Moules Marinière from Le Saint Amour.

Is there an uptick in the number of French restaurants in Los Angeles?  I certainly hope so.  French food = comfort food.  At least in the case of Le Saint Amour in Culver City.  I haven’t kept track, and I don’t really know actual figures but it seems to me that there are more and more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles.  And that’s a good thing.  We’ve been so Italian for so long that I’m ready for the return of France.  The best recent example of this was my weekend visit to the very French Le Saint Amour, a Culver City restaurant that has been open for a year and a half.

Escargots de Bourgogne from Le Saint Amour.

French Restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York)

But before I go there, a bit more on French restaurants in Los Angeles, (San Francisco and New York too).  I just checked on Open Table and seventy-four French restaurants came up in a search for Los Angeles and Orange counties.  A quick cursory glance and I’d remove a number of them because they’re not truly French.  A secondary search of West Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Mid-Wilshire and the Westside gave me thirty-five results.  For those same neighborhoods seventy-three results pop up for Italian.

Not scientific in the least.  The reason I say there seem to be more French places: Le Saint Amour, Petrossian, Fraîche Culver City (French chef Benjamin Bially), RESTAURANT at the Sunset Marquis (French chef Guillaume Burlion), Church & State, Comme Ça, Bistro LQ (French chef Laurent Quenioux), RH at the Andaz (French chef Pierre Gomes), to name a few and not naming the many that have French influenced menus, or American chefs that lean towards cooking French food.  And then there’s Ludo!  French chef Ludovic Lefebvre who cooks French in a way no one has before at his pop up restaurants, Ludo Bites.  Café Stella is my favorite neighborhood bistro.  Sitting on the outdoor patio feels like being on a back street of Paris.

San Francisco has always been more equitable when it comes to French versus Italian, or maybe it’s just their natural hybridization of French food — it simply appears as part of the menu on so many Bay Area restaurants.  They naturally cook French.  They operate their restaurants in the French brasserie/bistro/café way.  I’m not sure if Zuni still does it but in my Zuni eating days (’80s to ’90s) they had an oyster station outside on Market Street, complete with shucker and all.  So very Parisian.  New York is the most welcoming to French food and French chefs.  Mostly, I’d venture to say, due to its size and numbers: a huge city, millions of mouths to feed.  All cuisines get good coverage there.  I’ve always felt that Los Angeles was slighted when it came to French restaurants.  They’re here, they exist but not in the ways they do in San Francisco and New York.

Les Frites from Le Saint Amour.

Le Saint Amour

Over this past weekend Robert and I were returning from a great day with food blogger friend Sean Sullivan (of Spectacularly Delicious)* who was in town from New York.  We’d dropped Sean off at his hotel, and were on the 10 Freeway going home and desperately needed gas.  Off at Robertson Boulevard and suddenly we were in Culver City.  Hunger.  Parked and walked along Culver Boulevard.  I wanted to find Le Saint Amour as I’d heard about it.  We popped in around six forty-five and a kindly French woman promptly sat us.  I assume this was Madame Herve-Commereuc.  The place felt so French.  Café.  Bistro.  Brass, lace curtains, French café chairs, art deco advertising posters on the wall.  The very French waiter sealed the deal.  Heavy French accent, no name (thank God), available not intrusive.  I knew I was in a French restaurant when I ordered my Steak Frites and he simply said “medium-rare?” as if there was simply no other option.  The food was quite good, straight forward, traditional French café/bistro fare.  It was just what I wanted.

Owned by Florence and Bruno Herve-Commereuc they recently hired chef Walter Manzke to revamp the menu.  Chef Manzke introduced a Plats du Jour menu, a different special each night of the week.  These are truly French dishes.  The night we were in it was Bouillabaisse.  Other current dishes include Choux Farci, Bourride Provenςale, and Filet Mignon Bordelaise. Monsieur Herve-Commereuc is a master charcutier and makes house-made charcuterie, and terrines.  Oysters, onion soup, escargots, bone marrow are among the many typical French dishes on the regular menu.  If I lived in Paris, this is the kind of neighborhood place that would be a second home.  I’d pop in on my way home from work, or for a morning café. I wish it was in my Atwater Village neighborhood so I could.

Now then: All you Los Angeles-based French chefs, put the word out to your French brethren to hie their way across the Pond, and our vast continent to our sunny Southern California shores.  We need more French restaurants in Los Angeles.  And for the rest of you Angeleno readers: Are there more French restaurants opening in Los Angeles?

Bon appétit!

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – A Menu of Parisian Bistro Classics at Le Saint Amour, Culver City, CA.  Consulting chef Walter Manzke offers a different Parisian bistro dish every night of the week (Sunday is Poulet Frit for example) at Le Saint Amour.  If you like classic French food like I do then get thee to Le Saint Amour for a plat du jour, or for something delicious off their full menu.  Bon appétit!

#2 – Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6 pm – 10 pm ~ Mo Chica’s 18th Tasting Dinner – 6 Courses for Japan Relief at Mo-Chica, Los Angeles, CA. Help raise money for Japan disaster relief.  Special tasting menu by chef Ricardo Zarate.  Details here.

