July 2010
3 posts
1 tag
How to Save Rural France - TIME →
In France, life on the farm is changing, with farmers having to cultivate more land, more efficiently and at less cost
“But mostly this wonderful film explains – although that is clearly not its...”
– Kings of Pastry : Ruth Reichl
March 2010
1 post
“…tell me what you think about eating, and I will tell you only that you...”
– Le Fooding, the French challenge to haute cuisine. : The New Yorker
January 2010
1 post
2 tags
La Tour d’Argent and Taillevent Pass to a Third... →
December 2009
4 posts
1 tag
How to make espagnole sauce - chicagotribune.com →
Like any French mother sauce, espagnole is not meant to be served as is. Rather, it’s a base for any number of other, more complex sauces.
French Food for the Holidays - The Early Show -... →
If you really want to “wow” your dinner guests over the holidays, how about cooking some French cuisine? Clotilde Dusoulier, editor of the English version of “I Know How to Cook,” a staple for French chefs for over 75 years, shared how to create a traditional French holiday menu for your table.
3 tags
The woman who taught France how to drink - The... →
[Empress] Josephine was also a celebrated hostess and, although not a great drinker, a great collector of wine. The official inventory of her possessions at her death includes more than 13,000 bottles of wine from all over the world, from the Cape to Hungary to Champagne. Study of her 1814 “wine list” reveals something that may seem unsurprising but was, at that time, extraordinary....
2 tags
French Cuisine Today According to Le Fooding &... →
An interview with Alexandre Cammas of Le Fooding.
November 2009
14 posts
The Americanization of The State Dinner -... →
Despite our presidents’ homegrown tastes, White House state dinners have almost always been distinctly French in flavor. Even the Kennedys, who made a point of serving American wines on state occasions, never thought to pair them with American cooking.
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Organised crime mushrooms as French fungi trade... →
It is a great French autumnal tradition that furnishes an essential ingredient in some of the nation’s finest dishes. Yet the once tranquil pastime of mushroom hunting has fallen victim to organised crime as city-based gangs descend on the countryside in search of a fungus that brings quick, easy profits.
4 tags
Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse and More French Chefs... →
Plenty of chefs in the U.S. and France have opened bistros, brasseries and other relatively affordable alternatives to their Michelin-starred eateries. France’s master chefs now have taken the next step—designing and serving their own takes on fast food. Their interpretations are American-style lunches of salads and sandwiches, often priced as meal deals and packaged to be eaten on the run.
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Endangered Wine — Preserving a Future for Classic... →
Almost every wine aficionado knows about the divide between “modern” and “traditional” winemakers in Piedmont. But far less has been written about a similar clash of philosophies in the Northern Rhône. Both disputes date back to the 1980s; yet, the results have been very different.
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Ortolan →
dailyfrench:
Scott Simon talks with Michael Paterniti about former French President Francois Mitterrand’s last meal, which consisted of a rare — and illegal — dish of Ortolan, a bird about the size of a thumb.
3 tags
“Daniel Bulliat, head of the Beaujolais-Beaujolais Village association, told a...”
– Beaujolais Nouveau producers attack plastic tactic - Food & Drink, Life & Style - The Independent
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“A new pro-wine lobby with a budget of some 2m has been created to counter the...”
– French wine industry sets up �2m lobby to stop ‘vilification’ of wine - decanter.com - the route to all good wine
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Michelin awards Tokyo most 3-star restaurants in... →
“Tokyo remains by far the world capital of gastronomy and also has the most three-star restaurants,” said Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the legendary French food guide. Tokyo just pipped the City of Light to the post in the latest edition of the Michelin guide to the Japanese capital, with 11 eateries awarded the maximum three stars, compared to 10 in Paris. New York has four...
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Helping You Know Your Bordeaux - NYTimes.com →
A new Web site set up by the promotional body for the Bordeaux wine region of France will allow wine drinkers to get a little practice the night before, in the privacy of their own homes. On the site, people can post questions to a panel of sommeliers, who answer via video chats. The site, www.enjoybordeaux.com, is part of a €2 million, or $3 million, campaign by the Conseil Interprofessionel du...
