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A few years ago, I visited several Pineau des Charentes producers in a region of France known as the Charente, where Cognac is made. Legend has it that it was originally made by accident when a Cognac producer centuries ago added fresh grape to a barrel of eau-de-vie (a clear distillation of grapes), intended to be aged for Cognac. He let it rest, and age, anyways, and thus, Pineau des Charentes was made.
Nowadays Pineau des Charentes comes in white, red, and rosé varieties, with the rosé version aging the shortest, to some of the reds and whites being aged a decade or more, although most Pineau des Charentes is aged for about 12-18 months before it’s bottled.
It’s one of my favorite French apéritifs, which I wrote about in my book Drinking French. During my travels for the book, doing research, and diving deeper into the world of French spirits, I was fortunate to meet various producers, and it was gratifying to see what care they took
Amy married into a Cognac-making family and I met her on a visit to the region when I was visiting
I sort of made a gaffe when I was in the region prior to visiting Amy and her husband Jean, by slipping a cube of ice into my glass of Pineau des Charentes, which shocked a few of the people around me. Amy later showed me an ad from years ago that said “Osez!” (“Dare!”) and pictured a glass of Pineau des Charentes with ice is in.
Nowadays, they’re upping the “cool” factor of Pineau des Charentes by showing bartenders putting ice into Pineau des Charentes, which is a great way to enjoy it, but well-chilled, without glaçons is good fine, too.
I love Pineau des Charentes and am particularly fond of the apéritif made by Jean-Luc Pasquet, which has a unique freshness that makes it brighter than other Pineaus, and their apéritif infused with raspberries from their garden, is wonderful sipped in the summer, with or without ice. Although I always put a cube or two in mine : )
They are also making a rosé Pineau des Charentes which is giving other rosé-based French apéritifs a run for their money.
Amy was recently elected to be the president of the Comité National du Pineau des Charentes
We talked about what is Pineau des Charentes, how it relates to the Cognac-making region of France, how to drink it, and what makes it so special. While not as well-known as other French apéritifs (98% of the Cognac production is exported from France, whereas only 20% of the Pineau des Charentes is exported) and we agree that it deserves to be better-known.
I hope you enjoy my chat wtih Amy about this uniquely French apéritif!
-David
You can find Jean-Luc Pasquet Pineau des Charentes on Wine Searcher.
Follow Jean-Luc Pasquet on Instagram.
Visit the Jean-Luc Pasquet website.
Try this Fall-friendly Harvest Spritz Cocktail, made with Pineau des Charentes.
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If anyone knows the cuisine of Nice, it’s Rosa Jackson, owner of Les Petits Farcis for over twenty years. Located in the sunny south of France, Niçoise cooking is known for its freshness and Mediterranean flavors, using ingredients that range from local olive oil and anchovies to vibrant vegetables, such as tomatoes, Swiss chard, and zucchini (and zucchini flowers), as well as fresh goat cheeses and fragrant basil.
Rosa is the author of Niçoise: Market-Inspired Cooking from France's Sunniest City, with recipes that’ll entice you: Pan bagnat sandwiches packed with fresh, crisp vegetables; soupe au pistou, a lively vegetable soup for summer swirled with basil pistou; caramelized orange cake; a foolproof lemon soufflé; and a lemon tart accented with olive oil.
During our chat in my kitchen in Paris, Rosa and I discussed the cuisine of the sunny city she lives in, including the controversies surrounding the salade Niçoise (and the, um…less-than-enthusiastic local reaction to the Larousse version) and how to make a proper Pan bagnat, a sandwich that’s so esteemed in the region that there are official guidelines about what can, and can’t, go into the sandwich.
Enjoy the chat!
- David
* Visit Rosa at her website Rosajackson.com
* Follow Rosa on Instagram
* Subscribe to Rosa Jackson’s newsletter
* Visit Rosa’s cooking school in Nice, Les Petits Farcis
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Can I tell you how much fun it’s been getting to know Jane Bertch over the years? I’m not exactly sure how we met, but it may have been when I was leading tours and brought our guests for a day-long market tour and cooking class at La Cuisine, her cooking school in Paris. Everyone enjoyed the day very much, including me, and over the years, we’ve shared stories about relationships, and some of the quirks involved in cross-cultural connections, working and living in France, and, of course, we’ve shared several glasses of wine and a number of delicious meals together.