#3 – Saturday, April 16 & Sunday, April 17, 2011, 11 am – 8 pm (Sat.), 11 am – 7 pm (Sun.) ~ Artisanal L.A. where nearly 100 local, artisanal and handmade vendors showcase their wares.  Support your local crafts persons, vendors and businesses.

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  *A post on New York food blogger Sean Sullivan of Spectacularly Delicious.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports. Cookbook Reviews: Southern My Way by Gena Fox; Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig; Small-Batch Baking for Chocolate Lovers by Debby Maugans; Maida Heatter’s Cakes, and Maida Heatter’s Cookies by Maida Heatter.

Image from iStockphoto.com

“I Was A Teenage Cheesemonger.”  Title of my autobiography?  Uhm, well, maybe.  Too early to say.  And I wasn’t actually a teenager.  I was twenty years old.

I hope this isn’t becoming too much of ‘me, me, me’ but I am proud of the few things I did do in the food and restaurant business.  Buying and selling cheese was one of my proudest food-related occupations.  Looking back on my rather un-storied food career I see that I was a jack-of-all-trades/master of none-type of food professional.  But I am proud nonetheless of the varied things I did do, the people I met and worked with, and the places I was able to go.

I stumbled into selling cheese; happily.  The year was 1979 and it was after I’d completed the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies program (cooking school) at City College of San Francisco; before cooking school I had returned from living in France, and I’d been head line cook at Sourdough Jack’s in Santa Rosa, California.  My first job after cooking school was working as lunch chef for a tyrannical French chef at a place called Today’s on San Francisco’s Union Square.  I didn’t last long.  The French chef was truly a tyrant: unreasonable, flew into rages, yelled and screamed.  I might have lasted two months but it was probably less.  One day at the end of a shift I quit by sliding a note under the chef’s office door; he was already gone.  I never saw him again.  Not my finest professional moment but I was desperate.

The Wine & Cheese Center

After the horrors of the French chef I got a 9 to 5 job as a foreign exchange teller at Security Pacific National Bank.  That didn’t go so well either but on the ground floor of the bank building was a shop: The Wine & Cheese Center.  It sold a huge variety of domestic and imported cheeses, had a full selection of wine, and did most of its business selling sandwiches to the office workers in the skyscraper above the store.  It was my entrée into selling cheese.  I learned the varieties, types, styles, what countries they came from, how to cut, wrap and display them, when they were ripe, and what they tasted like.  My time living in France had given me a nice exposure to French cheese.  This was an education in everything else — the world’s cheese.

Image from iStockphoto.com

‘Maître Fromager’, the Oakville Grocery

I suppose that’s a fair translation of “cheesemonger” although in France cheesemongers are true masters of the trade.   But first my apprenticeship.  When I heard that there was a gourmet grocery store being opened by Napa Valley winemaker Joseph Phelps in San Francisco I applied immediately.  When I started at Oakville Grocery the store had only been open for a short period.  Before my arrival the cheesemongering duties had been seen to by Clark Wolf, the store manager.  Clark knew (and knows) a hell of a lot about cheese.  Before Oakville he ran a small cheese shop on San Francisco’s California Street.  His enthusiasm for, and knowledge of cheese was (is) boundless.  He took me under his wing and taught me what he knew.  This was a true education in all the vicissitudes of buying, storing, selling, serving and eating domestic and imported cheese.

I learned how to cut open huge wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Emmental, Gruyère, and English cheddar.   Eventually I understood the many nuances of goat cheese, how it was made, how it was aged, and how what the animals ate, and the time of year can affect the flavor of the milk.  We sold bulk Normandy sweet butter shipped from France in large wicker baskets, probably a first for San Francisco.  I remember clearly the day we got in fresh Italian mozzarella di buffala that had arrived by plane that morning from Italy.  Another first for San Francisco.  We almost threw the cheese a parade everyone was so excited.  I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Clark for showing me the world of cheese, and to Oakville for an amazing learning experience.  Clark went on to have a very successful career as a hotel and restaurant consultant.

Image from iStockphoto.com

Friends for Life

I also met the most amazing people while working at Oakville; some of them are still friends over thirty years later.  I met chef Jeremiah Tower at Oakville, we’ve been lifelong friends.  One day a French goat cheesemaker, Marie-Claude Chaleix came into the store.  She’d taught American goat cheesemaker, Laura Chenel how to make goat cheese on her farm in France.  Marie-Claude and I became fast friends and I spent a week with her on her goat cheese farm in the Charente region of France.  She took me all over the region and introduced me to the area’s goat cheese makers.  I learned a tremendous amount.  Another friend is Kathleen Lewis, now a personal chef, who oversaw all the prepared foods at Oakville.  We lost touch over the years but she recently found me because of this blog.  She and her husband live in Los Angeles.

DDL Foodshow

My year long stint at Oakville led me to another cheese-related opportunity: to work with Italian film producer, Dino de Laurentiis in opening the first of a series of Italian-themed food shops, DDL Foodshow.  I was hired in 1982 to help him and his staff open the flagship store on New York’s Upper West Side.  When the store opened I became cheese manager, or head cheese buyer.  I placed orders, controlled inventory, was responsible for the display cases, sales and managing a staff.  It was an exciting time for me.  While I worked for Dino I met two more life long friends: Martine Rothstein who worked the cheese counter with me, and Lori Berhon who worked in Dino’s film offices, and at the store.  Before I started working at DDL I was lucky enough to go on a three week buying trip with the general manager to France and Italy.  While I was in Italy I went to Milan and saw the food shop of all food shops, Peck.  Amazing selection of cheeses, jaw-dropping displays.  I was inspired.  (I wrote a bit about here: Peck di Milano — my first ever blog post.)

