Archives of FRANCE

Eclairs mirabelle

Eclairs On My Mind

Everybody loves choux these days. At first I wasn’t a fan. Not until I tried choux with the modern, crunchy craquelin, which transformed choux buns and eclairs from soft and neutral to crumbly, textured and sweet. And when you see artists like Cedric Grolet work their magic creating a hazelnut loaded Paris Brest who wouldn’t want one? […]
9 years ago

Thoughts on Sous Vide Cooking

When I moved to London after Le Cordon Bleu, I trialled at one of the top British restaurants. All I saw was a position by the vacuum chamber. Before they could offer me the job, I bolted. I’m glad I realised even back then, without knowing too much about sous vide cooking, that it wasn’t […]
9 years ago
ducasse-class

Back to School: Alain Ducasse Education

This past September, I moved back to Paris with my knives, my favourite stationery, and little else to study at Alain Ducasse Education in Argenteuil, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris. This is a result of a culinary scholarship, my fourth, granted by the James Beard Foundation. The course is a Diploma in Superior […]
10 years ago

Gianduja Soup

It’s taken me two years to share this recipe with you. I first had this cold soup on my birthday two Novembers ago at La Cantine du Troquet after a meal of steak frites. With every spoonful, my eyes lit up and I was so ecstatic about having my favourite flavours of chocolate and hazelnuts […]
10 years ago

All You Need To Know About Culinary School – Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

In an earlier post, I had written about how to win a scholarship to study at Le Cordon Bleu, like I did (thrice). This left me inundated with lots of emails from culinary aspirants wanting to know more. In this post, I’m going to attempt to answer some questions that were unanswered. I’m going to […]
10 years ago

Le Chateaubriand, Paris

View Slideshow I am an Iñaki Aizpitarte fangirl. I love everything he does. He makes me want to be a better cook, to play with flavours, to be more creative, to think beyond geographic boundaries. Earlier this year Arjun took me to his much lauded restaurant, Le Chateaubriand in Paris and we were in for […]
11 years ago