It’s hard to imagine culinary legend Julia Child using a microwave, but in a 1990 Cosmopolitan interview, she admitted she “wouldn't be without one.”

While Child’s first attempt at using a microwave resulted in puddles of cake batter oozing out amid wisps of smoke, she made peace with it and relegated it to smaller jobs.

She used the machine only to “heat up cups of tea or melt butter,” and learned that it's a reasonable way to defrost things and cut down the cooking time of baked potatoes.

However, Child wasn't a fan of the funky things a microwave does to the taste and texture of veggies and felt it deprived her of the sensory response she got from stovetop cooking.