Jane has succeeded in building a life, and a career, in Paris, in spite of the hurdles of running a business, including navigating les voisins (neighbors), strikes, a pandemic that closed the country’s borders, an ash cloud that stranded travelers (and brought business to a halt) for weeks, and turbulent gilets jaunes demonstrations, while welcoming guests from around the world to her French cooking school.
I’m thrilled about her new book, The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time, which recounts her life in Paris, from working in banking, to realizing her dream of opening a cooking school overlooking the Seine, which comes out this Tuesday, and is available for pre-order here:
In this podcast, we talk about a range of things that Jane learned along the way, and in her book, she discusses cultivating friendships and business relationships in France (versus the way things are done in America), French table manners (don’t pour your own wine!) and why people won’t eat any treats that you bring to the office,
I hope you enjoy the podcast..and her book, The French Ingredient!
-David
* Follow La Cuisine on Instagram and Facebook
* Sign up for the La Cuisine newsletter with Paris tips, favorite addresses, and news on what’s happening in Paris.
* Check out La Cuisine in Paris Cooking School (website)
* Get The French Ingredient
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I remember when Deb Perelman, aka: Smitten Kitchen, came on the scene in 2006. A few of us had been blogging for a couple of years, doing our thing—when suddenly, a fresh new voice came out of the blue (and out of New York), that segued perfectly to the new way we eat, and cook—less rules, more fun, and how we write about food.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been following her blog for years and cooking from her books. Decades later, her blog remains one of the most popular food destinations on the internet and each of her books has topped the NYT best-seller list upon its release.
Her recipes are accessible and well-tested, and the entertaining stories that accompany them have made Deb a trusted voice to those of us who follow her. I’ve been fortunate to count her as a friend and she’s just as delightful in person as she is in print and online.
Blogging, and the food media (online and in print) have changed so much over the years, and in this podcast, Deb and I discuss those changes, and how we’ve adapted, as well as her favorite foods (and her least favorite foods), where she gets inspiration, how she tests recipes, eating out vs. eating in, and more.
I hope you enjoy listening to our chat!
-David
* Visit Smitten Kitchen.com
* Check out Deb’s best-selling cookbooks here.
* Listen to her new podcast, The Recipe, with Kenji López-Alt
* Sign up for Deb’s weekly newsletter.
* Follow Smitten Kitchen on Instagram.
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The first time I went to Win Son bakery and café in Brooklyn, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s billed as a Taiwanese-American bakery, and I’m not too familiar with Taiwanese baked goods. I ordered a few things off the menu that sounded good, and after I brought them to the table, I started tasting my way around the tray, and everything I ate blew me away. Everything was delicious.
The bakery and menu items take cues from familiar favorites, such as chocolate chip cookies and donuts, but I was delighted at how brilliantly they incorporated mochi, candied red beans, red rice, and scallions, along with raclette cheese, heritage bacon, and mortadella. It was the best of both (or many) worlds.
I was especially drawn to the Fan tuan, rice rolls filled with eggs, bacon, and a crispy cruller in the middle. It was a great combination, and I could easily give up baguettes and croissants for breakfast if I lived closer.
[And yes, they have a cookbook!]
Another favorite is the egg and cheese scallion pancake breakfast sandwich, which is yet another great argument for combining the best of two culinary cultures, American and Taiwanese. Adam Robertsdeclared it was the best breakfast sandwich of his life and the best thing he ate in 2023.
Since meeting him, I’ve gotten to know Trigg, the co-owner and chef of Win Son, and count him as a friend. It was a pleasure to sit with him in the bakery (pardon any background noise in the podcast). He’s fortunate to have pastry chef Danielle Spencer in the kitchen, who is a treasure, and is responsible for the delicious pastries, along with her staff.
In the kitchen attached to the café, the savory breakfast items are made mostly to order, including the scallion breakfast sandwiches and the Fan tuan rolls. Below, you can watch Trigg making the pancakes and another team member rolling up the rice rolls.
Enjoy the podcast!
