America's most beloved Thanksgiving meal costs more than ever. Here's why

Millions of Americans will spend their Thanksgiving hunched over a stove, juggling dishes in and out of the oven, anxiously checking a recipe propped on the counter. How long do I cook the turkey? Why is my pie soggy? Why isn't my gravy thickening?

Many will look to Julia Child, the celebrity chef who spoke of spending her holiday besieged by phone calls from strangers seeking answers to their culinary crises.

For this "utterly American feast", she said, she was happy to coach every disastrous amateur on the other end of the line. Child politely declined her guests' entreaties to take the phone off the hook or remove her number from the phone book.