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Good morning - we are now in the midst of the Chanterelle season. I have normally just sauteed them with butter but this year I think I am really going to investigate what can bring the most out of these lovely yellow trumpets. They are called Chanterelle and also Girolle at the market. Unfortunately we just caught the tail end of the market last Sunday due to some things we had to get done in the morning. If we'd been there early it would have really been wonderful. Reminder, set alarm for tomorrow... 4€50 for 500 grams (une livre). In my opinion, they had to be washed. Some mushrooms do fine with a light brush. But it had been raining that day, and the traces of soil were in some of the gills... I didn't bother cutting them because their consistency will allow them to cook completely rather quickly. I like my chanterelles to have a little "bite" to them, although I also like the taste of them once they've been well sauteed with butter. They take on a certain flavor. I started with a chicken breast and added cream at the end. It was OK, for a school night. I feel like really doing good things with them though, with dishes that will really bring out their best qualities. I hope that people will pipe in and recall the wonderful ways they have enjoyed this mushroom prepared fresh. Searching the eGullet archives people mention serving them with jus de boeuf, chanterelle flan, with lobster, braised chicken... what else? We've got a couple more weeks to go in the season and I want to get cooking.

Hi all, This post originally appeared over in Pastry & Baking, but someone suggested that I post here for additional info/input, so here goes... ************************************** One of my true loves in the pastry world are French-style cakes -- entremets, petits gateaux, etc. Unfortunately, my pastry training and work experience has not offered me as much opportunity as I'd like to pursue these topics. I've made some efforts on my own, but it's been like learning in a vacuum. I'm currently between jobs and now have the opportunity to travel to France this fall to take classes. I'm considering both Bellouet Conseil and Lenotre, but cannot decide. Has anyone taken courses at either school? What can you say about your experiences there regarding the instructors, facilities, coursework, etc? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

I would like to find them or a similiar like pepper here in the US. It sounds like they dry on ropes like New Mexico red peppers. From the Basque Country, Espelette particularly. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all!

Coq au vin ranks high up on my list of French comfort food, along with quiche lorraine, pot au feu and ratatouille. I make it a few ways, sometimes with bacon (lardons), sometimes with ham and sometimes without. Recently, I've discovered that some people also add cognac to the mix. How do you make yours and what do you like to serve it with? Soba

article from the International Herald Tribune How marketing Fauchon will be done in the same manner as haute couture: Brand names with a history and reputation for excellence make for marketing much as the fine designer houses ... will it work with this type of a product?

We went to Brittany for a wedding last weekend, and some friends of ours from the Cote d'Azur dragged us through the streets of St. Malo looking for pastries so that they could get some to carry home with them on the 9 hour train ride home. They weren't buying them to eat on the train, they were buying them to serve to friends and family as a special souvenier from Brittany. Being completely obscessed with all things food I was fascinated by this phenomenon, but felt the amounts they purchased were rather excessive. I criticize because I'm on a diet. I satisfied my craving by taking photos of the things they bought. This is a specialty that Brittany is famous for. They come in all shapes and sizes. They are mass produced and sold in stores all over France, but of course the ones bought fresh on site are the best (or so I've heard). These apparently are not a specialty of Brittany but they bought them anyway. e did not catch the name of this pastry. Does anyone know? The famous Kouign Amann. They bought tons. Hmmm, we don't get these in Lyon... I'm wondering about the green one with chocolate sprinkles... Typical French pastries. It seems like everywhere you go, they print on white chocolate palettes to make it local. Sailboats for St. Malo... These tarts were a curiosity and people stopped to watch them being made through the window. This also makes me think of the recipe for Gateau Bretan that was given to me by a lady who ran a B&B and served it there. It was delicious. We also made it once with prune paste in the center.

article from the CS Monitor If you live in, or have recently visited, France, have you seen one of these drive-in bakeries? Think that it will only serve to create more of its kind? Is there anything delicious about this new concept? The boulangerie is so much a part of the French way of life ... think it will always be so? The tactile, sensual aspect, might just be a victim of speed and convenience? Comment très triste ce serait !

