Happy Holidays from Paris

Yup, I’m back in Paris…home for the holidays.

• For a dose of hilarious holiday humor, listen to Xmas in Frisco (if you have iTunes, it’s under the Radio listings; click: ‘Holiday’ to listen). The songs are some of the funniest things I’ve ever heard and softens the edge from any holiday stress.

• The Menu for Hope II has barely concluded and Pim’s highly successful fundraiser has raised over a whopping $21,000!. Funds are going to UNICEF to help the people of Pakistan affected by the natural disaster. Many thanks to the food bloggers and companies who participated and I look forward to meeting whoever wins the big scoop (or two…or three!) of glace Berthillon we’ll be sharing here in Paris.

• You’ll find me a few places around the web:
  On NPR, I take Jim Fleming, host of To The Best of Our Knowledge on a tour of Paris chocolate shops. We explore the best places in Paris and you can listen to it by clicking on the link.
  (Warning: Shoving a microphone under my face mysteriously turns me into a dork.)

• Be sure to read The Only 149 Chocolates You Need To Know About. It’s a very right-on take on chocolate; what’s new, what’s good (and what’s not…), and where to find them. It’s from Departures magazine, and I’m featured in the magazine, which the online article is excerpted from.

• A certain amateur came to Paris recently for a whirlwind tour of the city. Armed with a video camera, a bit of jet-lag, some nibbles of dark chocolate, a carafe of red wine, and a certain amount of chutzpah, there may be a funny video in our future. I’ll let you know when (and if) it appears for public viewing.

• Fox Television has agreed to pick up the pilot for my new reality show, An American Pastry Chef in Paris.
  In each hilarious episode, an American pastry chef is forced to search the streets and shops of Paris, looking for odd ingredients (cranberries, cream of tartar, real vanilla extract, or corn syrup) for the final competition to determine if he can stay in the city longer. The goal is to create a dessert that meets the stringent standards set forth by the nastiest chef in town. Along the way, each contestant learns to dodge les dames with their shopping carts, masters the most effective way to cut in line, learns to distainfully sneer at any special request, finds a café that will let them use the bathroom, avoids being ripped off at the market by vendors sneaking rotten fruit into their bag (bonus points given if they can avoid being short-changed…), and triumphs only when he or she gets the chef to actually enjoy something with peanut butter in it…or can successfully snap a photo for their blog at Le Grand Epicerie without being tackled by security.

Ok, just kidding on that last one. But that’d make a fun gift for me, now wouldn’t it?