Many people who embark on professional cooking careers, or just interested in having an experience in a French kitchen, are interested in coming to France to do an internship, called a stage. I posted on Twitter, to find out how people got their stages in France. Here are some of their responses: “I walked in and asked.” “…sent in a cover letter, followed up, and…
…but that’s my kinda bakery! BabyCakes NYC (Website) BabyCakes Cookbook (Amazon) BabyCakesNYC (Twitter)
[Update: Bazin bakery has closed. In its place is Boulangerie Bo, which features different items, but is also very much worth visiting.] This probably isn’t the kind of bread that visitors come to Paris to experience, and while I like baguettes, I really, really crave breads loaded with grains. So when I was recently in Bazin to pick up my usual Bazinette aux Graines (seeded…
[UPDATE: Citizen Cake is now closed.] I feel like I deserve a majority of the credit (or blame…depending on how you look at it) for the cupcake craze. I was eating them decades ago, when no one gave them a second thought. And now, as someone who teaches baking told me, making and selling cupcakes in America is like printing money. I’m not much for…
Maybe more than Americans, French people do like marshmallows. A lot. You see them in bakeries and pastry shops, often in long strands, on display either in lengths, or tied into knots, often stored in apothecary jars. It’s a tradition that goes back, before the advent of gelatin, when marshmallows were made with mallow extract which was (and still may be) considered good for your…
As you probably have guessed by now, I’m quite different from the other Parisians. Aside from my less-than-stellar command of the language and a rather bizarre desire not to walk right into others on the sidewalk, I don’t buy that many baguettes. It’s not that I don’t like them. (Baguettes, I mean—although I like Parisians too…except when they walk right into you.) It’s just that…
[UPDATE: The original bakery mentioned here is now closed. However it was replaced by Maison Landemain, which has excellent croissants, and other pastries and bread.] Truth is, I don’t eat croissants very often for the simple reason that I don’t like to get dressed until I’ve had my morning coffee & toast. So having one is a relatively big deal for me, since croissants are…
If you’ve never had financiers before, prepare yourself for a treat. But even if you’ve had them, you’ve likely never had financiers from Kayser bakery. Each little moist button is the perfect taste of ground almonds and French butter. They’re available in a few flavors, such as dark chocolate, and nature (Almond). I can never resist getting a little bag of them at the bakery,…
One of the great things to do in Paris is to wander. I’ll often catch a film, search for a monument, of just mètro to a far-off neighborhood…then walk. The 13th arrondissement of Paris is a real cross-cultural quartier. Part of it is the quartier Chinois, where there’s huge and small shops selling exotic Asian fruits and vegetables, as well as unidentifiable cuts of meat…
Join me on my Spring 2026 book tour for my latest book, The Great Book of Chocolate
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