Does anyone know where I can buy them on line?

Gastronomie.com reports that the new director of the Michelin guide prioritizes what's "on the plate", and downgrades the importance of decor. Could this be a new direction?

Can someone help me find a thread that talked about cheese shops in Paris? I don't think I am going crazy but I am sure I even participated in it! I just need some cheese shops in different arrondissements, I remember there were a few that vacuum packed the cheese for you. Thanks for all your help. (Ran searches but can't locate!)

If you love bread in all its forms (hats, dresses, curtains), have never seen it made or smelled fresh bread and have 6.50 Euros burning a hole in your pocket, go to Jean-Paul Gautier’s show at the Foundation Cartier. Otherwise I’d advise skipping it despite the New York Times review July 25th; it’s but the latest attempt of the FC to emulate the late unlamented American Center in Bercy’s taste in contemporary art. While I’m totally incompetent to judge the artistic merits of haute couture, I know my bread.

I believe they are also eaten this way in the Bas Languedoc. It's not surprising when you realize that the neighboring Roussillon is as much Catalunya as France. It's not unusual in that part of France to have large cargolade as a public feast. Unfortunately, I've not been able to time my arrivals to enjoy this feast, but my understanding is that vast quantities of snails are grilled and served with aioli. Cargol is the Catalan word for snails, and closer in sound to the French name for snails than the Spanish.

A friend of mine is doing a language immersion program in the town of Sancerre in the Loire Valley. She asked me if I could find out about any wineries that she should be sure to visit. I figured this was the best place to find that out. Thanks for any tips.

For the Initiated Only!!

I have a few French recipes with 'échine de porc'. I've searched the net and found some say it's pork shoulder and others say it's spareribs. Any idea?

I've looked on the net and in my extensive library, and I can't find any recipes, and scant reference to sauce 'bois boudrin'. I'm sure someone here can help. Thanks in advance.

I've got a recipe from an American cookbook that calls for pancetta and I'm in France. Does anyone know what the charcuterie equivalent of this Italian meat would be here?

Last weekend I ate at a friend's favourite restaurant because it was his birthday. The steak had a sauce I've never heard of and can no longer remember. It started with T. Asked the Carrie Ann Moss lookalike waitress and she said it was a very traditional French sauce (this is a bistro type place) with tarragon and I don't remember what else but mostly herbs and vinegar. Definitely no cream. But apparently not actually like a vinagrette because when I pointed out the possible similarity to my friend, since he was starting with their butter lettuce salad with herb vinagrette and wouldn't want to be redundant, she looked quite pained. What was it?

