[3][4] Brassart managed to attract many notable chefs to teach at the Le Cordon Bleu under her tenure, among them Max Bugnard, Claude Thillmont, and Pierre Mangelatte.
She seemed to think that awarding a student a diploma was like inducting them into some kind of secret society; as a result the school's hallways were filled with an air of petty jealousy and distrust.
Brassart lacked professional experience, was a terrible administrator and tangled herself up in picayune details and politics..."- from My Life in France, excerpted in The New York Times, February 19, 2006[8]In the 2009 film, Julie & Julia, Brassart was portrayed by Joan Juliet Buck in accordance to how Child described her.
Julia was tall and assertive with a loud, braying voice in English—one can only imagine what she sounded like in French.
Madame Brassart, in contrast, was petite, elegant, and aristocratic, and spoke impeccable French and English, as well as several other languages... From our point of view, Madame Brassart was much more sympathetic than portrayed in the film--she had a great sense of humor and could be very funny in an understated way ("Laughter was de rigueur with her," her niece said)--and her achievements as a culinary educator, much like Julia's, are indisputable.