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A Dangerous Bite. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Lebe.

And this is Ghost Town.

If you hear the name Julia Child, I'd imagine one word comes to mind, cooking.

And yes, Julia is probably best known for bringing French cuisine into America's mainstream, by way of her good-natured butter-promoting, laughter-filled, French-inspired

kitchen. But few know that before Julia Child was, well, Julia Child, cooking icon, she was something

entirely different, a CIA operative who helped the Bureau create a crucial recipe, not for an omelet, but for shark repellent.

Today on Ghost Town, I kid you not, we'll talk about the legendary Julia Child and her time in the CIA.

Julia Carolyn McWilliams was born in Pasadena, California on August 15, 1912, after a life in boarding schools playing tennis and enjoying her life as a Pasadena, upper middle class teen.

In 1930, Julia attended Smith College, where she majored in history.

She was an active college student, participating in student council, the Dramatics Association,

and at six feet two inches tall, was a basketball player on the women's team.

Julia at the time was not interested in food at all.

In fact, she said herself that she was horrific in the kitchen, but she did chair the

refreshment committee at the college's senior prom and fall dance.

Not looking into food as a career at all, Julia planned to become a novelist or a magazine writer.

After graduating from Smith in 1934, Julia wrote advertising copy for W&J Sloan, a furniture store in New York City.

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