By Our French Chef en Residence, Claire Tuffereau
“I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother; I am a gardener, a watercolorist and a teacher, but cooking runs my life, brightens my days, cements my relationships, and heals me mentally and physically.
“It all started with my parents and how food was at the center of our family life. When I remember my father and mother, he is in his country garden, painstakingly weeding away, and she is standing in front of the stove, concocting something magical out of the fresh produce he brought home at the end of the week. With this, and without words, they taught me love, respect, and how to care for others. They gave me happiness. If I am an inveterate optimist, I owe it in part to food, its smells, its colors, and its ability to dig deep inside my brain for adventurous and fearless creativity.
“If one day my life needs a summary, this is it:
“She loved, therefore she cooked.”
—Claire Tuffereau
We are delighted to post one of Claire’s recipes each month for you to prepare and enjoy—bon appétit!
Jackdaw Journeys French Recipes
THE LATEST RECIPES FROM IN HOUSE CHEF CLAIRE TUFFEREAU
In Praise of Cookies
In his book: “Café Boulud Cookbook”, this is what Daniel Boulud writes about these cookies, unique to Britany: “Trao-Mad are the tenderest, meltingest, butteriest cookies imaginable”, and I could not agree with him more, since Britany being the place where I was born and spent my life until I came to this country, I am very partial to its gastronomic prouesses.
In Praise of May?
The question mark is not a mistake. I am usually very fond of May and it is my favorite month of the year but this past May was not a blessing.
In Praise of April
I discovered a very unusual recipe: a “Tatin” of apples with a filling of onions, cabbage and ground sausage meat. I was intrigued.
In Praise of Daffodils
From the beginning of the month, while walking my dog, I have spotted a cluster of daffodils on the side of the trail, just starting to merge from under a thick blanket of dead leaves, protected from north winds by the low branches of pine trees growing behind them, and basking in the sun all day.
In Praise of Chocolate
I have been resisting chocolate since the beginning of winter, thinking that if I can forego cream cheese brownies or Maida Heatter’s Queen Mother’s Cake, an amazing chocolate torte, I will be a better (looking) person for it; but Spring is taking its sweet time and as I am standing in front of my cooking library, righteously thinking hearty soups or flavorful stews, the chocolate dessert books beckon me with brighter colors and bolder characters than any other books on
the shelves.
