Despite our great lunch at the Cristal room, we treated ourselves with another dinner out, as we could eat my lapin with calvados, apple cider and apples any night on the barge! La Coupole is one of the great Parisian brasseries of la belle époque’ and is the favourite of Celebrity English Chef, Rick Stein, [...]
John’s birthday lunch at the Cristal Room, Baccarat Museum. Michael has talked about taking me the Baccarat Cristal Room restaurant for a long time; usually our visits to Paris are too short. Now, we have time as we are staying for 3 nights in The Arsenal, the barge mooring, right in the centre of Paris, [...]
Armchair travel back to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence – the birthplace of Nostradamus! My friend and colleague in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Karen Stride, established her Gourmet Escapades in Saint-Rémy, last year, and is living ‘My French life’ as described by Vicki Archer in her book of that name! January is my reading time and I treasure every moment. [...]
Last Monday, the front of house and sommeliers from the Flower Drum cooked dishes, at Cooking on the Bay, designed to match Moët's new release 2006 Grand Vintage champagne. What a great cooking class; full of concentration, good chopping and cooking, followed by considered comments and discussions about the food and how it matched the [...]
La Madeleine, with 2 star Michelin chef, Patrick Gauthier, was the special highlight dinner during my 2007 stay at La Varenne residential cooking school in Burgundy. Coming back to Sens this time on the barge was a wonderful opportunity for us to book La Madeleine and for me to meet up with Chef [...]
Farmers’ markets are so colourful and such fun. They are now an integral part of many people’s lives as they provide fresh, local farm produce. In Australia there are now over a hundred farmers’ markets, with the first officially trading in 1999. To locate the farmer’s market in your area, there is the Australian Framers’ [...]
Shannon Bennett has recently opened his new, fabulous venture, The Piggerie, at Burnham Beeches in Sherbrook. He has grand plans which are in place and will be accomplished over the next few years. He has already planted a trufferie of 60 oak trees, ready in a few years' time, to supply his restaurants, plus a [...]
Travelling in France is one of my wonderful joys in life. I love the beautiful countryside, the delightful and interesting people, the history of the places we visit, plus of course French food and wine. On each visit I look forward to a few special dinners or lunches at some wonderful restaurants and brasseries, both [...]
One of the world’s most expensive foods is the truffle. Truffle hunting – called le cavage - was always one part of our week’s program at la Combe en Périgord. Nearby to our village of Les Eyzies, is a tiny village called Pechalifour, where Edouard Aynaud, the trufficulteur, lives on his truffle farm, Truffe en [...]
Rillettes are always very rich and these are for sure. I also love the pork rillettes which I now make with duck fat added to the pork stock. Interestingly, when we make and serve these smoked salmon rillettes, my guests and cooking school attendees love them and do not question past the smoked salmon and [...]
