French Comfort Food

[Holly Moore]

Greetings Michael. Welcome and thanks for doing the Q&A

I read in your bio that your next book is about French Comfort Food. How do you define French comfort food? What similarities do you find between French and USA comfort food?

[Katherine]

Do you see regional differences in French comfort food, as well?

[Michael Ruhlman]

Comfort food is an idea we're all familiar with. By French comfort food we're mainly referring to those dishes that we return to again and again throughout our lives (if you like that kind of food). Onion soup--throughout our lives we have various onion soup experiences; our hope is to explore what are the qualities that make us return to specific dishes again and again, what makes this kind of food excellent and how do you achieve that excellence in cooking. What are the qualities that define a perfect onion soup? Frisee salade with ladons and poached eggs? Leeks vinaigrette, roast chicken, beef stew etc.?

French comfort food is potentially better and usually more refined than American comfort food.