-David
Win Son Bakery and Café164 Graham Ave.Brooklyn, NY
A few videos from the bakery and café with Trigg…
And here’s a YouTube video of Trigg assembling the ingredients for the Fan tuan:
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Before I left for Tel Aviv this summer, I rounded up advice from friends who are chefs, cookbook authors, and seasoned eaters about where to eat. I’ve lived in food-centric cities most of my life, but Tel Aviv is in a class by itself. There are so many good places to eat, it’s hard to whittle it down to just a few.
And if you’re there, and ask anyone where they think you should go, be prepared for a lengthy discussion that will result in a strongly opinionated list of suggestions. And if others are around, expect them to interrupt with their own thoughts. People there love to talk about eating, but even better, they really love to eat.
When I ran my list of go-to places by my friend Amit Aaronsohn who lives in Tel Aviv and is a food writer, television and radio host, as well as tour guide, he cocked his head…nixed a few and replaced them with his own suggestions.
Having too many places to eat on your agenda isn’t necessarily a good thing when you’ve got limited time, and when I mentioned my dilemma to another food writer in Tel Aviv, she replied, “If Amit says to go somewhere—go there.”
(I’ll be posting a list of places I ate in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in a newsletter post shortly.)
When I suggested to Amit that we meet up at Shlomo & Sons on a tip from a friend who told me it was her favorite place for falafel (which was on the other end of the city), Amit said to me, “You don’t need to go that far for good falafel here,” and suggested Al Kalha in Jaffa, the historic old quarter of Tel Aviv, where he lives.
Al Kalha doesn’t look like much from the outside, or when you walk in, so I wasn’t expecting much and let Amit take the reins for ordering. But when the food started coming out, in true Middle Eastern style, our table was loaded with food, including just-fried, warm falafels stuffed with onions and sumac and an astounding bowl of warm hummus topped with pita croutons, almonds, and meltingly tender chunks of juicy beef*.
During our meal, while recording the podcast, owner Ahmed Kahtab (shown above, with me and Amit) came by to see how we were doing and pulled up a chair. He explained that during the pandemic, when his hummus shop went on hiatus, he decided to transform the entire menu and feature dishes from his family’s long history in Jordan and other regions. He talked for a few minutes during the podcast, and while my Hebrew and Arabic skills are pretty non-existent, it was wonderful to meet him and learn about his food, thanks to Amit’s translation skills. (And thanks to Justin Golden for his expertise in editing this episode, as well as my others.)
Eating with Amit at Al Kalha was really a highlight of my trip, and I hope you enjoy listening in!
-David
Amit Aaronsohn does travel planning and leads private culinary tours. You can DM him via his Instagram page.
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A FEW NOTES:
-Substack is now offering a new transcript service, which is still in BETA, so you can read the podcast/interview instead of listening to it. I’m using it for the first time here and according to them, once a podcast post is published, an “…episode details tab and transcript tab will appear on the post.” So there should be an option there to read the transcript for those interested near the top of the page, where it says “Transcript.”
I did take a look at the transcription, and it’s definitely still in the BETA stage😉, so it doesn’t read smoothly. But they’re still working on it, and hopefully, it’ll improve as things move along.
*While the recipe they serve at Al Kalha is a family secret, I’ve found recipes for Hummus with beef here, here, here, and here. There’s a recipe for Hummus with Spiced Lamb on my website.
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I didn’t expect to be as captivated as I was by The New French Wine: Redefining the World’s Greatest Wine Culture. It’s an immense two-volume book spanning nearly 850 pages, exploring the lush vineyards and wine regions of France with profiles of 800 producers and notes on around 7,000 wines. I’m no wine expert, but as soon as I started reading the first page, I was hooked.
Living in, and writing about, France, it’s often a challenge to explain the intricacies of life here. In the subtitle of his book, wine writer Jon Bonné acknowledges the greatness of the past and present French wine world, while noting the more unfortunate changes that took place in France and in the French wine industry. It’s a complicated knot of bureaucracy, outdated rules, and a push for higher production (with the help of questionable additives and pesticides), which are coming home to roost as environmental and economic challenges have made making wine more compliqué.
What drew me into the book was how Jon, who lives part-time in France, deeply understands the country. In his write-up of The New French Wine in the New York Times, wine writer Eric Asimov sums it up:
Mr. Bonné argues, essentially, that in order to understand French wine, you need to understand French culture. “C’est compliqué,” he writes. There are contradictions and inconsistencies which the French are forever trying to reconcile as they both yearn for order and resist it. This is a terrific book not only about wine but about France.
