The Only Mayo Worth Buying, According to Julia Child

As divisive an ingredient as mayo is, everyone has their preferred brand. Even if you only add a dollop to your potato salad or a light spread to your favorite sandwich, you likely still have one specific mayo you reach for at the store.

Sure, there are dozens of mayonnaise brands out there, but the debate always seems to come down to two: Hellmann’s vs. Duke’s.

While chefs—and many of our Southern home cooks—choose Duke’s, the case continues to be made for Hellmann’s. We know it’s Allrecipes’ readers' favorite mayo, and they’re in pretty good company. 

Julia Child's Store-Bought Mayo of Choice

It turns out that despite Julia Child’s love for homemade mayo, she didn’t turn her nose up to the store-bought variety. In fact, she used it in one of her favorite easy lunches.

Child’s “midday signature,” according to Dorie Greenspan (author of “Baking with Julia”), was a tuna salad sandwich. 

The few-ingredient meal was something Child frequently made for herself—and also her guests.

“That sandwich was pure comfort to her,” Child’s assistant Stephanie Hersh told Greenspan. “It set just the relaxed tone she liked.”

There were two distinct ways Child enjoyed her tuna salad: as an open-faced sandwich on an English muffin or a closed sandwich on two slices of Pepperidge Farm white bread. Other than that, the ingredients were always the same. 

“The tuna was packed in oil, and the mayonnaise was always Hellmann’s. There was salt and pepper, freshly ground and preferably white. There was sharpness from lemon juice and kick from salty capers and cornichons, those tiny French pickles packed in a brine that goes strong on vinegar. There was crunch from onion and (beautifully) chopped celery. There was always lettuce, usually a soft lettuce, rounds of tomato and sometimes more onion (Vidalia was her first choice),” Greenspan wrote in “The New York Times Magazine.”

Even though Child would likely prefer homemade mayo in some of her more complex recipes, we’re firm believers that store-bought works just as well. In fact, another one of our favorite celebrity chefs taught us that.

Ina Garten has always advocated for store-bought shortcuts—including Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Garten claims the secret to a perfect potato salad is using “good mayonnaise.” 

“By 'good mayonnaise,' I mean a good-quality store-bought brand, such as Hellman's or Duke's,” The Barefoot Contessa said.

Garten has said that “Julia Child was [her] cooking school,” so we wouldn’t be surprised if she got her love for Hellmann’s from Child, as well. It might also be why Stanley Tucci reaches for the mayo brand when making BLTs. The Tucc says he was “fascinated” by Child long before he starred in the biopic “Julie & Julia” alongside Meryl Streep.

We are, too, which is why we follow her perfect roast chicken recipe to the letter, and now, why we’ll never think twice when we reach for Hellmann’s mayo at the grocery store.