This coming week is an important one for me. February 7th. The day when my cookbook is officially released.

Finally!

I couldn’t be happier.

My cookbook, entitled La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life, will be sold in numerous bookstores all across the country, like Barnes and Noble or Indigo bookstores in Canada, on Amazon of course, and in a lot of other gift and pretty boutique stores (hello Anthropologie, I am so pleased you are welcoming my book!)

And for a preview, visit this link.

In any case, for all of you who already have a copy, or will receive one soon, many many thanks for your support. You make a difference.

I know well that my book took its time to come out. After all, I announced it already in January 2009! But it was worth the wait as I am really happy with the way it came out.

It is ready. Cuit à point.

One of my challenges was to accept the fact that not every single one of my recipes would go inside the book (I know, Sara, this book would be so long…); It was also to refrain from wanting to redo every picture; and accept the fact that I would not have all the pictures that I wanted inside either.

We made choices.

I think they are good ones.

On Wednesday February 8th, I will have a book signing at a lovely boutique called Pod, in Brookline village, from 5 to 7 PM. There will be treats. If you live close to where I am, I hope to see you there.

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your interest in our Food Photography & Styling Workshop! We are opening up official registration today.

Here’s a little more information about our workshop:

• Student rate: $2,250 US
• Non-student rate*: $1,650 US (includes accommodation, same meals and drinks as those offered in the workshop). Limited spots are available.




*A non-student rate is for people who are not attending the workshop but want to accompany an attendee (ie a spouse)

Beside soaking in the French culture (hello farmer’s markets, and French village life!), and a lot of hands-on exercices to teach you food styling and photography (we’ll cover from camera basics, use of Lightroom and Photoshop, to lighting), included in the workshop are:

We strongly recommend that students who want to attend the workshop own a SLR camera, if their main interest for attending the workshop is food photography.

How to register:

Registrants will then receive an email (and later a contract to be signed and returned to us), and details on how to submit a $300 US non-refundable deposit to confirm their registration.

In case the list is filled, potential attendees will be placed on a waiting list.

Confirmed attendees will then receive a detailed (but tentative) itinerary, and more details about how to complete the full registration.

We hope to see you there! We are excited to make this happen with you all.

Béa & Lara

Bonjour à tous,

Cela fait déjà un certain temps que mon amie Lara et moi parlons d’organiser un atelier de stylisme et de photographie culinaire ensemble. Alors voilà ! Ca y est. On se jette à l’eau. Nous avons réussi à trouver une date qui nous convient à toutes le deux. Et nous avons trouvé un endroit magnifique.

Dans notre beau pays. La France….

Nous aurons davantage de détails dans les jours qui viennent, mais nous voulions partager avec vous l’essentiel de cet atelier:

Faites-nous savoir si vous êtes intéressés et nous confirmerons les dates.

On espère vous rencontrer très vite.

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while now since my friend Lara and I started talking about running a food styling and photography workshop together. Yes! It took us some time to find a time when it both fitted our schedules. Yet we had found an amazing place to run it.

In my homeland.

We will have full details available soon *but* today, we’d like to share the essence of the workshop with you:

Let us know whether you are interested so that we can confirm this time slot!

We cannot wait to meet you there.

I forgot to tell you on thing.

Back in early December, I wrote a cauliflower recipe for the Boston Globe. I had found beautifully colored varieties of cauliflower at the market and I fell in love. I bought more than I needed, but I yet knew I would find home to these jewels. They are irresistible, even when you don’t care much for cauliflower.

Because I am French, the idea of a gratin came naturally to me. So I prepared a cauliflower gratin. A light one. One where the vegetables are topped with a mixture of fresh herbs, ground nuts, crème fraiche (of course!), grated cheese and garlic. One that lets the vegetable breathe and lead the dance.

I simply love this recipe. I hope you do too. The recipe was published on December 28, and I simply missed to let you know….

“I am completely mesmerized by the color of the grass,” I tell Dan who is sitting next to me in his red Chevrolet pickup. The road is fairly bumpy and dusty but I don’t pay any attention to it. My eyes are glued to the scenery that slowly unveils as we approach the ranch where he and his wife Jill live.

