “If [the books] were to go out on yard sale, it would break my heart, for someone to pick them up, take them home and say, ‘Hey, look what I got for 35 cents,'” Parmenter said. “I wanted those to go where I knew somebody would take care of them, because I’ve taken care of them. And when you’re 93, you think about stuff like that.”