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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312261497
• ISBN13: 9780312261498
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

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 the top bakers, pastry chefs, restaurateurs, wine, champagne and cheese makers. Her section on making the famous chocolate Opéra layer cake at the Le Nôtre Culinary Academy, a four-hour process, will have you running to France to buy one! As her French sister-in-law points out: "That's a cake you BUY!" But most of all, it's a personal account by someone who soon becomes like a friend, as she shares her very real experience of adapting to France, sprinkled with lots of hints on doing things the French way.

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 plate have been put to use as have her simple but delicious recipes. After a spate of books from food "experts", most of whom couldn't mix up a simple green salad, this book is a gem.

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 so much time is taken up where food is involved it takes on a much more significant role in French family & social life, French culture in general, than it does in the US.Ms. Rochefort's lighthearted and amusing touch is certainly deceiving. Her account of this discovery seems to be written from the heart as she describes her first years in France, then motherhood, and her attempts to find her place with her French in-laws, and finally interviews with the paragons of French gastronomy. By the end of the book it is interesting to see what significance these culinary capers have for her and how much she cares about French food. And how much we can learn by reading the book!

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 wine.It's been an interesting experience to read this book (a celebration of good food, good wine, and a high quality of life) alongside Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" (a wonderfully written and thoroughly depressing exploration of the rise of fast food in the U.S. during the latter half of the 20th century and its impact on our culture). Rochefort, too, warns of the encroachment of McDonalds and other American fast-food enterprises on the French culinary landscape; she notes that she hopes her observations of French cuisine will not serve as a memorial of such an inherent part of French culture. Reading these two books side-by-side guarantees that you will never eat fast food again. And to make certain of that, Rochefort includes several tried-and-true French recipes. The ones I've tried have been simple and delicious!