It may seem strange, but I am not a café au lait fan. However, a hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) in Paris with a beautiful pastry called an Ispahan – now that is a magical French experience. Pierre Hermé created the dessert for Ladurée, the finest purveyor of macarons in Paris …

Provence has a temperate Mediterranean climate, plenty of sunshine, and well-suited soil for crops such as grapes and olives. Below is a recipe from Moulin de Calanquet for lamb chops Provençal with olive tapenade and ratatouille, which combines local ingredients and traditional flavours into a delicious main course. The Moulin …

Blanquette de veau is a traditional French main course that an aspiring French cook should have in their repertoire. The good news is that it’s easy to prepare and deeply satisfying on a cold day. Walking along the arcade of the Palais Royal in Paris, we found ourselves hungry for …

If you like mushrooms, you already know that the most wonderful varieties are foraged in the wild. Perhaps it’s because they have the hearty, earthy flavour of their terroir. Or maybe it’s just that these treasures must be searched out and harvested by hand. I created a French-inspired classic using …

Are there smells or tastes that transport you (at least virtually) to another time and place in your life? If you say “pan roast” to me, I’m immediately transported to New York City’s Grand Central Station. Below the main floor, you will find the Grand Central Oyster Bar, is an …

Something about a succulent roasted farmhouse chicken pleases my whole family. Cooking chicken in a cocotte is a traditional French method. The French word cocotte denotes a covered casserole usually made from clay, but a Dutch oven works well for this recipe. Here is the original Simple French Cooking recipe …

Growing up, the beginning of winter was marked by the first pot au feu appearing on our table. My mother’s version is more traditional and typical of what you would find in most homes. It is made with different cuts of beef that are slowly simmered together. The vegetables are …

What is a daube? It’s a slow-cooked beef stew served in Southern France, especially Provence. When I look at daube recipes and compare them to other beef stew recipes or bœuf bourguignon, there are a lot of similarities, but daube has a lighter body, more like a soup. For me, …

As we enjoy the coolness of autumn, I think of the spent fields of lavender covering the Provence countryside, once vibrant, purply-blue, and fragrant fields. I wanted to reclaim a bit of that summer feeling by creating today’s recipe for Sablefish in Lemon Cream over Lavender Fettucine. I paired it …

When French immersion students stay with us, they are always surprised that my children love garlic confit, olives, and fish soup. So, sometimes we eat bouillabaisse at home. My cousin lives in Marseille and has a delicious bouillabaisse recipe shared below in English and French. In this article, I will …