Cheese became a part of my life and it still is.  I may not eat quite as much as I did when I was a cheesemonger, and a bit younger but I still eat it often.  The best part of having been a cheesmonger is the cheese knowledge I’ll always have.  I can go into any cheese shop and know what the cheeses will taste like, where they came from, how they’re made.  And for that I am very happy.

Recommended Los Angeles-area Cheese Shops: Cheese Store of Pasadena; Cheese Store of Silver Lake; Say Cheese; Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Recommended Reading: Cheese Primer (Steve Jenkins); American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where To Find Them (Clark Wolf); Culture: The Word on Cheese (magazine).

My Status:  Enjoying the gradual arrival of spring in So Cal and the last of the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, Southern My Way by Gena Fox, and Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig.

Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy.  Monica Sartoni Cesari.  Translated from the Italian by Susan Simon.  The Little Bookroom.  $24.95.  (378p)  ISBN: 978-1-892145-90-1

Having lived and traveled in France repeatedly over the years I know pretty well the regional differences when it comes to food.  Like what the specialty of a region is, or where a specific dish hails from.  Italy is another matter completely.  I have a general sense of the regional differences, north versus south, Tuscan, Roman and Sicilian.   Those differences also vary widely from village to village and province to province.  The longest stretch of continuous time I’ve spent in Italia was two and half months.  I spent that time in the region of Umbria — smack, dab in the middle of the country.  Food there was unfamiliar, and I could easily have used the wonderful book “Italy Dish by Dish” to guide me and answer unending questions I had about the region’s food.

“Italy Dish by Dish” is here to answer travelers’ (both armchair and mobile) questions about what is what when it comes to food, eating, cooking and dining in Italy.  The book describes more than 3,000 dishes found throughout every region of Italy.  Broken down by region each chapter is organized alphabetically by course then by ingredient and ends with an iconic recipe that represents that area; for example the chapter on Umbria ends with a recipe for Pizza di Pasqua al formaggio – a dish I remember fondly.  There are also listings for the region’s cheeses and wines as well as food and wine pairing suggestions.  A detailed glossary describes the bounty of the land and sea that makes up la cucina italiana while an index easily puts menu items close at hand.

The book is small enough to fit into a day bag.  Using it will allow the traveler a deeper, more connected experience to the foods of Italy by knowing exactly what is on a menu, what ingredients a dish contains and how it’s cooked.  Not only is this book handy for the tourist on a short visit but also for anyone staying longer: renting a summer house, studying, or living for an extended period, or even moving to la Repubblica Italiana permanently.  If the book had been available when I lived in Umbria I would have taken it to the local grocery store, referred to it for recipes to cook at home, and used it when eating in restaurants.  It will definitely be in my pocket the next time I travel to Italy.

Buon viaggio e buon appetito!

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1 – Monday, February 28, 2011 ~ 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ~ Street Food Mondays with ‘Antojitos de Mi Abuelita’ Food Truck ~ hosted by Bill Esparza and Evan Kleiman at Angeli Caffe, 7274 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 323-936-9086

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, beets and fennel.  Trying to bone up my citrus knowledge so bought a pomelo and some Sumo mandarins (aka the Dekopan in Japan), a new crossbreed of citrus recently introduced to the U.S.  Loved the Sumo, haven’t tried the pomelo yet.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin.

Image from iStockphoto.com

Once upon a time I was a line cook.  I worked my ass off.  And I really learned how to cook.  The place was called “Sourdough Jack’s.”  It was in Santa Rosa, California.  The year was 1978.  I was 19 years old and I had no prior restaurant experience aside from a summer job at a Jack in the Box.  The year before I had worked for a French couple in rural France cooking, cleaning and babysitting.  At the point I started at “Sourdough Jack’s” I was a self-taught cook.  Six months later when I left the restaurant to go to cooking school in San Francisco I was head line cook.  I knew my way around a professional kitchen.  I was good at my job.  I could measure the temperature of meat (rare, medium rare, well-done) by touch.  I knew when a piece of fish was cooked by sight.  I managed the tickets and the other cooks on a busy night without losing it.

“Sourdough Jack’s” was a seafood restaurant and extremely busy.  Each Friday and Saturday night we were “in the weeds” to use restaurant parlance from opening to last ticket.  Sue, the kitchen manager, took me under her wing.  She taught me what she knew.  There was no real chef; just Sue and us line cooks, and we did it all.   The prep, the cooking, the breaking down: everything.  Sue taught me how to cook large volumes of food.  The restaurant was known for two things: clam chowder, and homemade sourdough bread.  I became a master at making huge quantities of both.  Each table was given a hot just-out-of-the oven loaf of sourdough bread as soon as they were seated.  Before service I made vast amounts of clam chowder in huge, commercial soup cauldrons.  I also half-baked enough sourdough bread to get us through service.  I oversaw vegetable and salad prep.  It was exciting, and I loved every minute of it.

