When Elizabeth and her husband got married in Paris, they skipped the tiered wedding cake and served great tomes of cheese as well as saucisson, smoked duck breast, medjool dates, tiny black grapes….
Should they ever do it again, perhaps stateside this time, a wedding cake made of cheese by Wisconsin company The Cheese Shed would do quite nicely (via Cup of Jo).
Lunch in Paris, the next chapter...
So many of you loved my friend Elizabeth’s memoir of food and love in Paris. Yesterday she announced the next chapter (so to speak) — Picnic in Provence.
She and her little family have just moved to their new home: an old cottage that they found “by happy accident.” The story is almost too fabulous to be believed, and makes my heart swell every time I hear it. It’s hard not to believe Elizabeth and her husband were born under charmed skies. Do read it for yourself.
I am so excited to see where this next adventure takes them (and to visit!).
Elizabeth’s recipe for Gougeres (cheese puffs). Les nom-nom!
PS: aid+abet films in LA acquired worldwide film and TV rights to Lunch in Paris! I think Anne Hathaway oughta play her … though M. thinks it should be a comedienne.
Another quick, fun read: Lunch in Paris. Ms. Nora thoughtfully sent me an autographed copy, knowing that I’d salivate over the descriptions of the French meals. A cute love story with accompanying recipes, set in Paris - what’s not to like? I doubt that I will ever be capable enough to handle most of the recipes in the book, but I have high aspirations to maybe try at least a few.
Yay! Glad you liked it.
Ruby was exhusted after all the hard work so went back to bed to read Lunch in Paris, which I also happen to be reading and loving.
I yelped when I saw this post from Down Under. We went to lunch with Elizabeth’s husband Gwendal on Saturday and he reported that she’s a big hit in Oz (she’s on a book tour there now). And here’s proof, right on my Dashboard. :)
Oh and also! Lunch in Paris debuted on the NYT’s Nonfiction Best Sellers list at #31. Whoohoo!!
The Super Bowl aside, the weekend was all about celebrating Elizabeth Bard and Lunch in Paris. We attended a (standing room only!) cooking demo and reading at Brooklyn Kitchen, which she did along side Giulia Meluccia, author of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti. My (ahem, rather handsome) boyfriend mixed a Lillet cocktail that he created based on the Boulevardier, a favorite of Julia Child’s when she lived in Paris after World War II.
Side note: he spoke at some length about proper cocktail stirring technique. “It’s more of an oscillation….” I couldn’t keep a straight face. We’re talking about STIRRING for chrissakes! But that’s why I love him.
And then all of us friends and fans of Elizabeth retired to a very lovely cocktail party at a very special space in Williamsburg….
Amanda, one of Elizabeth’s dearest friends, flew out from LA to surprise her!
A clever twist on the floral bouquet.
Slow dancing with the man she fell in love with over lunch in Paris.
And on Sunday, we said fiddle-dee-dee to our hangovers and drove out to Teaneck to visit Elizabeth’s family and pay our respects to her 6-month-old son Augustin (whatever you do, don’t call him “the sequel”!). He had quite a few fans, as you can see….
Today Elizabeth is off to on a round-the-word book tour, from Sidney to San Francisco and finally back to NYC for a bit before home to Paris. I can’t wait to read about her adventures.
Cooking Demo & Cocktails with Miss Elizabeth Bard
Tomorrow afternoon I’m crossing the river for a cooking demo & book party at Brooklyn Kitchen featuring Elizabeth, author of Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes, and Giulia Melucci, author of “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.”
My Mister will be making a very special Lillet cocktail based on Julia Child’s favorite Parisian drink.
Care to join us?
It came! Wish I didn’t have a date tonight. (Well, almost.)
Lunch in Paris is climbing up the Amazon bestseller lists … and I spent a wonderful evening with the author, Elizabeth, last night. She’s an old friend of M.’s who lives in, yes, Paris, so this was the first time we met — though I’ve followed her envy-inducing blog (hello! she gets to have lunch in Paris EVERY DAY) and she’s checked in on mine, so she already felt like a friend.
My copy of her memoir has literally gotten lost in the mail, so I haven’t read it yet, but I can tell you this: Elizabeth is a joy, and wise. Our conversation ranged far and wide and deep; one thing she said to M. and I resonated like the bells of Notre Dame (I’m paraphrasing): We all have a life we think we should be living, the professional or romantic fantasy that we anxiously track and compare ourselves to. And why? You only get one crack at this. When she finally realized that, despite years of the “right” education and experience, she wasn’t going to be a (Painfully) Serious Art Critic — in fact she didn’t WANT to be — it was a step that led her to this, her first book.
Tuck that thought away somewhere safe, my friends. I will.
Elizabeth — author of the new memoir of food and romance in the most beautiful city in the world, Lunch in Paris — recently received a gift for the ages: the recipe for the traditional French cake that is served on Galette, the feast of the Epiphany. The cake, she writes,
is a dense almond cream called frangipane, tucked between two layers of puff pastry. Inside the cake is hidden a tiny figurine – la fève – originally a broad bean. He who finds the fève is king for a day – paper crown and everything.
Ah! It it the pastry forefather of New Orleans’ beloved King Cake. And her description brings back a delicious memory: many years ago, my family and I spent New Year’s Eve in New Orleans. One day, we went to a French bakery and bought a Galette cake and it was so heavenly that we ate it with our bare hands right there on the street! (Perhaps I’m exaggerating.)
And I found la fève and fell deeply in love with New Orleans and together we lived happily ever after….
(Again, I may be embellishing. Apologies. But the power of the Galette cake is just that strong. So strong that for many Carnival seasons in New Orleans I searched high and low for this very special King Cake but had no words to describe it, merely a taste memory fading by the day. And now! I can make it at home. For it just so happens that M. has some homemade puff pastry in the freezer that he demands I make use of. Only doing my part.)
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