The closest connection to any country store is an hour away. “And this is the last place to get gas,” Dan adds while pointing at a small shabby-looking gas station along the endless interstate highway that connects us to Rapid City. I cannot help but smile. Even if I still have no idea of what is waiting for me ahead, I already know I am going to really like it.

“It’s my first time in South Dakota.”

“Good,” he says with a friendly smile.

I like the way he speaks. The pace of his words sounds peaceful and quiet. They mimic the appeasing feeling that runs through my body when my eyes catch sight of the yellow rolling hills which surround us as we drive along.

“I cannot believe the weather here either,“I add. “Everyone had told me it was going to be so cold!”

All of a sudden, the long gray winter jacket, the woolen hat and gloves I am wearing feel inappropriate and uncomfortable. I am dying to change into lighter mid-season clothes.

“It can change quickly though, so you never know. It’s good to be prepared.”

I realize that Dan is right when, a few days later, we wake up to 20 F, wind and a light veil of snow covering the plain.

But the light. Oh the light! that colors the Great Plains.

Every day.

Over and over again.

I’ve never stayed on a ranch before. I’ve never seen buffalo before either. But deep inside, I know one thing: the week I am going to spend in South Dakota to work with Dan and Jill O’ Brien will be amazing.

Jill and Dan O’ Brien are the force and talent behind Wild Idea Buffalo. I am only arrived on their ranch, getting to know them more, that I quickly understand that their vision is not just about selling buffalo meat. Their goal is about making sure that their animals are kept happy in the Great Plains, that they receive the best foods, and that the environment is preserved.

They believe in a sustainable eco-system.

They believe in a better place.

And it shows.

I’ve come to teach Jill food styling and photography. And so during the entire week, she and I cook, style, and photograph food.

Jill has a beautiful smile and a generous laughter.

I love working with her in the kitchen. I love hearing her story.

When she tells me that she grew up on a South Dakota dairy farm, and that she learned to cook because this was what you did when you came from a large family, I cannot help but think about my father, his upbringing on the farm, and the long communal table in my grand-mother’s kitchen where family and workers would always sit to refill on hearty dishes my grand-mother had prepared.

As I feel curious to know more about her family, I keep on asking: “Did your mother and grand-mother like to cook?”

By looking at her energy and strength in the kitchen, I can guess the answer.

“Oh yes!”

“No wonder you are such a generous cook!” I tell her as I watch her serving us bowls of steaming buffalo stew that reminds me of my mother’s boeuf bourguignon. The food is so delicious that I close my eyes with the attempt to slow the moment down. I want to keep the taste of it in my mouth longer.

Jill educates me to buffalo meat. And to my surprise, I even don’t mind eating more meat than I am accustomed to.

“The flavor is really delicate. The meat has great character,” I tell her when, one night to celebrate Jilian’s birthday, she prepares a cut of buffalo tenderloin for dinner. The words “délicat et léger float in my head.

Each buffalo dish I eat leaves me feeling light.

To refill our energy and creative spirit, between photo shoots, Jill takes me to see the horses and chicken.

“I want to raise Araucana chicken!” I tell her, laughing, as she hands me a couple of warm blue and white eggs we’ve just fetched from the henhouse.

We take walks with the dogs. I particularly enjoy watching Henry-our French hunting dog as Jill enjoys reminding me–run freely through the fields and between the hills.

We observe antelopes and coyotes in the distance. We watch sun sets and moon rises.

Every day, I marvel at the sight of the blond grass. And of cotton trees set against bright blue skies.

“I really want to swim in it,” I tell Dan and Jill each time we walk or drive by a field–to which they laugh.

I cannot get enough of the oranges and yellows of the light that embraces the Great Plains every day at the same time, comes four O’ Clock. It has an intensity I’ve not seen before.

Dan takes me to see the buffalo herds by the majestic Cheyenne river near their ranch. I help him to feed the baby buffalos that he and Jill have rescued.

