Cooking & Travelling in South-West France

by Stephanie Alexander

Book by Alexander, Stephanie

Genres: Travel, Cooking, Nonfiction, Cookbooks

400 pages, Hardcover

First published July 27, 2002

About the author

Food and wine and friendship matter more than almost anything I can think of.

Who am I?

Food and wine and friendship matter more than almost anything I can think of. Together they involve skill and craft and patience, and understanding and appreciation of difference, and the desire to bring happiness to others. Brushing past scented leaves in a garden, looking over a vineyard with the vines glowing gold in autumn sunshine, picking parsley outside the back door, pulling a cork from a bottle of wine, cutting into a ripe cheese, appreciating a wonderful apple, setting out a picnic on a bush table, debating the questions of the universe over a fine wine… all these things seem to me to confirm our humanity and to make me want to live for another day, another meal. In the end, I still believe there is no greater joy than sharing food, conversation and laughter around a table.

In 2012 I will publish my memoir A Cook’s Life. Anyone who would like to know more about me will enjoy reading this book. There are many reminiscences and anecdotes in amongst the facts.

These days I spend most of my time supporting the team that makes the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation project function and grow. I also visit as many of our participating schools as I can and am delighted every time to be greeted by smiling faces and platters of delicious food.

Reviews

[Lisa]

Most Australians know Stephanie Alexander as a cook, a restaurateur, and a food writer, not to mention the pioneer of the Kitchen Garden Foundation, a school program that teaches kids about growing and cooking their own food. I have cooked from her recipes for years, and her Cooks Companion is my bible when I try something new. But she is also a great writer, evoking the sights and sounds and smells of the places where she sources ideas, recipes and produce, and the armchair traveller can relish all sorts of new experiences through the power of her pen.

Cooking & Travelling in South-West France begins with a discussion about the future of this region, long famed for its gourmet produce – truffles and fois-gras – but now subject to the pressures of globalisation as all farming areas are. The photographs show the picture-postcard beauty of small villages with rustic churches and bustling markets, but the reality is that more and more farms have been bought up by large companies to effect economies of scale, and attitudes to traditional cookery have changed.

It is the grandmothers who understand the culinary traditions and maintain them, but they represent the last generation with such knowledge. Their daughters might or might not know how to, or be bothered to, prepare the traditional country dishes of their childhood, and it is pretty certain that the daughters of the daughters cannot do so and have little interest in the past. (p.16)

The chapter ‘Henriette and Women’s Business’ is an elegy for traditions lost.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/04/16/c...

[Liz]

Fantastic photography, beautiful area of France and I'm a real Stephanie Alexander fan. Great opportuntity to dream... Probably won't be making the recipes though - would need to source truffles, confit and goose fat!

[Jennifer Rolfe]

This is one of those books to inspire a long stay in France.