French Toast

by Peta Mathias

French Toast is a totally pleasurable insight into the sensual delights of France through the eyes and taste buds of Peta Mathias, television personality and food writer.

The former owner of a restaurant in Paris, Peta knows how to get the most out of every minute she spends in France. Savour crusty breads and fruity wines, endless varieties of olives and mushrooms, and experience the open-armed hospitality of Peta's friends and hosts.

Staying in apartments, chateaux, old churches and even the odd garden shed, Peta discovers how to choose the best produce available - and how to banter with local stallholders.

Share her evenings spent in village squares, feasting and laughing the night away. Essential reading for anyone planning a trip to france, French Toast is crammed full of information about travel, regional food specialities and culture.

Written with Peta's trademark verve and love of life, this is as close to being in France as you can get

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2006

About the author

Peta Mathias MNZM is a respected and prolific New Zealand chef, author and broadcaster, who now builds on the culinary travel experience with her gastronomic tours in the south of France, Morocco, Spain and India. Having started her culinary love in Paris with her restaurant 'Rose Blues', she returned to New Zealand to teach, cook and write. Fete Accomplie, a book about her life in Paris with recipes, was the first of many subsequent award-winning gastronomic travel books written about North Africa, France, New Zealand, Ireland and Vietnam. Her book Can We Help it if We're Fabulous was an instant bestseller and has also been published in the UK, USA, Canada and Germany. It was followed by a number of other books about women, men and transformation.

Reviews

[Belinda]

I am lifting the blurb that is on Peta's website. She might sue me but if it ain't broke don't fix it:

"French Toast is a totally pleasurable insight into the sensual delights of France though the eyes and taste buds of Peta Mathias, television personality and food writer. The former owner of a restaurant in Paris, Peta knows how to get the most out of every minute she spends there. Savour crusty breads and fruity wines, endless varieties of olives and mushrooms, and experience the open-armed hospitality of Peta's friends and hosts. Staying in apartments, châteaux, old churches...."

It's more than that though, a memoir that's fun and endeared Peta to me from the first word.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Peta Methia's travel writing. As a chef she focuses on the food/wine of an area and includes a few recipes in the book. She also gives the reader a great insite into the history and general life of the places she visits. In this book Peta returns first to Paris and catches up with those people she knew and worked with when she lived there previously, eventually owning a restaurant after all her training. Then she travels down to the south of France and visits friends in the Provence area and then across to Langedoc and up to Burgandy. Finally she is asked to be the chef on a canal boat, a job she had previously had before moving back to NZ to continue her culinary career.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enyoyed this book by NZ writer,cook and TV personality Peta Mathias. The book is really a mixture,in that it is part travel, part cookbook and part memoir.Mathias writes with great wit and I loved her descriptions of all the meals she ate and the recipes which she included. I am going to have to try making some of them! Her French friends were great and I would love to meet them. The book covered all the areas of France that I visited in 2011 - Provence,Languedoc,Djon and Paris.It had me yearning to go back!

[Anna Simson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging and humorous book. It was lovely to travel through the different areas of France and enjoy wonderful descriptions of food, wine, people and places with Peta. This will make you want to visit France!

[Christine Betts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will read anything about France, Paris or food...