A lovely pastime of ours since moving to the country is simply to get in the car and drive through the countless villages and vineyards that grace the eastern side of Médoc. It’s a wonderful maze of charming roads and invariably we get a little lost, chasing a beautiful Chateau we see on a distant […]

Picture this – a little girl, straight off the plane from Hong Kong, dragged all the way to Montparnasse so her father can have a couscous royal. Yes, that was my earliest jet-lagged memory of coucous. One of France’s favourite dishes (and my father’s), the ‘couscous’ is certainly worth its fame. Having inherited the sunshine […]

Whenever I buy meat, I tend to get highly influenced by Michel’s (my butcher) opinion on what I should cook. I might be eyeing the attractive beef filets, but I can tell that Michel thinks I should be cooking something else by his body language as he positions himself away from my actual choice! Michel […]

This onion and bacon tart takes me back to my college days in Paris, when my friends and I would finish class and rush to St Germain-des-Près for drinks and a Flammekueche. Perhaps it was a 90’s kind of thing, but we loved eating this delicious Alsatian speciality. This pizza style tart topped with a […]

There is no bad weather, just bad clothes. Swedish proverb Here in Médoc, instead of taking our kids to a toy store, we take them to a ‘pépinière'(flower and plant nursery), which has become their new fairground attraction. Last April, we told our kids they could pick a small plant to take care of. Mia […]

Our children are very good eaters. We like taking them to restaurants, and despite a few raised eyebrows, it’s always been a real pleasure (apart from the few times when we traumatized the staff!). It’s a priority for us to teach ‘les enfants’ good ‘food culture’ at an early age, and we find that by […]

At home I have this extra large cast-iron cocotte (casserole) perfect for slow cooking. I really enjoy looking at it, especially when I am writing – it’s my inspiration pot. My ‘cocotte’ has had a lot of family history, and is officially the heart of our house. One of the most delicious dishes I love […]

Whenever I cook a ratatouille, my kitchen smells like a Provençal market, filled with Mediterranean scents. Even though ratatouille is a grand classic French dish, you won’t often come across it in the restaurant menus. This is a true ‘home-cooked’ meal, to be eaten in the best traditional way, with a golden fried egg on […]

We have a big country kitchen table I have always dreamt of having – filled with an abundance of fruits, flowers, vegetables, lots of kids drawing, dogs lying under and delicious home-cooked food. I get very inspired just by looking at the table, and today, I had to do something with the beautiful apricots. I […]

Everybody loves good ‘comfort food’, classics such as macaroni cheese, mashed potatoes or fried noodles are high on the list. But what is the next best thing to comfort food? I call it continental holiday food. It is the kind of dish you would order when you are by the pool, from room-service, or simply […]