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Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com →
Given the high price of wine and the enormous number of choices, a system in which industry experts comb through the forest of wines, judge them, and offer consumers the meaningful shortcut of medals and ratings makes sense. But what if the successive judgments of the same wine, by the same wine expert, vary so widely that the ratings and medals on which wines base their reputations are merely a...
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Critics doubt French wine-makers’ boasts of a... →
It is the harvest of the century in Bordeaux, with exceptional weather conditions producing grapes so fine that dogs are turning vegetarian to eat them. That, at least, is what the region’s wine-makers would have you believe as they lavish praise on this year’s pickings. But the claims have prompted wry smiles from French critics and drinkers, who recall that Bordeaux’s châteaux said much the same...
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Crémant - Wine of the Week - Slashfood →
Generally, crisp and celebratory, wines like cava, brut, Champagne and American sparkling wines probably won’t turn any heads if you bring them to an occasion that calls for bubbles. But Crémant, a French sparkling wine, can make a fashionable entrance. Although still a nouveau import to many areas of the U.S. it’s tres affordable. Most Crémants are priced under $20 a bottle.
October 2009
10 posts
2 tags
Who Says French Food Can't Be Friendly? : NPR →
Think of “fine French cuisine” and you imagine pressed linen tablecloths, a lineup of wine glasses, tuxedoed waiters ferrying trays of oysters or silver-domed serving dishes. It’s an experience that has persisted for generations: formal, classical and expensive. But the definition of the quintessential French dining experience is evolving, thanks in part to one Paris chef. For...
France, Land of Epicures, Gets Taste for... →
When McDonald’s France announced a plan to open a restaurant in the commercial mall under the Louvre, the scene appeared to be set for a new French controversy. The New World was about to strike at the heart of France’s most celebrated cultural symbol. The French would not take it lightly. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Owen Franken for The New York Times Some Parisians have not even...
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Ducasse accuses media of ignoring French →
Alain Ducasse, the famous chef behind some of the world’s top French restaurants, on Monday accused media of falsely peddling the perception that French cuisine has been left behind by other, newer offerings.
Pumpkin Eaters - NYTimes.com →
M. Farigoule looked at me and shrugged, his expression a question mark. It was clear that he was not familiar with Halloween and its customs.
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Alain Ducasse Means Gourmet Culinary Success - ABC... →
Every indicator points to Alain Ducasse having an extra helping of talent under his hat. He cooks dishes no one else could and serves them in ways no one else would. Share Chef Alain Ducasse reveals what tastes best during the Autumn. The results are almost always the same. Wherever he opens a restaurant, crowds and critics flip out. Ducasse comes by Michelin stars the way most people come by...
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Pernod Ricard sales down 6 pct in first quarter -... →
French wine and spirits group Pernod Ricard SA says its sales fell 6 percent in the first quarter as crisis-hit European drinkers poured fewer bottles of its cognacs, whiskeys and vodkas.
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The Associated Press: 1788 cognac, 1875 wine on... →
The landmark Tour d’Argent restaurant, which dates back to 1582, is cleaning out its 450,000-bottle wine cellar, considered one of the best in the world. It is putting 18,000 bottles up for auction in December, an event that has captured the imagination of French wine lovers.
22 tags
France and Asia Fall in Love Again - The Moment... →
Food October 2, 2009, 2:43 pm For the Moment | France and Asia Fall in Love Again By Alexander Lobrano Guilo-GuiloMeg Zimbeck Guilo-Guilo, one of the several Parisian restaurants with a talented Japanese chef. This week, the Paris food writer Alexander Lobrano, the author of “Hungry for Paris” and the European correspondent for Gourmet, joins the T table to share his thoughts (and tips) on...
4 tags
2009 in France - yet another great 9? | Tasting... →
Any analysis of the outstanding vintages of 20th-century French wine – 1929, 1949, 1959 and 1989 for red bordeaux, 1999, 1989, 1969, 1959, 1949, 1929 and 1919 for red burgundy – suggests that years ending in nine tend to have special properties. This year, 2009, looks, so far, set fair to continue this phenomenon in virtually all French wine regions.