Discussion in some recent threads lead me to think about the position and status of pastry in France, as well as the reasons why many French chefs are drawn to America and elsewhere. A random collection of thoughts and questions... Obviously, the long tradition for fine pastry in France is deep rooted, as it has a place in daily life there that one could arguably assert is absent elsewhere. Is this assumption still valid? Has the globalization and homogenizing (some may say Americanization) of culture at large also affected the every day appreciation and consumption of pastry? As we read more and more often, from the New York Times to Gault Millau, French haute cuisine is perceived to be in crisis. Is it possible that French pastry, no doubt still the gold standard worldwide, may eventually suffer a similar fate, and perhaps find itself also in need of a public relations facelift? For aspiring students of the pastry profession, the system of education, apprenticeship, and working one's way up the ladder (and not to exclude the common inheriting of the profession from previous generations), appear to be based on log held standards, not just in France, but in Europe in general. Is this tradition still holding up? Are young teenagers still looking to commit to a metier at such an early age? Are there any flaws to this system of training? Or is it still considered the ideal? What do the short, accelerated programs, more common here in the US, say about us and the future of our industry here, and what does it say, if anything, about the people running these programs, a few of whom are indeed French? With a few exceptions (Frederic Robert, for instance, though he is, in a sense, ‘corporate’ pastry chef for the Ducasse empire), we likely couldn’t name many French pastry chefs whose domain is limited to the restaurant kitchen. Why is this? Why do patisserie-affiliated chefs seem to enjoy more recognition? In the culture of French dining, are the expectations of restaurant/plated desserts different from the expectations of take away pastry from a boutique? And just how much respect and status do pastry chefs, in general, find in France? Apart from the ‘branded’ names, like Lenotre or Thuries, is it the name with which the public identifies, or just the product? Outside the profession, how much weight does the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France hold? And so I come to the question of the appeal North America (not to exclude the UK, Japan, etc) has. What pulls some of France’s best pastry chefs away from their homeland? Presumably at the top of their game, why does a Payard leave Lucas Carton to end up at Le Bernardin, or a Torres, from a Maximin to Le Cirque? How did Sebastien Cannone, barely in-country, take the helm of the Chicago Ritz Carlton (in his mid-twenties), to later co-found perhaps the most influential pastry school in the US? What does it mean when an all French pastry team, representing the US, goes head to head in competition with a French pastry team, representing France? And what do the likes of Bajard, Caffet, or Brunstein, who visit the US periodically to teach and consult, what do they see in their audiences and classrooms? Are there freedoms here, an excitement here, that no longer exists at home? Are economic issues a consideration (weakened economies, stringent labor laws)? And what about competition or over-saturation? Are there simply too many pastry chefs in France? Apart from importing their styles and techniques, have they managed to inject some of their culture, that attitude and passion for pastry, into ours? Has the awareness here changed, to the point where an Herme could set up shop in a major city and succeed, where Lenotre tried and failed years ago? No doubt the French dominance and influence on American-born pastry chefs has existed for decades. But are the apprentices and students of these French masters beginning to form their own identity? Where will this generation of American pastry chefs go from that initial inspiration, and will they in turn inspire the work of pastry chefs in France and the rest of Europe? Have they already done so? Perhaps not overturning the tradition of decades of technique, but maybe influencing the spirit of their work? Is this good, bad, or just plain inevitable?

Nigel Wilmott's report on his walking tour of France didn't appear in our edition of the Guardian, but fortunately it's on their website. It makes the changes in the French countryside (and local eating) much more obvious than what is seen by those of us (including me) who traverse the country on four wheels. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,474...-110633,00.html

What are the foodie votes on Le Grande compared to the big box Hediard and Fauchon? With just a few days I want to hit the best not the touristy so all comments are welcomed. Cheers.

Paris Journal: THE ANTI-ANTI-AMERICANS, A summer of obsessions in France. Issue of 2003-09-01. Posted 2003-08-25. The article, in spite of my carefully chosen citation, is not at all about food, but worth reading to fans and critics of France and the French.

Just returned from a week in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. Unfortunately not much of an eating report to provide. Two small kids meant that dinner more often than not was in the hotel room. But this meant that we had to venture out to the "hypermarche" quite a bit, and one thing that caught my eye was the ubiquity of the Reflets de France brand. Apparently this is Carrefour's house brand of regional gastronomic products - all have allegedly been vetted personally by Joel Robuchon, who I guess has become quite a man of the people, what with his cooking show and Atelier. Each product is produced by subcontractors in the region of origin who are supposed to use traditional recipes and incorporate AOC ingredients where applicable. The brand is sold by Carrefour but also by other retailers as well. One thing I noticed was that these are REALLY cheap. Brioche tressée vendéenne for a couple bucks, pâté de campagne breton for about 2.50, if I recall correctly. While they tasted good to my uneducated taste buds, I was wondering if august members of this group had a different opinion. And, perhaps more importantly, how do people perceive Reflets de France as a symptom of social change? Does it reflect a growing awareness among consumers of the need to preserve regional cuisines and support local producers? Or does it simply reflect the disappearance of specialized retailers to sell these regional products and the need for a mass marketer to take their place?

