Whether it was her tall stature at 6’2”, her warbly voice, her exuberant personality, or her ease in wielding a giant whisk and carving knife, Julia Child made French cuisine accessible to her American audience in her groundbreaking television series, “The French Chef,” from 1963-1973.

Today, the famed cooking maven lives on posthumously through her many cookbooks, series reruns, memoir, the film “Julie and Julia,” and most recently the acclaimed performance, “Bon Appétit, The Julia Child Operetta,” coming to Vashon Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23.

The one-act operetta, written by American composer Lee Hoiby and directed by Jane Kaplan, stars Seattle actor Anne Allgood and is based on one of Child’s television episodes demonstrating how to bake a chocolate cake.

Accompanied by Mark Anders, Allgood sings the actual transcript in a comedic, opera style as she mixes the real ingredients for a chocolate cake using Child’s recipe.

The result is a grand recreation and display of Child’s engaging, self-deprecating, funny, messy and immensely relatable style of cooking. While singing about melting chocolate or whipping eggs, Allgood — like Child would often do — flings her cooking implements about, pulls out her readers from her apron pocket for a closer look at the batter, licks the yummy mixture off a spoon before plunging it back into the bowl and generally calls up the ebullient personality of the celebrated cook.

Both before and after the 20-minute operetta, host Julia Child Prud’homme, the great-niece and namesake of Child, shares memories of her beloved aunt — at times bringing her to life by imitating Child’s idiosyncratic voice.

The anecdotes portray a brave, kind and light-hearted woman — one who fastened a giant soup ladle to her car’s antenna so she could find it in a parking lot, and sent her family a Valentine’s Day card that featured a photograph of herself and husband Paul in a bubble bath with the line, “Wish you were here.”

Known for her passion for butter, and using lots of it, at a time when Americans touted margarine, Child would dryly remark, “If you are afraid of butter, use cream.”

Her witty quotes are yet another contribution to her legacy as well as her unconventional approaches — “Always remember: If you’re alone in the kitchen, and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?” — which became great fodder for parody.

Saturday Night Live actor Dan Akroyd’s lampoon of Child’s mannerisms and voice in his 1978 skit not only immortalized her style but, to Child’s credit, became her favorite video to share with dinner guests.

Child grew up in Pasadena, California, attended Smith College and during World War II, joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), after her height excluded her from the U.S. Navy’s WAVES. Asked to solve the problem of sharks setting off the OSS’s underwater explosives, Child cooked up various concoctions for a shark repellent, some of which are still in use today. It could be said that shark repellent became her first recipe.

It was her husband, Paul, who introduced Child to the world of fine cuisine. After her first true culinary experience at a restaurant in Rouen, France, Child went on to study and graduate from Paris’s famous Cordon Bleu cooking school.

Together with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, Child held cooking classes in her Paris kitchen, and eventually, the trio co-authored the best-selling cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” in 1961.

Her appearance in 1962, on a book review show, led to her first television cooking show about how to cook an omelet. “The French Chef” then debuted in 1963 and went on to win multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards.

With a recipe that includes both history and humor, “Bon Appétit” promises to serve up an entertaining evening. Allgood will bake a cake using Child’s distinctive voice, larger-than-life personality and buoyant nature; Prud’homme will add the icing with insights into Child’s life hidden from the public eye; and audience members will taste the rich mixture when they are served a slice of chocolate cake made by Vashon Baking Company, according to Child’s classic chocolate cake recipe.

Then, as Child would quip at the end of each episode of her popular show, it’s “Bon Appétit!”