It’s not a reference book, but something better: an opinionated, thought-provoking work that uses wine as a vehicle for cultural history.
One needs to understand the past in order to move toward the future, which Jon does so well in his book, with lots of background information based on his deep knowledge of France and French wine, and he highlights a new, younger generation of winemakers who are jumping into the family business, forging new paths, and making wines that are redefining the world of French wine.
I was delighted to invite Jon over when he was in Paris recently to talk about his book, France, and French wine, and he brought a unique white wine from Bordeaux that he picked up on the way over that reflected the changes in the French wine world. (It’s sold in a Burgundy bottle!) I was happy to sit—and sip—with Jon, and hope you enjoy our chat.
-David
* Visit Jon at his website: JonBonné.com
* Follow Jon Bonné on Instagram and Twitter
* Get The New French Wine: Redefining the World’s Greatest Wine Culture
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When it comes to style, I don’t think anyone is eager to copy what I wear every day, although I do know that some people covet some of the dishes and cookware that I pick up at flea markets in France. Fortunately, we have Ajiri Aki in Paris, who founded Madame de la Maison, a fabulous online resource for carefully curated French antiques and linens. (Warning: You’ll want to order everything she has in stock.)
I’ve been a fan of Ajiri for quite some time, but it wasn’t until the release of my book Drinking French that we connected…over cocktail coupes, of course!
So I’m thrilled that Ajiri has come out with her own book, Joie: A Parisian’s Guide to Celebrating the Good Life, where she sets the record straight on how she, and other Parisians, find their joie de vie, describing her personal journey, along with tips from locals, addresses for her favorite cafés for lingering, and spas for personal pampering. For those who have a little more time, she also shares addresses for havens outside of Paris…to get away from it all for le week-end.
Accompanied by beautiful photos, Ajiri lets us in on how she learned to balance raising children and launching a business. Parisians are known for being discerning, and she explains why quality matters to the French, how to master the French art of saying Non (and why), tips for creating the perfect apéro hour (with a “cheat sheet” for getting it together, no matter where you live), some dos and don’ts if you’re a guest or a host at a French party or dinner, and she makes a compelling case for drinking from coupes. (Which I couldn’t agree with more.)
In my favorite chapter, she shares a personal family story of why you should use that special china every day, and not wait for a fancy occasion.
I loved chatting with Ajiri, who got me using the café au lait bowls and linen kitchen towels in my collection (below) that I was saving for a “special day.” Thanks to her, now every day is special!
Enjoy the podcast…
-David
* Visit the Madame de la Maison website and her online Shop
* Follow Ajiri at Madame de la Maison on Instagram and Pinterest
* Get your copy of Joie: A Parisian’s Guide to Celebrating the Good Life
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It’s always a pleasure to chat with Dianne Jacob of Dianne Jacob newsletter, food writing coach, teacher, editor, and author of Will Write for Food, which is the handbook for food writing, covering everything from how to break into the world of food writing, starting a blog or a newsletter, as well as valuable tips on writing recipes, what to know if you want to write your first cookbook or food memoir, and how to “bring home the bacon” from doing it.
During our chat we discussed:
* Who “owns” a recipe?
* Why we both switched from a blog to a newsletter.
* How to attribute a recipe (and do you need to?) and navigate the world of appropriation and authenticity.
* What are some of the more controversial issues facing food writers and cookbook authors today?
* What’s happening (or what happened) to food magazines?
* What changes is the world of food writing going through, and can food writing survive without advertising?
* What really goes into writing a cookbook.
* What subjects cookbook publishers are looking for today.
Hope you enjoy our chat!
- David
Check out Dianne’s book, Will Write for Food.
Follow Dianne on Instagram and Facebook.
Subscribe to Dianne’s newsletter Dianne Jacob
Check out Dianne’s website, which includes her services as a food writing coach and editor.
To receive new posts, podcasts, recipes and Paris stories and become a free or paid subscriber to my newsletter!
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I had spectacular luck with I was in San Francisco and a friend suggested we meet up one morning at Kantine, a Scandinavian bakery and café. Arriving a little early, I was knocked out by the beautiful selection of pastries and breakfast offerings, which included open-faced smoked fish sandwiches on housemade sprouted rye bread, savory grain porridge, and a Scandinavian take on the breakfast sandwich, the Grovbirkes, a seed-crusted spiral of buttery puff pastry filled with warm scrambled eggs and crisp bacon. I wanted it all!
