L’Art de Bien Manger

  • Mad Geese and Tipsy Damsons

    Mad Geese and Tipsy Damsons

    What with our little trip to Provence we took back spring to Chemilly, and here we are in the middle of THE most spring month, the month of May. I’ve been having some very eventful weeks lately with the appearance of my cookery book Mad Geese and Tipsy Damsons in English as an e-book. I’m… Read more

  • Avignon and a Savoury Easter Cake 

    Avignon and a Savoury Easter Cake 

    Have you ever been to the Avignon area in the South of France? Whenever we can manage we drive down there before Easter, to fetch spring home. It’s just the most marvellous time of the year, with the cherry trees in flower and torrential wisteria everywhere, the very first real strawberries of the season and… Read more

  • Madame Dubarry en Cocotte

    Madame Dubarry en Cocotte

    The other day I had a moment of inspiration when studying a restaurant menu (one of my favourite kinds of reads btw), the thing is called velouté Dubarry and is made of cauliflower. Do you know who Madame Dubarry was? I wonder what she’d say if she knew that someone named a cauliflower dish after… Read more

  • Wildgarlic season and a Hazelnut Cake

    Wildgarlic season and a Hazelnut Cake

    When we moved into the castle two years ago I soon discovered vivid green leaves poking out of the soil under the centenary magnolia tree, thinking at first it would evolve into a carpet of divinely fragrant lily of the valley when, a little after, it dawned on me that the little green leaves were… Read more

  • Crayfish and Pomelo Spring Salad

    Crayfish and Pomelo Spring Salad

    Despite a weatherwise rotten week with, you wouldn’t believe it, snow, the first signs of spring are undeniably here. I’ve spent much time outside in the park, getting everything ready, pruning and cutting down dead branches. Now it all looks strangely empty except for the daffs that I’ve planted last autumn. March, I admit, is… Read more

  • Winter at the Castle

    Winter at the Castle

    I’ve come to quite look forward to these quarterly, seasonal updates on what happens at the castle, naturally hoping you like reading them as much as I do like writing them. We only had a little snow this year but it was magical. Now with the castle closed for visits until spring, I cook for… Read more