“These are only three months old,” he tells me as he points at small buffalo that are more red than the others. “You can tell by the color of their hair.”

“They are still frail but we are planning to let them join the older ones in a week.”

With Dan, I enjoy talking about writing too.

“I didn’t know that you were such an accomplished writer!” I tell him with admiration when he humbly acknowledges the numerous novels he’s written over the years.

As we chit-chat more, I soon find out that not only Dan is a talented writer, but that the French have also befriended him warmly. His ranch and admirable work with the wild buffalo have been featured in many French magazines, including Géo, my utter favorite when I was growing up!

I learn a ton over the course of my week.

I discover an American state with delightful landscapes that transport me to old cowboys movies once watched when I was young. Papa, tu adorerais !

I learn that life can be much simpler. Quieter. I learnt that when need be, you can always make do with what you have at hand.

I fall asleep while hearing the howling of coyotes.

I watch the moon rise. And the sun set.

I eat scrumptious country foods. I eat the best buffalo burger with homemade red potato chips. I dine from elegant dishes.

I make new friends.

And I return home with the recipe of a delicious Vietnamese Bison Salad.

Thank you Jill and Dan for welcoming me into your home. I cannot wait to come back to see the grass turn green. And to show P. and Lulu the buffalo, the Great plains, and have them watch a moon rise and fetch fresh eggs.

Lulu will love to meet you and pet the cats.

She will love to run freely on top of the hills.

I am convinced that she will really enjoy the taste of buffalo meat too.

Of course, when I returned, I could not help but recreate my own variant of Jill’s salad in my kitchen. Mine had zucchini and carrots, and I used veal instead of bison. It didn’t take long to become a real favorite.

They were P.’s words. I could not agree more.

I should have known that when visiting Jamaica, I would love the island. I knew it when, for the first time, I saw Jamaicans’ faces. When I caught sight of their welcoming smiles. When I heard the way they spoke. I loved the melody of their accent, and the way the intonation marking their words made their voice go up at the end of each sentence. It sounded like a happy melody.

“I like how you pronounce the word “questions”“, I said one day to our local guide at Prospect Plantation in Ocho Rios. Thin and not looking his age, he liked to share deadpan jokes which were irresistibly funny.

Before October, I had never visited Jamaica, but I had always wanted to.

It started when, at the age of seventeen, I traveled to Canada with a teenager group, and we met Nikki.

Nikki’s mother was French, his father Jamaican, but Nikki lived in Toronto, which made him Canadian too. Nikki was tall and skinny, with long dark curly hair and glasses too wide for his face. He was funny too. He was also always hungry and eating, and at night, after we’d slip inside our sleeping bags under the tent, he loved to tell us stories about Jamaica. Which, despite the fact that I was still young, piqued my curiosity and made me promise that, one day, I’d visit the island.

I finally did when, two months ago, I was invited with a small group of food writers to participate to a culinary tour of Jamaica.

It was exotic. Colorful and inspiring.

I took me a fair amount of time to gather my thoughts and decide what stories I’d share with you. So much was packed within five days. There were so many picture opportunities.

Perhaps, I thought, I should start with the story that happened the day we traveled to the Blue Mountains and our bus got stuck in one of the many sharp curves on the road leading to a coffee farm. It was irresistibly funny! And scary too.

Or maybe instead, I should write about the magnificent house and gardens that Robin keeps at Belcour Preserves, and how I adored sitting on the porch of her house to taste delicate foods and drinks she had kindly prepared for us–all of this while watching with delight a heavy downpour surrounding us. No wonder, I thought, that the trees and flowers look so happy here!

I learned that Jamaica has a strong food culture that deserves to be seen and tasted. I learned that, unlike other Caribbean islands I’ve visited before, locals grow various types of fruit and vegetables.

Thankfully, two months later, I am now finally ready to share the highlights from my culinary trip.

