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Cheese University (XXIII): Picodon
France’s Ardèche and Drôme regions are so breathtakingly beautiful that they both deserved an entry in one of these guides listing “1000 places to see before you die”. They give home to culinary...
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Cheese University (XXIV): Abondance
In the year of the Lord 1381, when the conclave was sitting in Avignon to elect a new pope, the clerics ordered 15 lumps of this cheese, made high up in the Savoy mountains. It was already famous back...
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Cheese University (XXV): Chaource
Today’s cheese is made south of Troyes, not too far from Paris after all, I very much like the Eyewitness Companions’ judgement that it “melts in the mouth like light snow”. That is true, actually, it...
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Cheese University (XXVI): Saint-Nectaire
Here comes another high representative of the rustic Auvergne region, I very much like the description of its smell by my colleagues from the Eyewitness Companions who call it “old, the smell of a dark...
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Cheese University (XXVII): Pouligny Saint-Pierre
In the world of cheese, pyramids normally don’t speak of exotic places but of comfy, cozy ones like the Parc naturel de la Brenne stretching in the middle of nowhere, not far from France’s geographic...
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Winter Pleasures
Today, after my visit at the street market not far from home, I couldn't help unpacking everything I had bought just to admire my great catch.
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France: Where you want to eat…
I've been out of Paris over the week-end, we've visited a dog breeder's farm in the Sologne region to find us a new flat coated retriever but our short trip happened to turn into a culinary excursion,...
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Bacalhau, Cured Cod, Stockfish: My Final Trial
Last night, I tried it again. Cured Cod, Stockfish, Bacalhau. It was a moment of decision-making. I would either create something alright - or never touch a Morue again.
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Lamb shoulders are for rainy winter days…
Don’t call a lamb from the lovely French region of Lozère just another lamb. It really is much more and you can taste it. Forget about those deep-frozen guys shipped around the world from New Zealand...
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A Perfect Day For Pot-au-feu
When I saw the dark grey clouds over Paris this morning, the idea of a heart-warming pot-au-feu was born right away.
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Nothing like French beef…
From time to time the animal inside of me wants to get fed, and then I take a walk to meet a great butcher in the Rue des Archives here in Paris and go for meat. For a slab of Fleur d'Aubrac.
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So close to Good Friday: Detox!
You can't run on Dunkin', beefsteak and French cheese alone, so from time to time it's detox time. And guess what? Even the French have learned that green stuff doesn't always mean bland food.
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Real French cooking: Let’s get to work!
I confess that I've spent half of Holy Friday cooking. I actually don't know whether that's considered a sin by our Christian authorities (I guess so). To defend myself, I would argue that it was all...
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Culinary killer: Mussels with a crust
I often think about how privileged France as a culinary country is. The two oceans alone - the Mediterranean to the South, the Atlantic to the West - are an endless source for excellent ingredients. I...
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Cheese University (XXIX): Mothais sur feuille
Let me introduce you to the Mothais sur feuille, a great French goat cheese widely unknown. It hasn't got its AOC yet but it should only be a matter of time. It's just too good.
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Get your hands dirty! It’s worth it.
The cured cod adventure continues. Some new ideas about how to treat that picturesque fish.
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Daurade: A noble fish and dish
The street markets in Paris will ruin me sooner or later, financially. But this morning, I couldn't resist to a perfect daurade that I turned into a simple and noble French dish.
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What is THE French signature dish?
Think Germany and sauerkraut, Korea and kimchi, Japan and sushi, America and hamburgers. Think Spain and paella, Italy and pasta, Russia and borschtsch. But what is THE French signature dish?
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French Terrine: Ramp up the big guns!
A home-made terrine makes the pride of each amateur chef. A poor man's feast in former times, it has turned into an almost ceremonial dish nowadays. Here are some basic rules for how to do it at home.
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Fourty shades of pray: French tourte
Cooking may be fun most of the time - but when you really go for it, it turns into hard labour. That is certainly true for the classic French dish called tourte, a bourgeois marvel of culinary...
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