Although not Michelin-starred, one of my favorite restaurants in Paris is Les Papilles. I have to admit that I rarely go there, since it’s equally far from any métro station, and I don’t make it over to that part of town very often. But when a friend called me about having a leisurely Saturday lunch, I jumped at the opportunity to revisit the restaurant. A…
I was trying to avoid commenting on the Michelin flap in San Francisco, where stars were recently bestowed on a precious few restaurants there. Since I no longer live in San Francisco, I can’t really comment on their recommendation (except for Manresa, which I did manage to eat at, and was excellent, stars or no stars.) I’ve eaten at several two- and three-star restaurants here…
When I take folks into épiceries in Paris, I invariably drag them to the honey aisle. I start explaining how the French love honey, and buy it based on what varietal it is…rather than just stopping in the supermarket and picking up a jar of that vaguely interesting looking syrup that you know is going to leave an annoying sticky ring from the bottom of…
I always thought it would be fun to have friends who were celebrities. I mean, wouldn’t it be fun to just pick up the phone, and have conversations like… “Hey Uma, wanna head out and get a bite to eat?” “Gee Mariah, I am just too dead-tired to stay home and watch Glitter again.” “Babysit again, Katie? But you know how Tom feels about leaving…
The hardest of all foods to photograph, I’ve learned, are chocolate-covered marshmallows. The bright, fluffy, vanilla-flecked cubes of sweet, airy marshmallow in contrast to the thin, intensely-flavored coating of bittersweet chocolate certainly presents a challenge. I futzed around a bit, trying to figure out how to show the lofty-white cubes in juxtaposition to the coating of pure, dark chocolate. They’re such diverse colors and textures…
I’ll soon be joining my friend Susan Loomis in her spectacular kitchen in Normandy, one hour from Paris, for a series of cooking classes November 5th-8th, from her home, On Rue Tatin… We’ll learn cooking tips and techniques from Susan in our hands-on classes and I’ll be leading seminars focusing on all aspects of chocolate during special tastings and hands-on demonstrations: you’ll learn everything from…
I’m in the midst of the insanity that every cookbook, author dreads: reviewing the copyedited manuscript of my upcoming book. Writing a cookbook, especially one that needs to be precise like a baking book, is really a task. I started working on this book well over a year ago and it grew and grew to hundreds of recipes before I reined myself it. I just…
In my previous post, a reader commented on the picture of a restaurant that I used, which obviously wasn’t the restaurant that I visited (which would be both cool, but very Twilight Zone.) Still, you can’t argue with a depiction of a restaurant where every table has a bottle of red wine on it and the parents are blowing cigarette smoke in their kids faces….
There’s lots of good food in Paris, but sometimes you have to travel to the double-digit arrondissements to find the gems. And while the 14th arrondissement isn’t all that far (and I live in a double-digit arrondissement myself), it’s worth the trek for the excellent meal at Le Severo. There’s only ten or so tables and a lone cook in the open kitchen, who presides…
Join me on my Spring 2026 book tour for my latest book, The Great Book of Chocolate
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