About
About Me
My restaurant career began at the age of sixteen, washing dishes in a steakhouse at our local strip mall. Somehow, many years later, I end up at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, the seminal restaurant that changed how we eat in America. I spent thirteen years cooking and baking in the kitchens at Chez Panisse before leaving in 1999. During my time in San Francisco, I was also worked as a line cook at Zuni Café and was the pastry chef at several other San Francisco restaurants.
Having been a professional cook and baker for most of my life, I launched this website as a blog in 1999, to coincide with the release of my first book, Room for Dessert, which went out of print, but the recipes were incorporated into Ready for Dessert, a compendium of my all-time favorite baking recipes. The blog was intended as a place to share recipes and stories. At the time, the concept of a “blog” was pretty much unknown, but I continued the blog for several decades, which coincided with my move to Paris. I was honored by Saveur magazine with their Blog of the Decade award.
My blog (which is now a website) is a mix of well-loved recipes and you’ll find over 700 recipes here. Nowadays I keep readers up-to-date in my newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. The newsletter is reader-supported (no ads) and it’s free, with an option to become a paid subscriber and receive additional content, benefits, and recipes.
I was named one of the Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle and have been featured in, Bon Appétit, Chocolatier, Cooking Light, Food+Wine, Cooks Illustrated, Oprah, Real Simple, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Travel and Leisure, Milk Street, The New York Times, People, Saveur, Sunset, and USA Today. I’ve also been a guest judge several times on Beat Bobby Flay on Food Network…as well as a competitor. (That was a new one for me!)
My Books
I’ve written nine books. The first two were the critically acclaimed Room for Dessert and Ripe for Dessert, which are now out of print. (If you are looking for a copy, check out used book websites. Although many of the recipes were included in my book Ready for Dessert.)
Because I love chocolate so much, I went on to write The Great Book of Chocolate, an ode to my favorite ingredient. This guidebook to chocolate includes recipes and profiles of chocolate makers, as well as a look at how chocolate is transformed into luscious confections. I recently revised the book adding more recipes, additional content, and all-new photos as well.
The Perfect Scoop is my best-selling guide to making homemade ice cream, sorbets, sherbets, and all the good stuff that gets swirled and mixed in and ladled on top. The book was updated and revised for its tenth anniversary.
The Sweet Life in Paris tells the tale of my move to Paris. It’s a collection of stories about how I adjusted to life in a city that ultimately won me over. The book features nearly fifty recipes, both sweet and savory, and was a finalist for an International Association of Culinary Professionals Literary Award.
Ready for Dessert is a fully revised collection of my all-time favorite, time-tested recipes, with favorites from my first two books, as well as new recipes for cakes, cookies, ice creams, pies, crisps, and other treats.
My Paris Kitchen is a compendium of savory and sweet recipes and stories, cultivated from years shopping, baking, and cooking in Paris. My Paris Kitchen was named the best cookbook of the year by Amazon, and national and international publications.
L’appart tells the story of what happened when I bought an apartment in Paris, which became a comedy of errors…and a recipe for disaster! It’s the tale of building my dream kitchen, and what happens when things don’t go quite as anticipated…
Drinking French is a delicious dive into the iconic drinks of France with 160 recipes, from café au lait in the morning and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) in the afternoon, along with spirited apéritifs, cocktails, and recipes for homemade infusions along with a selection of French bar snacks. Drinking French received the Tales of the Cocktail award for Best New Cocktail book at their annual Spirited Awards. It’s available here!
My Food & Recipes
I use basic, everyday ingredients, with a focus on fresh fruit, good quality chocolate, real vanilla, and pure butter. I don’t believe that baking and cooking should be out of reach to people, and strive to share recipes that are doable for cooks and home bakers.
I was trained as a pastry chef, with certificates from Callebaut College in Belgium, as well as Ecole Lenôtre and Valrhona’s Ecole du Grand Chocolat in France.
My Blog
When I started this website, I had little idea that blogging would take off as it did, and I’m happy that so many people are engaging with me through the blog, and social media. Interacting with readers through the comments has been quite a learning experience and I’m thrilled to have readers from all around the world, who are as intensely interested in food, travel, and cooking as I am! All text, recipes, and photographs are by me – unless otherwise noted.
I can also be found on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest but I’m spending most of my time these days on my newsletter.
…and a few more things you may, or may not know, about me
I love to bake and my favorite ingredients are chocolate and fresh fruit. For breakfast every day, I have a large bowl of café au lait, a small glass of orange juice, and toast with salted butter and chestnut honey, or homemade jam. I find almost everything about air travel stressful, from buying ticket to getting through the airport. (Although once seated on the plane, I can relax.) I don’t like green bell peppers or black licorice, and prefer white wine over red.
I wonder why people complain about the noise of an ice cream maker, but not the noise made by vacuum cleaners. (I don’t know about you, but I’d rather make ice cream over vacuuming.) Living in Paris can be a struggle due to the immense about of paperwork and administration, which – in addition to conjugating French verbs – are the most challenging parts of living in France. I recently realized that I’ve lived abroad for almost one-third of my life, and likely won’t move again.
In addition to baking, I also learned how to spin wool into yarn from my mother, who was a weaver. I have two black belts in martial arts; a second-degree black belt in karate, and a first-degree black belt in aikido. Nowadays I do Pilates.
I still can’t grasp French phone numbers; 09 76 78 99 81 57 translates to neuf soixante-seize soixante-dix-huit quatre-vingt-dix-neuf huit cinquante-sept. I ride a bike in Paris but don’t yell my name is you see me because I don’t want to have an accident. I’ve tried it, but I don’t like pastis. (Although a bartender told me to try it with cold sparkling water, which I did, and it’s a lot more palatable.) I’m more utilitarian than romantic, and prefer someone bring me a basket of beautiful berries or fruit over a bouquet of roses.
Readers are welcome to contact me.
