French Fried: The Culinary Capers Of An American In Paris

By Harriet Welty Rochefort

"When I think of the French paradox, I remember a lunch with an eighty-five-year-old French woman who was trim and slim and as agile as a twenty-year-old. Her secret? 'My doctor told me to drink a glass of red wine-- Bordeaux-- at lunch and at dinner.' She does, and is going strong!"-- from French Fried French Toast author Harriet Welty Rochefort continues her attempts to demystify the French with French Fried , the saucy-- sometimes spicy-- and often hilarious tale of one American woman's thirty-year foray into the byzantine world of French cuisine. And when it comes to food, Rochefort's experiences are anything but dull or traditional. When she first arrives in France, she dines on onion soup with her concierge. When she finally gets a decent apartment with a kitchen (in which she doesn't cook), it turns out that there's both a shower-- and a cop-- in it. But after marrying a Frenchman, Philippe, the jig is up. Cooking, she realizes, will now be part of her life whether she likes it or not. Digging her heels, she graduates from opening cans of peas to casually knocking out two major three-course meals a day in no time at all. Rochefort shares these and other intimate details of her culinary progression, including her most impressive disasters (the plastic sandwich fiasco), as well as her successes. She takes us into French "hypermarkets," invites us to join her family for a typical six-course Sunday lunch in the country, includes us in a pastry class at Len tre, and introduces us to some nice and some not-so-nice Parisian waiters. In a style that's a cross between Erma Bombeck and M.F.K. Fisher, Rochefort tells the entertaining story of how she, an American raised on meat and potatoes, learned to appreciate food la francaise. Globalization and standardization may menace Gallic cuisine-- but not for long, if Rochefort is there to defend it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312261497
• ISBN13: 9780312261498
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.7" x 1.1" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

Read this book before you go to Paris

A thoughtful, humorous peek under the covers of French culture. Her candid take on the pleasures and difficulties of living in Paris makes for a relaxed and informative read. As soon as I finished French Fried, I ordered her other book, French Toast, and loved it also. These are a must-read for even a casual traveler to France.

Food: The French Love Affair

If you equate France with good food and you'd like a delectable read, I highly recommend "French Fried," an ode to the French love of all good things, food-wise (bread, wine, cheese and sweets) and soul-wise (sweets again, this time chocolate; pampering of body and soul, and the long and pleasurable French meal). Ms Welty-Rochefort has done her homework with interviews, visits, on-site trials, tastings and classes with all...

Licking my chops

I loved the author's self-deprecating humor as she tells the story of her love of French food and shares the wealth of information she has gleaned both from living in France for three decades and from talking with some of the foremost people in France's food world. After reading what she says about cheese, I can't wait for my next trip to France to feast on some "real" Brie. Meanwhile, her tips on what makes a good cheese...

Musing from the Heart - French Culinary Culture

I loved this book! It is a sincerely written account of Ms. Rochefort's adaptation to her life in France and of her efforts to find the essence of French cuisine. She examines her midwestern roots and American habits as she learns, step by step, what French food really is. And that is not so much fancy dishes and rich sauces as it is an attitude - a reverence of food, from its preparation to its place on the table. Since...

More French follies from Harriet Welty Rochefort

Rochefort's follow-up to "French Toast" focuses on the culinary differences between America and France, which have lead to huge differences in culture, lifestyle, and waistlines. With a breezy style and self-deprecating wit, she demystifies what the French cook, how they cook it, how they eat it, and how it enhances the pleasures of life. Surely one of the pleasures in life is relaxing with this book and a nice glass of red...