A question has arisen in the Montreal/Quebec forum about the provenance of game in France. Carswell has alerted us to the fact that in France, as opposed to North America, restaurants and shops are allowed to sell wild hunted game as well as farm-raised. I understand that much of the game available in France now comes form Eastern Europe, particularly Poland. Is that true and is this Polish game wild or farmed? All that said, I would still assume that restaurants specializing in game such as au Petit Marguery would still offer the highest quality, namely hunted meat. Any information to be added to the discussion? For the original dissussion see, http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=0entry332462

What follows is a loosly (google) translated article which appeared today on gastronomie.com. Looks interesting, though the book exists only in French for the moment, and I haven't yet seen any real reviews. Anyone read it? 11/09: Frederic Beigbeder counters Luc Lang PARIS, August 26 (AFP) - Frederic Beigbeder and Luc Lang tell on September 11 2001 in an opposite way: the energetic and narcissistic novel of the first, the feverish and committed account of the second who refuses, for such an event answers, to resort to the fiction. Former advertising executive, ex-organizer tele (Canal+), author of the best-seller "99 francs", always critical, Mr. Beigbeder is currently an editor at Flammarion. Its novel left at the end of August is entitled "Windows one the World", of the name of the restaurant which was located at the 107e stage of World Trade Center. "the only means of knowing what occurred in the restaurant (...), between 08H30 and 10H29, it is to invent it", known as the novelist by describing the last moments of a father and its two sons, small-lunching this morning "in the center of the universe". When the hell breaks out, the father made believe in Jerry and David who it is about a play: "say p' Pa, do not have you need to hide your superpowers longer", known as David. That is worth poignant pages on their ridiculous efforts to leave itself there. But what interests the author, it is the impact of the attacks on itself. To measure it, it from goes away, sometimes with his daughter, with the "Sky of Paris", the restaurant of the 56e stage of the Montparnasse tower. Of up there, it reflects on this tragedy, on New York, its childhood, its generation, expresses its admiration for the United States. "narcissism" the writing of the novel, which, admits the author, "uses the tragedy like a literary crutch", is fluid, inventive and Beigbeder is full with spirit. But the book, well party for success, will aggravate by the interest that the writer goes. Which, malignant or perverse, does not hesitate to be whipped, or to make seeming: "I show myself kindness in narcissism (...), I show myself to have gone on Canal+ to avenge me not to be a star (...), I show myself self-satisfaction disguised in denigration", writes it by thus enumerating 40 charges. "Windows one the World" hardly has relationship with "September 11 my love" of Luc Lang, published in August, which qualified the first work, in an interview with the New Observer, of "trick with large spectacle, advertising company". "And isn't your title, it advertizing? Why not will +Sabra and Chatila my chou+ or +Srebrenica my darling+?", Beigbeder answered. The work of Luc Lang - author of "Thousand six hundred bellies" (Goncourt of the high-school pupils) and who teaches esthetics in the Art schools - does not contribute in the same category: it is a road movie, a great report in extreme cases of the test and, with final, pitiless instantaneous of the United States. September 11, 2001, Mr. Lang travels in the sublimes landscapes of Montana, on the traces of the Blackfeet Indians. He discovers the images of the towers struck by the planes in a reserve of Browning. Missing its go with "the survivors of a génocide", it then sees America meurtrie, but also America "furbishing its weapons and building its revenge". "A speed light, the electric image precipitated us in same time, in loop, we were there and, let us be still buckled to us there, each one knowing precisely, in this Tuesday September 11, of what its life was made. We were sudden, alone and recluse in our banality, together and contemporaries ", writes it at the end of this "book of combat" where, often, it removed the word "I" of its sentences. ("Windows one the World ", éd Grasset, 374 pages, 18 euros; "September 11 my love", éd Stock, 248 pages, 18,05 euros)