We were not cooking food that would have won any prizes.  I’m quite sure that now after years of cooking with, and eating  food made by the best chefs around I’d be appalled by it.  At the time it fit a need.  It was before the food revolution hit areas outside of large cities.  Our patrons were happy to get a well-prepared piece of fish, or a steak, a salad or clam chowder and our signature sourdough bread.  Jack, the owner, understood his business model well, and his restaurant was a success for a number of years.

Sue and her boyfriend at their bakery in Washington state, circa 1979.

Sue left shortly after I did to open a bakery in Washington state.  Her first love was bread and baking.  If I recall correctly the sourdough bread recipe we used was hers.  I lost touch with Sue and the other guys I worked the line with.  Like every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, we were a little family as short-lived as it was.  We cooked our asses off at work, we went out for food together after service ended, and we socialized together on our days off.  Sourdough Jack’s was the beginning of my career in food; granted one where I hopscotched around, left and returned to it, but a glorious start none the less.

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens, beets and fennel.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  My memories of Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. More The Local Reports coming soon. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Grilled Cheese, Please! by Laura Werlin, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

Julia Child wasn’t the only person to introduce America to French food.  Often when something is suddenly in vogue, it’s a combination of events that contributes to the cultural sea change.

René Verdon, June 29, 1924 – February 2, 2011

Chef René Verdon died two weeks ago at age 86.  I knew who he was.  I knew he owned a successful French restaurant in San Francisco called Le Trianon.  I may have met him in San Francisco when I worked at Stars restaurant in the early ’80s.  What I was reminded of while reading his obituary in the Los Angeles Times is that he was also White House chef during the Kennedy administration.  I was fascinated reading the details of his life, specifically how he ended up at the White House, and the influence he had on American cooking and eating.  There is so much more to that part of his story.

First Professional Chef in the White House

Verdon was the first professional chef to work in the White House.  First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy being a Francophile herself interviewed him in French.  As White House chef he was way ahead of his time: he cooked with the freshest ingredients he could find; he planted an herb garden on the White House grounds; he designed a new kitchen for the first family’s quarters.  He also broke tradition by serving as President Kennedy’s private chef.  During prior presidential administrations a housekeeper was in charge of feeding the first family.

Verdon was born in 1924 in a small French village, Pouzauges, in western France.  His parents owned a bakery and pastry shop.  Deciding he wanted to be a chef at age thirteen he apprenticed first at a hotel in Nantes followed by several apprenticeships in Paris and Deauville. He emigrated to the United States in 1958 and found work in New York restaurants the Essex House, and La Caravelle as well as the Carlyle Hotel.  La Caravelle head chef, Roger Fessaguet, recommended him for the job when the Kennedys were looking for a chef.

America’s Interest in French Cuisine

His arrival as White House chef ushered in a period of great interest in French food and cooking.  In an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2002 Julia Child said she was “lucky” the Kennedys hired Verdon because soon “everyone was interested in French cuisine.”  Child’s French food bible “Mastering The Art of French Cooking – Volume 1″ was published in 1961 the same year that Verdon started cooking for the Kennedys.  It all makes sense.  Becoming the White House chef put Verdon on the international stage.  Mrs. Kennedy was considered the height of chic.  She didn’t hire any old chef, she hired a French chef.  It was the early ’60s.  Naturally the rest of the country, and the world, followed suit.  All of this brought at least as much if not more attention to French cuisine as Child and her book.  Verdon actually had a bigger more popular stage than Child’s.

French Food in the White House

While White House chef Verdon became known for such dishes as chicken in Champagne sauce, and “incomparable quenelles de brochet” (according to Time Magazine).  President Kennedy favored Verdon’s New England clam chowder.  His first official White House meal was an April 1961 presidential luncheon honoring then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.  Verdon served a menu of trout in Chablis and sauce Vincent, beef filet au jus and artichoke bottoms Beaucaire, and meringue filled with raspberries and chocolate.  Verdon’s favorite state dinner took place in July 1961 along the banks of the Potomac River honoring the President of Pakistan.   He served “simple yet elegant” food that included avocado, crab meat cocktails, and raspberries in Chantilly cream.

I asked Chef Jeremiah Tower to comment on his friend, Rene Verdon, “A very sympathetic man who devoted himself to what he knew best, the best of classical and country French cooking and standards of service.  A very fine chef.”  Tower and Verdon were San Francisco restaurateurs during the same period in the 1980s.  Verdon owned Le Trianon from 1972 to 1987.

Verdon wrote a total of five cookbooks including “The White House Chef” (1967), “French Cooking for the American Table” (1974), and “The Enlightened Cuisine” (1985).  An unsung hero of American cooking, light years ahead of many of his chef brethren, and an integral part of introducing French cuisine to America, rest in peace Chef René Verdon.

Sources for this article: Los Angeles Times, and Wikipedia.

100 Miles Shout Outs! Local events, mini-reviews, and mentions of things happening in the world of food:

#1  – The Good Neighbor Cookbook – consider submitting your, or somebody else’s, good-neighbor story to the Meet This Grateful Recipient or Meet This Good Neighbor Cook features on The Good Neighbor Cookbook blog by e-mailing authors Sara Quessenbery and Suzanne Schlosberg at: cooks@thegoodneighborcookbook.com. Let us know if you do by leaving a comment below!

