Blog Notes

Kudos!

A big congratulations to Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg for winning the IACP Cookbook of the Year with What You Drink With What You Eat. Out of the seemingly zillions of cookbooks that come out each year, to be recognized by your peers so highly is quite an honor. And just in case you forgot, you heard about it here first with my interview.

New & Notable Cookbooks

A few other notable cookbooks are out, including Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking, which has been getting well-deserved kudos. I plan to write up more about the book, including a delicious strategy for incorporating whole-grains in chocolates. And I don’t mean cakes, brownies and cookies, I mean chocolate itself.
Stay tuned…

Clotilde’s book Chocolate & Zucchini is on it’s way as well, and I’m looking forward to diving into some of her all-new recipes. Although I’ve already sneaked a peek, after the terrific write-up in the NY Times, I’m sure her loyal fans and a legion of new ones, will be as delighted as I am with her book.

I also couldn’t be more thrilled that Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book and Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book are back in print. Her fruit book is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks (actually, it’s perhaps in my top 3!) and the introduction to the new edition of the vegetable book is written by super-duper food blogger Amy Sherman.

FAQ’s

In other news, I’m putting on my Monsieur Grouchy face here, and I don’t mean like Mr. French Presidental Candidate. (Ouch!…that looked, and sounded, like it hurt.)

Although I love hearing from you, gentle and dearest of readers, I do ask that you kindly look at the FAQ‘s before sending me specific requests. There’s tons of information and links there from everything from planning your trip to Paris to my advice on favorite chocolatiers and lots, lots more. Although I try to respond to as many messages individually as I can, I generally can’t improve on the information already given there.

Also, I can’t answer emails or messages that don’t have a proper salutation. One suggestion when writing to someone, especially someone you don’t know personally, is to begin a message with the person’s name: ie “Dear David”

When I get messages that simply command me to forward information, I’m certain they couldn’t possibly be intended for me.

Chocolate Tours

I’ve just announced a new culinary tour taking place September 14-16, 2007 La Dolce Vita in Florence, Italy with my good friend Judy Witts Francini. It’s an entire weekend devoted to the best of Tuscany, including too-much gelato, shots of espresso, and an in-depth market tour with me and Judy. We’ll also visit Judy’s good friend, famed butcher Dario Cecchini’s at his new restaurant. Come join us for this fun-filled weekend!
(But don’t worry…I’m not eating the tripe sandwich at the market either…)

You can sign up at Judy’s site (above).

For those of you who missed this year’s Paris Chocolate Exploration Tour with me and Mort Rosenblum, the next one is planned for May 4 to May 10, 2008.

More information about these will be posted on my Chocolate Tours page shortly.

Upcoming Book Tour and US Classes

Thanks to those of you who’ve written asking me to come to your city to teach a class. My schedule is set-in-stone at this point, so if you want to see me—like those ill-fated lemmings tumbling off a cliff, you’ll have to come to me.

I’m teaching a slew of classes on Parisian chocolate desserts and ice-cream making in Texas, Northern California, and in the Seattle area and I’d love to meet as many of you as possible. Registration for most schools should be open by now and you can find exact dates and locations on my Schedule Page.

There’s a book party and chocolate tasting at Theo chocolate in Seattle that’s open to the public as well as a book event at Ici in Berkeley, CA as well.

Come join the fun!

Flickr

You may or may know this, but I have a Flickr page where I post random photos of like and food in Paris, including information about bakeries and pastry shops on occasion. Check it out.

…or don’t.

Spring in Paris

One of the most talked-about restaurants in Paris this spring is Spring, chef-owner Daniel Rose’s tiny restaurant which seats just 16 people each night. While Daniel presides over the open kitchen, the charming server floats through the dining room offering bread from a generous basket and unobtrusively refilling wine glasses.

Although the menu changes nightly, you can be assured of market-fresh food no matter when you go. I don’t normally do restaurant reviews here on the site, since when I go out to dinner I go to enjoy myself, (sorry readers…), we had a wonderful foie gras plate with shredded raw beets showered over the top and a succulent duck breast that was meltingly-smooth. There’s no choice so if you’re a finicky eater, keep that in mind. Of course, I was sure there’d be squid. Luckily, there wasn’t.

(But to the group of six of my compatriots who drank too much and talked so loud that the nice people at the table next to them who haven’t seen each other in months found it impossible to carry on a conversation and had to shoot them a dirty look once in a while just to teach them how to behave in a restaurant and even though your conversation was peppered with name-dropping and talking about the fancy apartment that you own in the fancy-schmancy seventh arrondissement loud enough so that everyone in the restaurant has no choice but to listen to you and your friends carry on about how fabulous they are and one gets so drunk that she steps on your shiny, brand-new Trippen shoe, perhaps next time you should lower your voice a couple of notches so other people can enjoy their experience too. Class doesn’t mean how expensive your apartment is, how much wine you can order, or how much you can show off to your friends how hip you are even though you’re not in the least to the rest of us. Class means good manners and consideration for others—which, of course, I know all about.)

The place is now on the radar, and a food writer was there preparing for a possible article in the US press, so go now if you can. And I promise if I’m there, I’ll keep my mouth (relatively) shut.

Spring
28 rue de la Tour d’Auvergne (9th)
Tél: 01 45 96 05 72
(Reservations obligatory)

UPDATE: Spring is now at 52, rue de l’Arbre Sec (1st)