My search for the perfect, most luscious and intense chocolate mousse brought me right back from France, to America, to Julia Child’s recipe. Although I have a few other chocolate mousse recipes in my repertoire, her recipe is a classic and has that perfect slightly sticky texture, that sticks to your tastebuds, then hits you with a wallop of pure dark chocolate flavor. This recipe requires a bit of whipping….
A couple of years ago, I was invited to do a demonstration at the Greenmarket in New York City. I jumped on the chance since I love any and all farmers’ markets, but as the date closed in, I got a message informing me that they didn’t have a kitchen. But they did have a single-burner hot plate. Could I make a dessert on that…
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one having wrestling with foreign languages around here. A couple of weeks ago I was buying some olives at an épicerie, and the woman, who wanted to practice her English, as she spooned olives in to a sack, reassured me; “Don’t worry. I will give you some brain with that.” Thinking maybe it was some odd French…
Pajeon, p’ajon, pajon, pa jun, pageon, jeon…I’ve seen so many variations on the name that I just decided to go with calling mine—Korean Pancake. Like the various spellings, recipes vary as well. Some have the egg beaten into the batter, but I prefer it spread on top (or on the bottom), giving me crispy, eggy edges. Other recipes load up on vegetables and other stuff,…
There are two rules that seem to be constant in my life. One is that I, like most bakers, crave anything with salt and vinegar. I’m sure it’s working around sugar and chocolate all the time that does it to me, but nine times out of ten, if it’s salty and if it’s sour, I want it. The second constant of my life in Paris,…
When I moved to Paris, I moved a whole ton of stuff with me. Plus one yellowed scrap of paper. It was a recipe that I tore out of some newspaper eons ago, for Goat Cheese Custard. I had high hopes for the recipe, enough to schlep it with me across the Atlantic and look at it wistfully every once in a while, guarding it…
An American pal said to me the other day, “The French like carrot cake. You just can’t tell them what’s in it first.” Indeed, I remember making an all-American dinner for some friends and when I’d mentioned “carrot” cake coming afterward, the look on their faces was like, “WTF?” One mouthful, and of course, they loved it. But then again, you could slather cream cheese…
Last week, I was making my weekly ice cream deliveries to the vendors at my local market, which was especially necessary since my freezer was super jam-packed and begging for relief. (Which you may have seen when I inadvertently bared-all in my kitchen slide show.) When I stopped by to drop off a pint to my pal Régis, who sells salt at the market, I…
Join me on my Spring 2026 book tour for my latest book, The Great Book of Chocolate
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