After meeting owner/baker Nichole Accettola after breakfast, I invited her to join me on my podcast to discuss her life in Denmark with her family, Scandinavian versus French baking culture, and her return to the States to open Kantine. We also tasted a selection of her remarkable pastries (above), which are featured in her book, Scandinavian from Scratch, where Nichole reveals the recipes for the delicious treats from her bakery.
I loved meeting and chatting with Nichole, and enjoyed her wonderful pastries…and hope you enjoy our conversation, too.
-David
-Visit the Kantine bakery & café website https://kantinesf.com/
-Follow Kantine on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kantinesf/
-Order Scandinavian from Scratch: A Love Letter to the Recipes of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Amazon) (Bookshop.org)
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When Phil Rosenthal, star of Somebody Feed Phil, comes to town, we did what we do best: Eat.
Phil was in Paris recently on tour celebrating his book, Somebody Feed Phil, the companion to his Netflix series. The cookbook is a compilation of the most requested recipes from the show, which has become wildly popular, and we had a lot of fun catching up since we first met in Paris, back in 2014, when it all began for him.
We dined well in a few great restaurants in Paris, but took a break from the savory side to enjoy some classic French pastries (from Maison Landemaine), which included Chouquettes and a Croissant aux amandes* (above), the latter of which I call the “slippery slope” of French pastries, because once you start eating one, you can’t stop. This particular one also had chocolate in it, which made it extra irresistible. (While we were recording, Phil liked it so much, he almost ate the whole thing himself!)
We also shared a classic Chocolate éclair as well as one of the lesser-known French pastries (outside of France, that is): Flan Parisien. Check out our chat, and our tasting of these sublime French pastries.
Enjoy the podcast!
-David
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*There’s a recipe for making these in my book, L’Appart.
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I recently sat down with my friend Heather Stimmler, of Secrets of Paris, to talk about tourism in Paris for my podcast. Often called “the most visited city in the world,” Paris has an admirable reputation, but the word “tourist” comes with negative connotations. Personally, I love to “play tourist” and spend a day hitting museums, sightseeing, or getting to know a new neighborhood.
Whether you’re a first-time tourist, a resident, a multiple-time visitor, or just interested in Paris, you’ll learn something from Heather and I was happy to have a chat with her about tourism—and other topics—in the city we both call home.
-David
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If you want to learn more about French cheeses, you can't do better than to sit down with Jennifer Greco, a French cheese and wine expert. Jennifer stopped by my kitchen with a basket of magnificent French cheeses which we sampled—and, I apologize in advance, but a few I swooned a little too much over. Yes, she knows her stuff!
I hope you enjoy the podcast—and the sampling of French cheeses—as much as I did😋
-David
To learn more about Jennifer's Cheese and Wine tastings in Paris, click here.
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Sarah and I bonded over our mutual bewilderment over square pillows (which perplex me since people move from side to side when they sleep - not up and down), as well as traversins, the odd cylindrical bed pillows in France that all but guarantee a sleepless night.
So I was excited to attend her latest show, The Only American in Paris, a hilarious hour of comedy, with stories about her arrival in France, meeting her French husband, and raising two Parisian children.
In her fast-moving hour of comedy, Sarah shares revealing photos of her favorite French politicians, and talks about getting her citizenship, which involved quite a few missteps along the way, including the challenge of trying to get a decent photo in one of those photo booths in the métro station, which you need to accompany one of the many dossiers of paperwork you have to compile to live here. (If even the smallest bit of your teeth are showing, your photo—and file—will be rejected.) She also explains why everyone in Paris needs to have two pharmacists. I won’t give away the ending of the one-hour comedy fest, but I will say this: Photos don’t lie!
I loved talking to Sarah for this podcast and hope you enjoy it as well
-David
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Forest Collins of 52 Martinis, a website dedicated to featuring the best cocktail bars in Paris, stopped by my kitchen to shake, stir, and share a few of her favorite cocktail recipes with us, which use French spirits.
There's a delicious 50:50 Martini, a Jack Rose, and a Sidecar to sip on. The recipes are posted in my newsletter at: davidlebovitz.substack.com
Enjoy the podcast, and the drinks!
