Springtime Grilling
Welcome spring! Yesterday was its official debut (at 10:53 local French time, according to radio France Inter) even though I always thought it was the 21st. The date doesn’t matter because the sun knows what’s up, and so does the market. Everyone is running around in shirtsleeves (manches courtes) with their cool French sunglasses, […]
A Perfect Early Summer Grill Menu
As I prepared for an early summer grill class last week I pinched myself. Anyone who has written a cookbook knows just what I mean. After months of testing, tweaking, writing, re-writing, testing some more, editing, copy editing, agonizing, dreaming, there’s a book. And then there’s someone saying, “Please, please teach us how to grill!” […]
Amuse-Bouches, the Art Of The French Welcome
Amuses in the kitchen The amuse-bouche is the French answer to an appetizer. It can also be called “mise-en-bouche,” or literally “put it in the mouth,” and when I was growing up we called little pre-meal delicacies “hors d’oeuvres.” This latter term seems to have disappeared from the culinary lexicon which is a shame, since […]
Late Season Makes for Happy Meals
Everyone here – everyone being most of the growers I buy from – says we’re three weeks behind the normal season. This means that instead of jumping feet-first into the strawberries, those gorgeous harbingers of spring are trickling in. And in Normandy, where the soil is still cold, they are a pleasure yet to come. […]
Table Restaurant in Paris
What are the ingredients that go into making an esthete? I think Bruno Verjus, chef and owner of Table restaurant in Paris, probably has the answer to that, because he is one. His restaurant is achingly contemporary yet intensely warm and personal, much like the home of someone who loves to live there. Everywhere you […]
Amazing Asheville Class
I taught an amazing class to the most amazing group of people in amazing Asheville. Let me explain. Asheville has become a sort of “second home” for my classes and for me, as I’ve taught there for many years. It’s wonderful place to teach and be (thank you to my “family” there, the Loves) and […]
Radishes & Pink Martini
The other day an email dropped into my mailbox, with the subject line “You’re IN!” This was from my friend Timothy Nishimoto, who is the percussionist and a major singer for my home-town (Portland, Oregon) band, Pink Martini. He gets me tickets to concerts when the band is in Paris if seats are free; […]