It starts with:

–Traveling the winding road which revealed magnificent views of the Yallahs Valley and led to Clifton Mount Estate, located at an elevation of 4300 feet above sea level. From it, we embraced the majestic view of the Grand Ridge and Blue Mountain Peak at 7402 feet which, as is often the case, hid behind a layer of dense mountain mist. I could not help but love the different local scenes we witnessed on the way: school children wearing dark blue school uniforms; colorful tin-roofed grocery shacks; local bars; clouds hanging around the pointy steeple of a white church perched on the flank of the mountains; lush dark green vegetation which witnessed of the heavy downpours the area receives regularly.

Lawrence and Richard Sharp, the friendly owners of the coffee farm who welcomed us to morning coffee with homemade baked sweets–hello banana bread!–taught us that, because of its location, Clifton Mount Estate is a premium coffee growing territory. With its carefully maintained garden, a paradise to playful hummingbirds, the old house–one of the few remaining Jamaican Great Houses–looks beautiful, somehow reminiscent of another era.

I learned that Lawrence’s farm is 75 percent organic, which means that only a few crops are sprayed with pesticides. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is heavily regulated by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica –assuring the trademarked “Jamaica Blue Mountain” designation, much like the French Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC)–Blue Mountain coffee is fairly expensive in comparison to other coffees grown elsewhere in the world.

–Sampling a humble and delicious lunch at EITS Café. EITS (short for Europe in the summer) is a charming open-air café located on the hillside town of Newcastle in the Blue Mountains. The eatery is run by the petite and lovely Robyn Fox and her father. Together, they operate the café, run Mount Edge guesthouse, and Food Basket, an enterprise selling to select supermarkets around Kingston (and by special order) herbs and vegetables they proudly grow on the farm.

There, I learned about French thyme (a variety I had never seen before), which Robin’s father was proud to have me taste. We also sampled Scotch bonnet pepper, an extremely spicy pepper that is traditionally used to season jerk chicken, giving the traditional Jamaican dish its unique flavor.

–Walking through the lush green gardens at Belcour Preserves where owners Robin Lumsden and her husband Michael treated us to homemade local foods and refreshments. Dating back to the 1700s, the lodge was originally a coffee farm. Today, Robin and Michael use it to grow tropical fruit and keep bees. The Lumsden’s 75 bee colonies produce Belcour’s Tropical Honey, a delicate, multiflora amber honey. They also make jams, relishes, condiments, and hot pepper sauce–all using the local produce available.

–Sampling street food–like pumpkin and crawfish soup, corn on the cob and freshly cut open exotic fruit–bought at street stalls found everywhere along the way. Hello avocado pear, guavas, guinep, June plum, jackfruit, papaya (Paw Paw), sorrel, sweetsop, soursop, and Jamaican mangoes, I loved you all. I am so thankful that you educated me to many varieties of fruit unknown to me before.

–Eating a lot of soups. Spicy soups. Pumpkin soups. I was surprised to learn that in Jamaica, pumpkin is common and eaten all year round. I was also delighted to find out that for Jamaicans, Saturday means Soup day. What’s not to love about a gathering of friends and family around a large pot of homemade soup?

–Visiting Irish Rover near Ochos Rios, the first authentic Irish Pub on the island. After working as a musician in Ireland for over 40 years, owner Winston Samuels decides to retire to his homeland where he eventually opens this surprising pub. Unique and well worth the visit.

–Watching how, at Scotchies (a rustic thatched-roof outdoors joint located in Coral Gardens near Montego Bay), the best jerk you can find on the island is made. In fact, I had never seen anything like this before: dozens of pimiento-seasoned chickens and slabs of pork grilling on open flames. I learned that it’s the smoke which gives the flavor to the meat. With jerk, we enjoyed sides like sliced, roasted breadfruit and yam; rice and peas (incidentally I learned that this translates as rice and beans) and festival (deep-fried cornmeal dumplings).

–Eating a piece of freshly cut-open coconut sprinkled with brown sugar. So simple. So good.

–Traveling to Ochos Rios to discover exquisite beaches and swim in crystal clear turquoise waters by late afternoon before heading out for dinner.

–Watching a beautiful rainbow from my room at Sandals resort in Ochos Rios.