-David
Visit Forest Collins at her website: 52 Martinis
Listen to Forest’s podcast: Paris Cocktail Talk
Follow Forest on Instagram and Facebook
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France is well-known for its pastries and sweets, but the culture does have a bitter side, which includes bittersweet chocolate, dark and dusky chestnut and buckwheat honey, red currants, assertive gentian apéritifs, bitter almonds, amers like Picon, beers, and leafy salads tossed with bitter greens, such as frisée, roquette (arugula), and Belgian endive.
I first heard of Jennifer McLagan when I saw the striking cover of her book, Fat. Published in 2008, it was a grenade tossed against the fat phobia at the time. (Hard to believe there were stampedes in supermarkets, once upon a time, with people hoarding fat-free SnackWell’s chocolate cookies, which have now disappeared.)
Around the same time, I was having a difference of opinion over the cover of one of my books, and I constantly referred to the cover of Fat as a great cookbook cover. I was also interested in meeting the person who had the audacity to go against the flow and publish a positive book on something that was so reviled at the time.
Jennifer McLagan went on to write an award-winning book on another brilliant subject, Bitter: A Taste of the World’s Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes, and keeps an apartment in Paris where she enjoys the bitter side of the city. We’ve become friends, and it was fun chatting with her in this podcast about the bitter foods enjoyed in France, as well as the drinks.
Enjoy the podcast!
- David
Visit Jennifer at her website: Jennifermclagan.com
Follow Jennifer on Instagram
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One of my heroes in Paris is Miranda Junowicz Bothe. We’ve been friends for many years, and thanks to her, I saved a bundle when buying my previous apartment; she got me through some of the rough patches that came up during the purchase, which were challenging, especially because I wasn’t familiar with the process of (and the cultural differences between) how real estate is bought and sold in the United States versus in France. So it helped to have someone on my side to negotiate, who knew the rules and had connections to the right people to steer the sale through.
Unlike what you see on television, home and apartment buyers in France don’t use agents—if you’re buying a place, the seller’s agent handles the sale and the seller’s agent’s objective is to represent the seller and do what’s in their best interest, not yours. Hence Miranda, who founded Paris Property Group sixteen years ago, with a team of chasseurs (apartment hunters) who help buyers find their dream property and guide them through the process, looking out for them every step of the way.
I did a Q+A with Miranda here in the newsletter:
Recently, I invited Miranda to come to my apartment, the one she helped me buy, to talk about the ins and outs of the Paris real estate market. We covered a lot of ground, from what to expect…to what can go wrong (and how to avoid it).
I hope you enjoy the podcast!
-David
Visit Miranda at Paris Property Group.
Follow Paris Property Group on Facebook and Instagram.
Subscribe to This Paris Life, the Paris Property Group newsletter for insider tips to Paris.
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How does a cookbook get published? What goes into creating a cookbook, and what makes a cookbook great? While the author’s job is to write the book and create the recipes, a good editor will nurture the book until it’s in its final form, ready to send to the printers, before it’s sent to bookstores and eventually lands in the hands of readers.
What does an editor do along the way? Why aren’t there metrics in American cookbooks? Why isn’t there a picture to accompany every recipe in every cookbook published? How does an editor (and ultimately…a publisher) decide who gets to be published?
On my podcast, I talk to legendary cookbook editor Susan Friedland, who edited cookbook greats, including Paula Wolfert, Marcella Hazan, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, Anissa Helou, Nick Malgieri, Alice Waters, Richard Olney, Raymond Sokolov, Joyce White, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Patricia Wells, and Lydie Marshall.
Susan also took a chance on an unknown author and was the editor of my first two books, Room for Dessert and Ripe for Dessert (!).
Now retired, Susan remains a good friend and I enjoy visiting her at home (rather than in her office, although to be honest, we often met in restaurants as we both love eating), surrounded by bookshelves that are loaded with classic cookbooks, many that she’s published and others that she admires and continues to cook from.
For our podcast, we chatted in her New York apartment and discussed the ins and outs of cookbook publishing and how things have changed in recent years, as well as what makes a cookbook a classic, as many of hers have become.
I hope you enjoy our chat!
-David
If you enjoy my podcast(s), you’re welcome to leave a review in Apple Podcasts.
