This week A Taste of The Past investigates the rise in popularity and power of TV cooking shows. Host Linda Pelaccio looks into the origins that have resulted in today's obsession with food TV, with hundreds of shows on a multitude of dedicated food and cooking networks, they find the catalyst in the impossibly original and witty Julia Child. With the help of NYU Cinema Studies professor Dana Polan, who has written a book about the subject, discover how Julia transformed America's views of home cooking and made us enamored of French cuisine. From her refusal to use any product placement to harnessing the power of PBS, learn about this food icon and the food media empire she help give birth to. This episode is sponsored by Whole Foods Market.

Kathleen Collins, author of Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows, talks about the past, present and future of food television.

On today’s THE FOOD SEEN, Sara Moulton, a once reluctant on-air personality, is now one of the preeminent chefs on television. From behind the scenes with Julia Child, to being Gourmet magazine’s in-house chef, and correspondent to Good Morning America, Sara has shaped the way of our American palate, both visually and viscerally. Feast your ears to THE FOOD SEEN on HeritageRadioNetwork.com, every TUESDAY at 3PM EST! This program was brought to you by Whole Foods.

"[The difference between American and French cuisine?] Attention to detail, the attention to excellence, and food expense...They were great recipes, and everything had to be just so.. I was very impressed by the way the French live and eat, and still am." -- Sara Moulton on THE FOOD SEEN

"When women would come to me seeking advice, I would say 'Go West, Young Lady!'" -- Sara Moulton on Women in New York City restaurants