My Status:  Still enjoying winter in So Cal and the lovely winter produce: amazing citrus, kale, broccoli, collard greens.  Continuing to blog, cook, and eat.

I’m published!! My recipe “Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya” was selected to be in the cookbook: “Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.”  You may order it here.

Upcoming Posts: More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  A visit and tour of Ojai Valley citrus grower Friend’s Ranch. Cookbook Reviews: “The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook” by Rachel Saunders, “Quick-Fix Southern” by Rebecca Lang, and “Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy” by Monica Sartoni Cesari.

A galette des Rois. Image from iStockphoto.com

As I, or maybe I should say ‘we,’ ease into the New Year I thought I’d write my first post of 2011 as a type of continuation from the last one: Joyeux Noël.  An extension of the holidays, if you will.  The French do it so why can’t I?  The last post was all about the amazing Christmas eve, or réveillon as they say in French, that I experienced while living in France.  As I found out while living there, the French don’t stop celebrating the holiday: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and finally on January the 6th they celebrate the Epiphany — by eating a galette des rois!

The Epiphany

I also mentioned in the prior post that I am neither Catholic nor was I raised religiously so when I first heard that the galette was to celebrate the Epiphany I had no idea what that meant.  Now I do know, and for those of you who also may not know, here’s a brief explanation: it’s a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.  The holiday traditionally falls on January 6th but in France it may also be celebrated on January 1st, or the first Sunday in January.  For the entire month of January the galettes and gâteaus are found in pastry shops throughout France.  Celebrated the world over in many and varying ways, Western Christians use the holiday to commemorate the visitation of the three Magi (also known as wise men, or kings) to the Baby Jesus.

The Galette

Also referred to as ‘king cake,’ there are actually two versions in France.  In the south of France, it’s called a gâteau des Rois, and is made of brioche in the shape of a ring, flavored with the essence of orange flowers and covered with sugar and fruit confit.  In northern France it’s called a galette des Rois, and is made with puff pastry and frangipane, or almond paste.  The cakes are made to draw the three kings to the Epiphany, and each one holds a hidden trinket, originally a fava bean.  The person who finds the trinket (usually a porcelain, or plastic figurine of a king) in their slice of cake is crowned ‘king’ (or ‘queen’) for a day.

A trinket poking out of a galette des Rois. Image from iStockphoto.com

King for a Day

Since I was living in Alsace which is in northern France, we ate a galette des Rois not a gâteau. Of course, the children in my care were very excited about finding the trinket, and becoming king for a day.  Most households use a simple paper crown that the winner wears.  I don’t believe it was a school holiday that day, as I recall when the children returned from school we all sat at the kitchen table and sliced up the galette.  One of the children found the trinket and was crowned king.  I became a big fan of almond paste when I lived in France as it’s often used in pastries and desserts.  Once I tasted my first galette I was hooked, it fast became a favorite sweet.  Puff pastry and almond paste; a simple yet-oh-so-satisfying combination.  Just be careful you don’t chip a tooth, or swallow a plastic figurine.  But if you do, at least you’ll have the consolation of being king for a day.

A Louisiana-style King Cake. Image from iStockphoto.com

Even for Mardi Gras!

I should add here that there is a king cake tradition that takes place in Louisiana, and parts of the American south; a tradition that I growing up in California was unaware of.  The cakes are made and eaten during Mardi Gras not in celebration of the Epiphany.  However, the origins of the tradition can still be traced back to French colonists; and it seems to me that the ‘New Orleans King Cake’ is much like the southern French gâteau — a cinnamon-roll like cake interior with sugary icing, and traditional Mardi Gras colored icing and sprinkles on the outside.  There are also many variations of this cake throughout the region.  One rule is the same no matter what: if you get the trinket (usually a plastic Baby Jesus) you must provide the next king cake, or host the next Mardi Gras party.

Celebrating the Epiphany, and eating the galette, was a fun coda to a wonderful holiday season.  As I learned during my year in France, these holidays may have religious overtones but the most important aspect to them was being with family, (and eating, of course!)  My memories of my time in France are among my most treasured.

Before I sign off, and say Bonne Année, here’s a fun Epiphany, galette des Rois, fact: the President of France is not allowed to ‘draw the kings’ on Epiphany because of etiquette, as it would be improper to crown a king inside the Elysée Palace.  Therefore, a traditional galette without a trinket is served at the Elysée Palace for the Epiphany holiday.

*A recipe for Galette des Rois by Dorie Greenspan from Serious Eats ~ http://tinyurl.com/29o8edp

**Here’s a terrific post written by Cynthia Bertelsen of Gherkins & Tomatoes on the subject of galettes and gâteaus des Rois ~ http://tinyurl.com/36s358a.  Cynthia writes detailed and highly informative posts on French food history, and her site is one I follow closely.

Happy New Year.

My Status: Snow in the mountains and a lingering chill in the air.  It’s winter here in Southern California.  My mind is still on winter dishes; fun, interesting things like fondue bourguignonne, pieces of raw beef cooked in a fondue pot of hot oil.  Or a cheese fondue, those are always fun.  Then there’s the Swiss dish of raclette, set a whole half of a raclette cheese next to a fireplace, as it slowly melts, scrape it off onto your plate, then eat it with boiled new potatoes, and cornichons.  Or a choucroute garnie, or a cassoulet. Dishes I learned to make in France.

I’m (still) published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.’  You may order it here.  I am thrilled (still).

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Biscotti by Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti.

Image from iStockphoto.com

One of my favorite holiday memories is my French Christmas.  I was living in France, working for the Zundels caring for their four children, cooking and cleaning, as an au pair, or mother’s helper.  Throughout the year I lived in their home they welcomed me fully into their lives.  The winter holidays were no exception.  Christmas in France is an occasion.  Social, familial, religious if one chooses, full of festivity, food and eating.  Le réveillon is the crowning moment of the Christmas holiday.  “Réveillon” is based on the word “réveil” meaning “waking” as participation in le réveillon requires staying awake until midnight.  It takes place on Christmas eve, and begins with a meal that usually involves more extravagant foods than eaten everyday like champagne, oysters, lobster and foie gras.  The traditional dessert is a bûche de Noël.  The meal starts late, nine-thirty or ten o’clock at night, and is long.  Presents are opened after the meal, the children are allowed to stay up late.  For those that wish to, after all the presents are open, attending midnight mass is the final act of the evening.

Carina Zundel, age 6, and a Paris cousin amidst the spoils. Note the real candles on the Christmas tree!

My réveillon was all that it should have been.  As I’ve written before in other posts I lived for a year with the Zundel family in Colmar, a medium-sized city in the Alsace region of France.  Winters in Alsace are cold, wet and often snowy.  This Christmas eve in 1978 was no exception.  To me, a California boy, the cold, snowy weather added to the Christmas atmosphere.  The Zundel home was a large, four story house overlooking a canal.  The main living quarters included a dining room, a large kitchen and a nice sized living room with a fireplace; bedrooms were on the upper floors .  The Christmas tree was tastefully decorated with real candles instead of electric lights.  Family came in from Paris, the South of France; friends from the area were also invited.  The house was full of people, full of life.  Madame Zundel and I cooked a number of dishes together that were consumed over several days of Christmas celebrations.  I helped her with the réveillon dinner.  My memory of what we made, and ate, is fuzzy at this point but I am certain there was champagne, foie gras, and a bûche de Noël. I’m also sure that we did not make the bûche at home.  In France during this time of year every bakery and pastry shop has them available to purchase.

The four Zundel children I cared for: left to right, Carina, age 6, Grégoire, age 8, Nancy, age 9, Marc, age 5.

I wouldn’t consider myself a religious person, and I wasn’t raised Catholic but that evening I did join a few of the other guests at midnight mass.  Catholicism in France is an interesting subject to me as I see the French as a live and let live people.  Meaning if you choose to observe, please do so but don’t necessarily expect me to as well.  Yet in the center of every French town and village is a Catholic church, or most often a cathedral.  Large and imposing, they anchor the town and everything else is, or was, built around it.  Colmar was no different.  The cathedral sits in the center of town.  The Zundels lived within walking distance.  The few of us attending mass left the house at 11:55 p.m., full and sated from an amazing meal, and leisurely walked through the silent streets of Colmar as it lightly snowed.  It was the perfect end to an amazing evening.  My réveiilon was a Christmas I’ll never forget.

Rue de la Herse, Colmar, France. The Zundel house is on the left. Across the street Madame Zundel owned a yarn shop called 'La Lainerie.' A light snow was falling the day this was taken.

Me knitting! Madame Zundel owned a yarn shop so she taught me to knit. During the Christmas holidays, and all through the cold winter months, we sat before the fireplace knitting. I came home with a number of scarves.

Happy holidays and bon appétit!

*Sadly, and with apologies, due to time and other commitments I did not make the bûche de Nöel pictured above.  There are plenty of recipes on the Internet like this one from Martha Stewart ~ http://tinyurl.com/yz88ok3, or I also recommend the recipe in ‘Bon Appétit Desserts.’

My Status: 10 days of unheard of rain in California.  Wet, soggy and cold!  My mind is still on winter dishes; fun, interesting things like fondue bourguignonne, pieces of raw beef cooked in a fondue pot of hot oil.  Or a cheese fondue, those are always fun.  Then there’s the Swiss dish of raclette, set a whole half of a raclette cheese next to a fireplace, as it slowly melts, scrape it off onto your plate, then eat it with boiled new potatoes, and cornichons.  Or a choucroute garnie, or a cassoulet. Dishes I learned to make in France.

I’m (still) published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices.’  You may order it here.  I am thrilled (still).

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  More on my great-grandmother’s garden, and my California childhood.  Cookbook Reviews: The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Biscotti by Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti.

This post was also published on One for the Table.

Growing up my mother had the usual cookbooks a housewife in the ‘60s owned like the ring-bound Betty Crocker, and Better Homes and Gardens.  Books that were useful but hardly high cuisine.  My first cookbook was Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck.   I bought the book at age eighteen after returning from living in rural France for a year.  I was an au pair, also known as a ‘mother’s helper, and worked for a French family in the Alsace region of France.  My duties included caring for four children, light cleaning, and shopping and cooking.  Madame Zundel , an American married to a Swiss Frenchman, owned Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as well as all the needed American measures to cook from it.

I can say with absolute certainty that Mastering the Art taught me to cook.  Madame Zundel and I used it together.  She also taught me a lot about French cooking.  It was the highlight of my time in France – creating a menu, shopping for the ingredients, and cooking the family meal using Mastering the Art. When I returned to the States I immediately bought my own copy and have been cooking from it ever since.  It holds a special place amongst my cookbook collection.  I recently added Volume II by Julia Child and Simone Beck.   Those two books are my food bibles.  I use them often, and with reverence.  My experience of learning to cook in France using Mastering the Art started me on a food career both personal and professional that has lasted to this day.  One of my favorite recipes to cook from the book is Ratatouille.

For a link to a recipe for Ratatouille from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, click here ~ http://www.100miles.com/recipe-ratatouille/

Visit ~ One for the Table

Follow ~ Twitter.com/oneforthetable

Bon appétit!

My Status:  Fall weather has arrived to So Cal.  Cool, wet even rainy except for the past two days: summer has returned, in the 80s and 90s.  More cooking, eating and blogging on the horizon as always.

Shout Outs! (Los Angeles) I went to Bistro LQ’s Tuesday night Cassoulet ‘Toulousain” Dinner this week, and it was just like being in southwest France.  Being from Toulouse Chef Laurent Quenioux knows his way around a cassoulet.  Go!  You won’t be disappointed.  Every Tuesday night until December 28th.  Prix fixe at $35 per person.  www.bistrolq.com

News! I’m published!! My recipe ‘Chef Wally’s Baked Papaya’ was selected to be in the cookbook: ‘Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes, Photographs, and Voices,’ published on October 19, 2010.  You may pre-order it here.  I am thrilled.

Upcoming Posts: a write up on Jennifer Piette and Erik Stenberg’s local, sustainable grocery delivery service Out of the Box Collective.  Cookbook Reviews:  Mary Mac’s Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell; The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders, and Bon Appétit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild.

Gabrielle Perdrizet and me, spring 1977, ready for the Montgomery High School Senior Prom. Santa Rosa, California

I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  No, really, I did.  In 1977.  Granted back then it wasn’t the French Laundry it would grow up to be.  The French Laundry now owned by uber-chef Thomas Keller.  The world renowned French Laundry; a place where everyone who knows good food wants to eat at least once in their culinary lifetimes.  This past spring I was in the Napa Valley (where the French Laundry restaurant is located in the town of Yountville) and I went to the restaurant.  It was closed as I was there between the lunch and dinner services.  I didn’t have plans to eat at the restaurant.  I wanted to see the building.  I wanted to see if it was true; that I actually did take my prom date, the beautiful and very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet (see photo) to dinner at the restaurant before we went to our Senior Prom at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, thirty-three years ago.  It was.  I did.

Keller Buys the French Laundry

In 1994 Thomas Keller purchased the building that the current French Laundry is in.  The beautiful stone building dates back to the 1880s when it first served as a saloon.  When alcohol was outlawed within two miles of Yountville it became a brothel.  In the late 1920s it became a French steam laundry.  In 1974 the Mayor of Yountville, Don Schmitt, and his wife purchased the building and opened a restaurant naming it the French Laundry.  The name stuck and when Keller came along he kept it.

I went to high school in neighboring Santa Rosa in 1976 and 1977 during the time that Mayor Schmitt owned the restaurant.  I have no idea how I even knew it existed.  I may have read something about it in the newspaper, or maybe I saw it on a family outing to the Napa Valley.  What I do know is that once Gabrielle, a French foreign exchange student, accepted my invitation to attend the prom it only seemed fitting that we go there.  Yountville is almost twenty-eight miles from Santa Rosa; it’s over hill and dale, it takes close to an hour to drive to.  I think we arrived at the restaurant at five-thirty.

My mother let me borrow her fading powder blue V.W. Hatchback.  The car didn’t have a lot of power, we sputtered along as there were problems with the muffler.  We made it there and back.  I don’t remember what we ate.  To my young developing palate it was the most amazing meal I’d ever eaten — at least in my current memory.  I do remember that we sat at a table next to a window looking out on to flower boxes, or possibly flower beds.  I know we had a good time.  It was Senior Prom after all.  And I don’t have any pictures; we didn’t take a camera, it was before the days of photographing everything.

The 12 foreign exchange students who attended Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California, during the 1976-77 school year. The countries represented here are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Sweden (x2), Greece, Scotland, France (x2), and Denmark

All Things French

My introduction to all things French happened in 1976, the year before the infamous prom date, when at the age of sixteen I went with my French class on a week long trip to Paris.  It was my first time out of the country, my first time to Paris, and I fell in love hard.  I loved Paris, and everything about it, I still do.  It was an eye-opening experience that led to a lifelong connection to the country and its people.

There were twelve foreign exchange students during my senior year of high school, two of them were French.  My interest in all things French grew further as I came to better know Gabrielle and Amélie, the two French exchange students.  Gabrielle became my girlfriend and prom date.  So being the budding Francophile and wanting to impress Garbrielle, I chose a place that seemed to be French for our prom dinner.  At least it had the word French in the name.  I probably thought it served French food although now I can’t say if it did or did not.  No matter what type of cuisine, nor how good or bad it may have been, I have the memory of the experience.  That’s enough for me.

Me in front of the French Laundry, Spring 2010

Now to the Gap

Through my friendships with Gabrielle and Amélie I was introduced to the idea of working in France as an au pair, or mother’s helper.  I did it.  After I graduated from high school I went and lived in France for a year where I took care of four French children.  I returned home knowing how to cook French food, and speaking French.  The experience cemented my relationship with France.  It’s now like a second home.  It also started me on a path of cooking both professionally and personally that I remain on today.

So after my year in France I returned to Northern California and began my professional career in the restaurant and retail food businesses; it was San Francisco in the early 80s.  All was going very well.  I was working in top restaurants with top chefs.  Then I decided I wanted to work in the film industry which I started to do after graduating from the New York University Film & Television program in 1988.  I slowly moved into film and away from food.  I missed the advent and rise of a chef named Thomas Keller.  It was the late 90s and Keller’s star was truly ascending, and I kept hearing things about a restaurant called the French Laundry that Keller owned.

Photo by Jo Stougaard

I often wondered: is this the French Laundry I took Gabrielle to for our prom?  It sort of gnawed at me.  Could it really be the same place?  It was so famous now.  In the early 80s when I was working in San Francisco restaurants I went to the Napa Valley often but this was before the arrival of Keller, and his ownership of the French Laundry.  Until this past spring when I went to the area to attend the Cochon 555 event I wasn’t sure if it was the same place or not.  One thing I did know: while I was there I would be stopping by the French Laundry to see for myself.  I did, and it is, or was, the same place I’d been to all those many years ago with my prom date, the lovely, the beautiful, the very French, Gabrielle Perdrizet.

So it’s true.  I took my prom date to dinner at the French Laundry.  I recently told this story to a friend and he told me he took his prom date to White Castle for dinner.  (He went to high school in New Jersey.)  Where did you take your prom date to dinner, or where did you have dinner before the prom?

Bon appétit!

KCET Top 10 List: I wrote this piece for LA-based PBS station, KCET ~ ‘Walking and Eating in Atwater Village: A Top 10′

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

Upcoming Posts: Cookbook Reviews: Steak and Friends: At Home with Rick Tramonto by Rick Tramonto, Spice Dreams by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly by Joan E. Aller.

]]> http://www.100miles.com/prom-date-the-french-laundry/feed/ 18 http://www.100miles.com/onion-tart-or-tarte-a-loignon/ http://www.100miles.com/onion-tart-or-tarte-a-loignon/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:27:58 +0000 Charles Thompson http://www.100miles.com/?p=2152

Une tarte à l’oignon, or onion tart, quickly became a favorite dish to eat when I lived in the Alsace region of France.  In the late ’70s I spent a year there working for a French family as an au pair, or mother’s helper.  The region is fairly wet and cold for a good portion of the year.  The resulting cuisine is hearty and heavily influenced by neighboring Germany.  During the winter months making this tart and eating it hot from the oven with a green salad made for a most satisfying evening meal.  I made this tart often for my French family.  It is also available at many of the region’s butchers, charcuteries, pastry shops, and bakeries.  As a kind of grab and go item a slice or two was the perfect foil against oncoming hunger, or a great picnic item for long country hikes or bicycle rides — both of which I did on numerous occasions.  It can be eaten hot out of the oven, or at room temperature.  The French are less fussy than we Americans when it comes to packaging; whenever I bought it at a pastry shop, bakery or butcher they simply wrapped up the slices in waxed paper and tied the package with string.  The paper then became a de facto plate when it came to time eat it.

When I returned from France I wanted to recreate this dish at home.  I followed a recipe, in French, from a little tiny paperback book I picked up in Alsace: ‘Petit Recueil de la Gastronomie Alsacienne: 75 Recettes Simples’ which translates to ‘Small Collection of Alsatian Gastronomy: 75 Simple Recipes.”  I had the metric scale and measures to use; all I needed was to find a pie crust  recipe.  The recipe in the Petit Recueil calls for a pâte brisée which is a basic white flour pie crust.  I had just purchased ‘Laurel’s Kitchen’ and in it she has a recipe for a whole wheat crust which I tried, and loved.  Ever since then I have made this dish using her whole wheat crust.  You may, however, use your own favorite pie crust recipe.  For my French readers, and I know of at least one, Pierre of Pierre Cuisine, I have included the recipe en franςais.  I also left the metric measures in my translation in case you want to try it using the metric system…

Print Recipe

Recommended Pie Crust:  here is my pie crust recommendation ~ ‘Piecrust’ from Laurel’s Kitchen.  It also appears, and can be printed out, in the ‘Recipes’ page at the top of this blog.

Recommendation:  Let Me Cook For You ~ for my Marin County, and Bay Area readers.  My sister, Traci Thompson, has started a personal cooking service.  She’ll devise menus, do the shopping, come to your house, and cook for you and your family.  She’s an amazing cook and prepares ‘healthy homemade meals for everyone’.

Coming Up: International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC), August 27 – 29, 2010, Seattle Washington.  So much fun last year that I’ll be attending again this year.  Are you?

Upcoming Posts: Cochon 555 Napa, a write up of the amazing pork festival that I attended this spring. Cookbook Reviews: Steak and Friends: At Home with Rick Tramonto by Rick Tramonto, Spice Dreams by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly by Joan E. Aller.