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When I told a friend that when I’m in New York, I go out for drinks with Brad Parsons, she said, “Oh, he’s the holy grail of drinking buddies!” I was introduced to Brad via Ed Anderson, who photographed my books Drinking French and My Paris Kitchen, and he photographed all of Brad’s books. After shooting My Paris Kitchen, Ed sent me a copy of Bitters, which was so well-written and covered the subject so well (a subject I wasn’t all that familiar with, but the book piqued my interest!) that I had to meet him.
Brad has not only written Bitters, which won coveted James Beard and IACP awards, but also the book on Amaro, and Last Call, about closing time in the bar world. In Distillery Cats, he profiles “the world’s most spirited mousers,” and he’s currently working on a book about Italian drinks.
I often refer to Brad as the Godfather of Drinking French as Brad was kind enough to put me in touch with contacts he had in the U.S., and he spent more than a few evenings with me doing “research” at bars, so I could see and learn how bartenders used French spirits, while also learning what was (and wasn’t) readily available outside of France.
I’m fortunate to have Brad as a friend. He knows his spirits and is great fun to have a drink with. He just launched a his own newsletter, Last Call, where he covers the cocktail scene and shares stories, such as a nostalgic look at his favorite hand pies in New Orleans, a heartfelt ode to his late best friend and companion, and cocktail recipes, including seasonal summer drinks from New York’s famed Gramercy Tavern.
Subscribe to my newsletter to receive new posts, podcasts, recipes…and more! (Paid subscribers get full access to archives and more Paris stories.)
In my podcast, Brad and I talked about French and Italian spirits and apéritifs, as well as how the countries differ in what they drink, and the way they drink, along with recipes if you’d like to share a drink with us!
You can also find Brad at his website and on Instagram, and the recipes for the drinks we made in the podcast are below. - David
Campari and Soda
From Brad Thomas Parsons
2 ounces Campari (stored in the freezer)
6 ounces ice-cold seltzer or club soda
Garnish: orange slice or twist
Add the chilled Campari to a frozen tumbler or highball glass.
Top with seltzer or club soda. Add ice and orange slice or twist.
Campari Shakerato
From Brad Thomas Parsons, adapted from Naren Young, at Dante, NYC
2 1/2 ounces Campari
Add the Campari to a mixing tin and shake with ice.
Strain the mixture into the empty part of the mixing tin, if using a 2-part Boston shaker—if using a standard 3-part shaker, called a cobbler shaker, strain the mixture into another vessel. (You can read about the different types of shakers here.) Discard the ice and pour the mixture back into the shaker and shake vigorously—called a “dry shake”—for 10-15 seconds.
Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass or small coupe glass.
Suze and Tonic
Adapted from Drinking French
You can use Suze or Salers, another gentian-flavored French apéritif, in this twist on the classic Gin & Tonic. If you want it on the stronger side, feel free to add more Suze or Salers.
1 ounce Suze or Salers
3 ounces ice-cold tonic water
2 lime wedges
Add the Suze or Salers to a tall Collins glass or tumbler, or a footed goblet.
Top with tonic water and add a generous handful or two of ice. Garnish with lime wedges.
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Who doesn’t love a great croissant? I certainly do. But I also love the other delicious treats that come out of the oven of Ali Spahr, pastry chef, and ace baker at Winner in Brooklyn.
Ali studied baking in France at the esteemed Ferrandi cooking school in Paris, and when Daniel Eddy, the chef/owner of Winner (who also lived in Paris) decided to open up a café and bakery in New York, he wanted to re-create some of the “grab and go” pastries that France is known for, and tapped Ali with the task.
I make it a point to go to Winner every time I’m in New York, and so do a lot of locals, as evidenced by the lines of people waiting patiently for one of her gorgeous Croissants, Pains au chocolat, stellar Monkey Bread, and Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies. The cookies are so good that Romain once bought eight of them!
Join me for this podcast as I chat with Ali about baking in France and America, how she comes up with ideas for the “daily drop” of doughnuts and beignets, and the exciting news that she’s going to have her own dedicated baking space soon.
You can listen in at the link at the top of this post, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. Enjoy! - David
* Follow Ali on Instagram.
* Visit Winner in Brooklyn at 367 7th Avenue and Winner in the Park.
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