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For the Moment | Finding Pearls in Paris - The... →
Hemlines may rise and fall, but one thing in Paris never changes during the fall, and that’s the heart-warming site of mustachioed men in indigo aprons and rubber boots shucking oysters on the sidewalk outside of the many restaurants that serve these much-loved bivalves. They are never better than they are between October and February.
September 2009
12 posts
4 tags
Fancy French Restaurants Serve Up Economy Meals:... →
If Paris is a moveable feast, it’s becoming a more affordable one, thanks to the economic slowdown.
3 tags
A Warning on Climate Change - The Pour Blog -... →
Climate change poses a critical threat to French wine regions, and Burgundy in particular, according to a new report from the environmental organization Greenpeace.
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Wines of The Times - Wine Tasting - The Languedoc... →
For years, I’ve heard talk about the transformation of the Languedoc, a region that for so long was best known for supplying the rest of France with cheap red wine that only occasionally rose to the level of mediocre. As the French began to consume less wine, and the competition for the inexpensive market has grown, Languedoc has had to undergo a painful evolution that is far from complete.
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Paris Kitchens Go Local - TIME →
The ranks of the locavore movement, which promotes the use of locally grown produce, have been swollen in recent years by green chefs hoping to reduce their carbon footprints. But in famously gastronomic France, the trend has been surprisingly slow to catch on. In Paris, where restaurant menus boast langoustine from Madagascar and caviar from Iran, few gourmets imagine it possible to compose a...
5 tags
A ‘French Chef’ Whose Appeal Doesn’t Translate -... →
Julia Child may have been America’s best-known “French chef,” but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
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AFP: The manga that poured French wine into Asia →
Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, a fashionable sister-brother duo publishing under the pseudonym Tadashi Agi, created “Kami no Shizuki” (The Drops of God), a phenomenally successful manga series that has brought wine to subway commuters across Asia, and sparked a wine boom.
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How the bubbly burst - The Independent →
For years, champagne has defied the slump in other French wines and expanded its sales, especially in China and Russia but also in one of its oldest and biggest markets, Britain. But now the champagne bubble has burst. There are over one billion bottles of champagne – almost three years’ global supply – piled up in store.
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French government to help wine exports -... →
The French government is promising export guarantees to help France’s wine producers struggling to keep up sales abroad amid the economic downturn, the agriculture minister said Tuesday.
French food is past its sell-by-date - Telegraph →
Sacre bleu. Some ros boeuf has claimed that British restaurants are better than the French.
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“French vintners have to take more account of the habits of modern drinkers if...”
– French vintners need to adapt to modern tastes | Lifestyle | Reuters
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Antique Dung Is Secret Element Behind Lure of... →
In Burgundy, for instance, homemade compost mixtures based on cattle dung are handed down from father to son. One recipe, according to wine consultant and historian Clive Coates, calls for droppings to be stuffed inside a cow horn, buried in the earth on a special date and dug up on another before being diluted by 10 million parts of water and applied to the soil.
Advantage France - Roger Cohen, Op-Ed Columnist,... →
The American healthcare debate is skewed. It should be devoting more time to changing U.S. culinary and eating habits in ways that cut the need for expensive care by reducing rampant obesity, to which anxiety, haste and disconnectedness contribute. France has much to teach, guts and all.
August 2009
21 posts
1 tag
French wine world stars in Rich List -... →
France’s top 500 rich list includes 50 people involved in its wine industry.
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“Cooking is the fulfillment of oneself, to share. To cook is to put your heart...”
– Michel Bras
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Wine, War, and Global Warming: gourmet.com →
an a direct appeal to our palates succeed where pleas to intellect and conscience have repeatedly come up short? That’s the hope of a group of French chefs, sommeliers, and chateau owners who last week published an op-ed in the newspaper Le Monde calling on President Nicolas Sarkozy to ensure that strict targets on carbon emissions be adopted at the UN climate summit this December in Copenhagen....
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Learn to Cook Like Alain Ducasse - TIME →
A tranche of wild sea bass with green-pea-and-rocket emulsion and mousserons des prés mushrooms sounds more like a three-star Michelin meal than a cookery-class assignment. But it’s exactly the kind of fastidiously prepared yet surprisingly uncomplicated dish that features on the haute cuisine course at celebrity chef Alain Ducasse’s new l’Ecole de Cuisine in Paris.