Lunch in Paris (Book Twenty Two)

Title: Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes.

Author: Elizabeth Bard

Pages: 326

Published: February 2010

Buy the Book: Amazon

This is a book unlike most of the books I've read. Bard tells the story of her life through the food that she ate. Every chapter yields more recipes for the reader to digest.

I found at the start of the book that these recipes distracted me from the tale. I started to just glance at them and move on to the next chapter so that I would not be cooking my way though this book as well.

I did make a list the other day of the recipes:

I would like to try:

Student Charlotte (pg 14)
Individual Molten Chocolate cakes
Gwendal's Quick and Dirty Chocolate Souffle Cake (pg 253)
Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (pg 102)
Oven-Roasted Pork Ribs with honey (pg 27)
Chicken and Sweet Pepper Stew (pg 41)
Savory "Cake" (pg 85)
Spaghetti with Pork Ribs
Salmon with Fennel Compote in a Puff Pastry (pg 214)
Braised Beef (pg 114)
Lamb Shanks (pg 130)
Mussels with white wine and fennel (pg 171)
Eggplant Stuffed with Quinoa (pg 226)
Scallops with Champagne Custard (pg 278)
Chicken Tagine with two kinds of Lemon (pg 301)

Have Tried:

Pasta a la Gwendal

Yogurt Cake

And these are just a few of the recipes that Bard provides. If all cookbooks told a story like this I would read them from cover to cover instead of just leafing through them.

Now to the story.

Bard is an American who while living in England has lunch in Paris with a boy she meet. To make it simple he asks her to move in with him. They get married. And she tries to redefine who she is in a foreign culture. This book opens my eyes to the realities of living in France. I had become quite romanticized with it from reading Julia Child's book My Life in France. But, the France of today is not the France of Julia. I still dream of going there and living there. I just now know it wont be a walk in the park.

As always, I appreciate your comments or book recommendations. ~Dianna