–Enjoying a traditional Jamaican breakfast. Who knew I would enjoy eating ackee and salted fish (from ackee fruit and salt cod), with rice and Callaloo, and boiled green bananas so early in the morning? I really did!

–Meeting lots of goats along the way.

–Sampling rum. Bananas. Banana bread.

And, with the head filled with delicious memories (and the suitcase with local treats), return home inspired to prepare seasonal pumpkin soup. And bake my own banana bread.

To celebrate the foods I sampled, and prolong the many special moments I was lucky to spent amongst Jamaicans.

Invariably, that’s always what traveling to new places does to me.

To you too?

If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you know that, about one month and a half ago, I launched the presale of my cookbook, La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life.

I recently reflected on the making of the book, realizing that I didn’t talk a lot about the process involved to complete the project. In view of this, I thought that it’d be nice to share tidbits with you today.

Such as tell you that, unlike perhaps what you might have thought, there weren’t roses all the way. Like with every life process, there were bumps and uncertainties. Delays. A lot of going back and forth. Redoing. Rewriting. I had a lot of work in my hands since, while writing, styling and photographing the book, I was also learning to become a mother–oh yes, do you remember that I started my book project when I was pregnant with Lulu? On Christmas day, she will turn three, so this gives you an indication of the time involved in the making of my book.

To my surprise, I was told it was completely normal.

I’ve been lucky though. During the months and years, I constantly received support and encouragement from Sara, my editor, and Shambhala Publications Inc., my publishing house. My book was going to be part of Roost Books, a line of books focusing on everyday activities that nourish and enrich our lives–they published Amanda Soule‘s books too (from the popular blog Soule Mama).

What I want to tell you today is that I am very proud of the result. Of the style and feel of my book, the design and quality of the images printed inside. It’s a highly illustrated book. It’s an intimate book. And I really think that it turned out beautifully. It has the feel that this blog has–this is just what I had been dreaming about all along.

On December 10th, I will be having my first book signing in Boston. I am delighted. Excited. Feeling shy and nervous too. All of it.

The lovely Maggie from Eat Boutique kindly invited me to be part of the Holiday Local Market held at Made in Fort Point. There will be yummy food (check the list of food makers) and other cookbook authors present, such as Judy Rosenberg and Erin Buyers Murray. The event is free. I am sure that it will be fun and filled with lots of interesting people. I will be there from 1 to 3 PM, with some food, books and my pen. So I really hope that, if you live in the Boston area, or are willing to travel, I will finally get a chance to meet some of you. That’s what makes the whole experience even more real. And human.

Non?

Also, I would like to thank each of you who kindly emailed me with feedback, or tweeted, about the book. Each one of your messages is special.

Alors, un grand merci !

I took these pictures right before it snowed.

Yes.

Not only a little touch of snow.

But enough to cover hills and gardens and roofs and roads and make us imagine we were in the depth of winter. Enough to damage trees and deprive a lot of households from power. It came quickly. Unexpected.

When we woke up on Sunday night and opened the curtains of our bedroom, Lulu took a peek outside and exclaimed:

“Wow, maman, regarde la neige !”

Everything outside was painted white: trees, garden, roof of neighboring houses, Lulu’s bike and sandbox. It felt quiet and peaceful. Without a sound. Without a soul outside beside the adventurous squirrel hopping on to a fallen branch.

As if nothing had happened.

It was beautiful.

But I felt for the farmers, thinking that this was obviously going to affect them in a bad way.

On Friday, I went to the farmer’s market downtown. I am thankful now that I did. I wish I had bought even more to support the farmers. To tell them how precious what they do is. I will miss them during the winter.

I was so pleased to still find a wide selection of scrumptious-looking root vegetables. They were more colorful and beautiful the ones than the others. I knew that I would rub them simply with garlic and thyme, adding perhaps coriander or cumin. Then, I’d roast them, so that my vegetable dish would reveal the taste of each vegetable while offering a patchwork of cheerful colors.

I left the market with my basket filled with radishes of different types, turnips and carrots of various colors, red and yellow and pink baby beets, celeriac and apples, fresh ginger and garlic.

They looked so pretty together in my basket that they made me feel giddy.

