I’ve just finished re-reading food writer Ruth Reichl’s book Tender at the Bone. Her mother was a truly awful cook and once poisoned guests at a party. A force to be reckoned with, when Ruth expressed a wish to learn French, her mother sent her off to school in Montreal.…
Adventures in Bread I love a challenge. For me this past year has been all about improving my bread making skills. To check whether I had the stamina and prowess to take this passion further, I decided to head off to France to work in a bakery for two weeks. …
Imagine you’re a young chef. Quite possibly, it is the first time you’ve been abroad. Visiting a French market can overwhelm the senses. Ingredients that are hard to come by in a Scottish kitchen are sold in copious amounts on the markets – seven different types of pears? How…
La galette des rois (literally the King’s cake) is the cake to celebrate Twelfth Night in France and one of my favourite French seasonal cakes. We eat it generally every weekend of January because it is a good occasion to celebrate with friends and family and one day is not…
At this time of year, we start thinking about vacations. Let me introduce you to a place that is the capital of cutlery and rather unexpected. A unexpected city We are walking through the centre of the old town in Thiers ‘the cutlery capital” of France. Thiers is located not…
Those of you who know me, will know I have something of an obsession for France. So you might quite rightly think the most evocative thing for me would be a great meal, the landscape, the wine, the bread. I have to confess that it is actually …. Orangina! This…
