french cooking

Sweet Sentiments from Julia Child

julia child I loved this article in the WSJ about a Thank You letter Julia Child sent Legal Sea Foods' President and Executive Roger Berkowitz. While the American chef was teaching us how to 'Mast[er] The Art of French Cooking' she was also a regular at their seafood post, acquiring fresh fish at their fish counter. Julia was known for encouraging Americans to cook and consume more seafood, and had a particular penchant for oysters. For her 92nd birthday, Mr. Berkowitz and his Father sent her a clam bake to her California home, and Julia was smitten. So smitten she wrote them a hand written thank you note (a gal after my own heart), a note that they have held on to all of these years. Read more, here.

Girl Crush 3.0: Mimi Thorisson

544674755c1237d92c4f89f8_mimi-children-medoc-france allm carrotsoup-710x1065 choufarcie-710x1065Mimi Thorisson-2 Mimi Thorisson-3 Mimi Thorisson-4 Mimi Thorisson-5 Mimi Thorisson-6 Mimi Thorisson-7 Mimi Thorisson-8 Mimi Thorisson mimimimigaia-710x478 plenty-710x476 snack4-710x484 sole2-710x1065 sorrelsoup1-710x480 I discovered Mimi Thorisson on Condé Nast Traveler's Instagram page. It didn't take much to lure me in; her style and essence is elegantly chaotic, defined by a landscape so pure and bountiful. Mimi's reality is in fact particles of my own fantasy I dream of living; she has made the bucolic an active ingredient in her own life.

Mimi and her Icelandic photographer husband, Oddur, left Paris to live in the countryside of Médoc, France several years prior. At the time, they were seeking more space for their growing family (now comprised of seven children and 15 dogs). The region of Médoc, wrapped in a blanket of some of the world's most expensive and prestigious wine villages, is a six-hour drive from Paris, a landscape that will taunt even the most urban dwelling soul. After settling in to their stone farmhouse, Manger began to take greater shape. Manger is Mimi's labor of love, a blog that has flourished greatly since its inception that chronicles her family's life, largely centered around the seasonal foods that come from their surroundings. Each photograph, taken by Mimi's husband, is handsomely furnished as if each one were an invitation to Mimi's table in France. Manger has quickly snowballed into the success of Mimi's French TV Show, La Table de Mimi, and her new cookbook, A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse (it debuted last fall).

A writer from Condé Nast Traveler wrote a piece on the french beauty after visiting her home, describing her farmhouse as a 'Rembrandt still life.' As evidenced by the photographs above, Mimi's life is full and vibrant. It is certainly one to envy but perhaps one that proves following your heart can lead to all the satisfaction one could dream of, Rembrandt-esque, indeed.