I used half of them in a roasted vegetable dish I cooked and served to accompany our lunch with friends on Sunday. And with the apples, I prepared Apple verrines–a recipe from my cookbook–which was the dessert that sealed our meal.

We laughed a lot. Lulu dressed up like a butterfly. She was beaming. She kept talking about the ladybug girl outfit she was going to wear to school.

We almost forgot about the snow.

But when everyone had left and the kitchen was cleaned, Lulu and I walked to the park and ran in the snow. Despite the sun, the park was almost empty. She was disappointed that she could not use the slide. But instead, we enjoyed looking at the footprints our boots left in the snow.

“Aujourd’hui, c’est un jour particulier,” (Today is an exceptional day) I told her as we walked back, holding hands. “La neige est arrivée tôt,” (The snow came early) I went on.

“Aujourd’hui, c’est un jour particulier,” she repeated while, once again, looking down at the footprints her boots were making in the snow.

Often, things in life seem to happen in a series. Don’t you agree? Good or bad. It’s part of the cycle of life, and it’s funny to observe how it works.

For me these days, it’s all about books. Great ones.

Like this beautiful crafts book, called Handmade Zakka and Craft by Tuesday. All in Japanese. In its looks. In its language.

It happened quickly and spontaneously.

In the same way Jo approached and asked me to contribute to her book, Tomo Togawa in Japan asked whether I’d be willing to contribute to the book that he and his wife Chiyo, a graphic designer, were going to write. They are known as Tuesday.

I said Yes. Because I loved their style and approach to design. Because I love Japan. And names like Lotta Jansdotter, Yumiko Sekine, Marisa Shimamoto, and Tetsushi Inoue & Kristina Detwiller. All inspiring me.

Tomo’s idea was to incorporate snapshots of eight artists, with each one of us showcasing our craft, inside the book. In the same style Yumiko’s Around Fog Linen book–Tomo designed it–looked.

Tuesday‘s book is just lovely: Light, fresh and clean. Somehow looking to me like a blend of Japanese and Scandinavian styles.

Inside the book, you’ll find inspiring sources for all sorts of crafty design ideas: whether it’s using paper and fabrics to create cards, tree ornaments, clothes, pillow. Their book is really for anyone who likes to create beautiful things for the home. For adults and children alike.

My contribution to Tuesday’s book was my Millet with steamed spring greens and its lemon vinaigrette recipe, along with the following recipe for these Chocolate and Hazelnut Financiers.

I cannot help it. I love financiers. Of all flavors. Shaped like a muffin or a rectangular. Baked with chocolate; vanilla; almonds or hazelnuts.

Or even pistachios and aromas of cardamom, a recipe you’ll find inside my cookbook. I baked two batches of these over the course of the past two days. Every single one of them is gone–granted we had crowds at home.

But ahhhhh these chocolate financiers…with fragrant hazelnut and the earthy aroma of amaranth.

Yes.

Chocolate always makes us happy.

Chocolate always makes Lulu happy.

It’s a family matter. One that keeps us snug and cozy together. In chocolate haven.

“We are chocolate and financiers addicts!” we like to sing in chorus.

Perhaps you can become one of us too.

And join in.

Thank you Tomo for thinking about including snapshots of what I do inside your book. I am honored to be amongst such a great crowd of people.

Below is the list of the eight artists featured in Handmade Zakka and Craft:

Lotta Jansdotter : Surface Designer (Brooklyn, U.S.A.)
Jenny Hallengren : Photographer (Stockholm, Sweden)
Meiko Takechi Arquillos : Photographer (Los Angeles, U.S.A.)
Tetsushi Inoue & Kristina Detwiller : Furniture & Textile Designer (Oita, Japan)
Béatrice Peltre : Food Writer, Stylist and Photographer (Boston, U.S.A.)
Hello Sandwich : Designer, Artist, Crafter (Tokyo, Japan / Sydney, Australia)
Marisa Shimamoto : Photographer (Tokyo, Japan)
Yumiko Sekine : Shop Owner (Tokyo, Japan)