The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 166: A Disaster in the Kitchen

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Seriously, her cakes were downright repulsive!

The ocean delights us as playful otters restore coastal kelp forests. The ocean teaches us how our choices impact even the deepest places. The ocean connects us. Visit Monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects. This is the way I heard it. At 29 years of age, McWilliams was in no way afflicted with the domestic gene. A self-proclaimed disaster in the kitchen, she had no desire to marry, become a housewife, or have children. What she craved was adventure. So when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,

she immediately volunteered for the Wax, the Women's Army Corps. Sorry, said the recruitment officer. You're too tall. Too tall, McWilliam said. Too tall for what? How short does one have to be to fight for her country? The recruitment officer had shrugged. Regulations, he said, you're too tall for the Army. So McWilliams turned to the Navy and applied to the waves. Women accepted for volunteer emergency services. How tall are you? asked the recruitment officer. 6-2, McWilliams replied. Sorry, ma'am.

You're too tall for the Navy. You've got to be joking, she said. No, ma'am, you're definitely too tall. Sorry. Frustrated but determined, McWilliams applied to the CIA, back when they were still calling it the OSS. The Office of Strategic Services accepted her application and found her to be perfectly qualified in spite of her height.

After a year of secretarial work, she was promoted to a researcher, and then an overseas intelligence worker with top security clearance. Before long, she was in the Pacific Theater, handling sensitive communiques between various allied leaders. Then, just as an exciting career began to unfold, Agent McWilliams was assigned to the Special Projects Division, where she was handed a list of ingredients and told to start baking cakes. Cakes, she said, you've got to be joking, Captain.

I'm not inclined to joke about the morale of our sailors and airmen, said Captain Coolidge. Haven't you seen the papers? It's a bloodbath out there. McWilliams had, in fact, seen the papers, and she understood the gravity of the problem. The war in the Pacific really was a bloodbath. Every day, a new attack. One more horrific than the next. But did anyone really think troop morale could be improved with thousands of individual cakes?

Apparently, Captain Coolidge did. Each cake must measure three inches in diameter. instructed, no more, no less, they must fit snugly into a wire, mesh box of the same size and contain any or all of the approved ingredients. Your task, he continued, is to determine the most repelling combination. Do you think you can manage that? McWilliam sighed and nodded. Not exactly the adventure she had hoped for, but orders were orders. So, Agent McWilliams, Williams began experimenting with the ingredients she'd been given and testing the results. It was difficult.

Time-consuming work and Captain Coolidge was never satisfied with the results. 20% repelling. Unacceptable. Try again. 30% repelling? Unacceptable. Try again. 40% repelling?

That's unacceptable. Try again. And so she did. Back to the. kitchen again and again searching for just the right recipe. No McWilliams, 50% repelling won't cut it. Try again. Finally, Agent McWilliams baked a cake that was truly repulsive, hard, small, and black. It looked like a hockey puck and contained an unholy combination of black dye, copper acetate, organic acid and decayed flesh.

When it dissolved in water, 60% of those tested were visibly repelled. Not perfect, but close enough for government work. And so, on April 13, 1943, the OSS announced a scientific breakthrough, a cake whose purpose was not to be eaten by people, but rather to keep people from being eaten. Overnight demand for the first government-issued shark repellent went through the roof. The Army wanted them.

The Navy wanted them. The Marines wanted them. For the first time, men awaiting rescue in the shark-infested Pacific Ocean had a measure of protection against hungry sharks, a small cake in a mesh box that dangled from their life vests and dissolved in seawater. Did they work? Did McWilliam's repulsive recipe really repel ravenous sharks? That's hard to say. What we do know, aside from some positive test results, is that McWilliam's little black cakes dramatically improved morale. And of course, we also know that this recipe was not her last because Julie McWilliams left the OSS and fell in love with a man named Paul, a sophisticated fellow with a deep love of the culinary arts.

It was Paul who introduced his new wife to French wine, French food, and most of all French cooking. In fact, with Paul's encouragement, the woman who was too tall to fight for her country reached New Heights on television, paving the way for Gordon Ramsey, Wolfgang Puck, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, Emeril, Lagasse, and every other celebrity chef whose name might ring a bell today. Such is the legacy of the self-described disaster in the kitchen, whose first recipe was so repelling, not even a shark would eat it. A cook who towered above all the others named Julia Child. Anyway, that's the way I heard it.

All right then, did you figure it out? Julia Child, please tell me you know who she is. Please tell me you're old enough to remember the legendary Julia Child. I hope, I doubt it as possible, but she was alive back in 1990 anyway, when I was having my own disaster in the kitchen. I like to think she was home watching. It's the way I talked about the way I heard it, the only spontaneous analysis of the only podcast

for the curious mind with a short attention span, wherein I explain to you the circumstances that led me to write the story you just heard. In this case, the explanation will be short and sweet. It's very simple. The anniversary I alluded to, in my introduction, of course, is the 32nd anniversary of Shark Week, unfolding next week, August 9th, I believe, on the Discovery Channel.

32 years Shark Week has been going on. I hosted it a few times back in 2006, where I was bit by several sharks in the course of testing a shark suit with Jeremiah Sullivan. Dragged I was to the bottom of the ocean and shaking like a tug toy. Very exciting day for me. I'm happy to report that the shark suit works. and Jeremiah is still living proof. That guy's been bitten so many times, many thousands of times. Jeremiah Sullivan, he'll probably make an appearance during Shark Week this year.

I will not, at least not visually, unless they run some old Dirty Jobs, Shark Week episodes, which they might. They've been running that show a lot. Thank you, by the way, for those of you who watched our Dirty Jobs Road Trip in July. That was great fun. Really enjoyed seeing the old. gang again and got a lot of nice letters and feedback from fans of the show. A lot of questions, too, about whether we'll reboot the franchise in general.

That, of course, remains to be seen. We'll see what kind of cards the universe deals us vis-a-vis this corona thing. But in the meantime, Shark Week does begin on the 9th of August, and I am narrating. I think the kickoff show, it's a look back at Air Jalls, you know, all that great footage of sharks coming out of the last. water, breaching, you know, flying into the air, usually with a seal in their mouth. I remember when they discovered that phenomenon, breaching and really started to film it with high-speed photography. It was a very, very big deal back in the day, and it still is.

So, God, I can't believe it's August. Unbelievable. Anyway, August 9th, it's another shark week. 32nd anniversary. I thought celebrating Julia Child would be a good way to ring in Shark Week. You know, that's really how the story happened. I wanted to write something for Shark Week, but I didn't want it to be obvious, so I googled sharks, and then I thought about repellent. You know, I tested some shark repellent too

with a guy named Doc Gruber in Bimini years ago. And so I started looking for stories about repellent, and then I found the whole Julia Child thing. And I thought, wow, there it is. That's the hook. A disaster in the kitchen who made inedible. cakes, shark cakes, shark repellent. Anyway, I'm rather proud of myself for that one.

Hope you liked it. Check out air jaws. If you can't get enough of the sound of me talking, I'll be doing that on the 9th of August. And I'll be back next week with more of this kind of thing. Have a good one. If you work in University Maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP

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The ocean moves us, whether that's surfing a wave or taken in an inspiring view. The ocean feeds us. Sustainable seafood practices bring the ocean's bounty to our plates. The ocean teaches us How our everyday choices, big and small, make an impact. The ocean delights us as playful otters restore coastal kelp forests. The ocean connects us. Find your connection at monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects.