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In France food is and always has been serious business. There is a reason that much of the Western world looks to France for its culinary training. A tradition that was perfected by the legendary Auguste Escoffier, who revolutionised the running of professional kitchens and materially changed the status of chefs. He instituted a clear kitchen hierarchy too, paying particular attention to sauces—those foundational elements of fine cuisine. Of course fine food is a global joy, but France remains a delicious place to explore, and we are delighted to have two cookbooks newly added to ckbk that will help bring France to your kitchen.
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Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini are the expat American mother and daughter duo behind The Cook’s Atelier, a French cooking school in Beaune, founded in Burgundy in 2008. In their family-owned business, Marjorie and Kendall’s aim is to share their great love of French food, and a philosophy that goes beyond the dishes they create. As they put it:
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“To us, being French at heart doesn’t mean you have to speak French or live in France; it means slowing down enough to enjoy the little moments of every day.”
Their journey from Arizona to France, their beautiful home, and their recipes, are all beautifully set out in their book French at Heart: Recipes that Bring France Home. This is a book to inspire and savor:
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“French at Heart, takes a more intimate look at our life at home, showing how to create simple, joyous family meals around your own table, in whatever place you call home.
These are the recipes that make us fall in love with France all over again every time we eat them”
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Revel in French food with their recipes for Summer Legumes Frites, Chicken Fricassée with Artichokes, a side dish of Mushrooms au Beurre, and then the fresh elegance of a French Fruit Tart.
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Pictured above: Olive Oil Cake from French at Heart: Recipes That Bring France Home by Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini
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Of culinary importance in Burgundy, thanks to his celebrated restaurant in Vonnas, Georges Blanc is a pivotal figure in modern French haute cuisine. He was born in 1943 into a culinary dynasty—at the family inn in Vonnas his grandmother Élisa Blanc became famous and gained a Michelin star in 1929. Her daughter Paulette continued the restaurant, and Georges inherited it in 1968, at age 25. It was there he worked to transform regional food into sophisticated modern gastronomy, and made the transition from classical cuisine to nouvelle cuisine.
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Ma Cuisine des Saisons, which presents Georges’ recipes spanning haute cuisine to simple family fare, is one of several books we have from Great French Chefs translated by Caroline Conran—herself a noted cookbook author. As the title of his book suggests the recipes are divided by season, to make cooking seasonally straightforward. They are also graded according to complexity, time needed, and expense.
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If you want to extend your time in France, explore our French bookshelf.
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A consuming passion for toum
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“Toum, which also goes by names such as tooma, toumiya, salsat toum, tumiyya, and muthawama, is a simple sauce typically made from garlic, salt, oil, and lemon juice. Closely associated with Lebanon and enjoyed throughout the Levant, toum belongs to a broad family of Mediterranean garlic sauces.” Amanda Carroll
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Born in Denver, and with an Iraqi father, cookbook lover and enthusiastic home cook Amanda Carroll remembers the Middle Eastern lemon and garlic sauce ‘toum’ was always on the table in her childhood. In her article Consuming Passions: Toum, she tells us about the origins of toum, and why this garlic-forward taste sensation remains at the heart of how she likes to cook and eat.
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She gathers recipes for variations on the classic sauce from across ckbk—such as this unconventional version incorporating sour cream and cilantro from Peter Kuruvita. And as well as the sauce itself, Amanda highlights a range of dishes and serving suggestions—such as this vegan dish of Cashew Cauliflower with Ground Cherry Glaze and Toum (pictured above).
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Ingredient focus: blackberries
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The blackberry (or bramble) belongs to a large group of fruits that also contains the raspberry. As the name suggests, blackberries are very dark in color—so deeply purple as to appear black. They are also sharp in taste, with an earthy sweetness when fully ripe. In the UK and Northern Europe, where they are particularly prized, they are picked during the relatively short season in late summer and early autumn.
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Wild blackberry picking from hedgerows can yield large bowls of fruit, that in season are often eaten raw—cream and sugar being the only accompaniments, depending on the sweetness of the berries.
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They are very good and versatile in a range of recipes, the most classic of which see them in combination with apples in a pie or crumble.
Explore our collection of 12 Ways with Blackberries and find Blackberry Jam, a Blackberry Negroni, and this Blackberry and Lemon Pavlova.
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6 of the best recipes for a Carnival at home
August bank holiday is Carnival time in the UK. So gather some friends, fire up the sound system, and cook some good Carnival fare!
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from Slow Cook Modern by Liana Krissoff
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from Caribbean Food Made Easy by Levi Roots
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from Bold by Nisha Katona
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from Salmagundi by Sally Butcher
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from So Vegan in 5 by Roxy Pope
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from Caribbean Food Made Easy by Levi Roots
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