“Rustic French Cooking Made Easy” is out!

After more than a year of planning, writing, photographing and recipe testing, my debut cookbook, “Rustic French Cooking Made Easy” (by Page Street Publishing) finally launches today. If you’ve already pre-ordered your copy: Thank You! And if not, you can head over to your favorite bookstore today, or shop online to purchase your own copy. 

I’m so pleased to be able to share this book with you. Some of the feedback received over the past few weeks has been amazing – some of which you can read here: 

• Publishers Weekly review
• Niagara This Week: “NOTL’s Audrey Le Goff unlocks French Food for all” 
• Bon Appetit: Author makes French Cuisine “approchable” in new book. (p.20)

With that said, I wanted to take a moment to share with you some notes on the recipes you’ll find in the book: how they were selected, developed, tested, written – and perhaps most importantly, how you can successfully recreate these dishes in your own kitchen. 

Notes on the Recipes from the book

The collection of recipes from the book is not about the whole of France (a lifetime of books wouldn’t be enough to encompass all of it). But it is about the most memorable recipes that I have encountered in France so far, and some of the most essential and timeless recipes from each French region that you will find made and shared in French family homes.

With that, the recipes in the book are French through and through. For as far I can remember, I have written down all my favorite French recipes in notebooks that I kept preciously at the bottom of my suitcase wherever I would travel, or live. I gathered these recipes from old worn-out cookbooks, dinner memories with friends and family, and travels and encounters throughout France. Once home, I test and re-test all recipes, always adding my own twists and naturally adapting them to my own skills, time and available ingredients – as a modern French homecook, now living outside of France.

Recipes in this book range from light to generous, from easy to less-so, from quick to slow. Mostly, they don’t require any expertise or technique. Achieving and keeping an authentic taste is always my priority. Some recipes are as traditional as they can be, and some require a few substitutions (if certain ingredients aren’t available outside of France). These substitutions are always made in the most thoughtful way, to ensure the recipe remains accessible to everyone while never impacting the signature flavours of the dish. You will notice there is no dietery restrictions in this book; it’s simply all about pleasure.

I should also mention that although some recipes are easily attributed to a region, some aren’t. When searching into a recipe’s background and birth place, I sometimes only uncovered another dozen very similar recipes. Like their origins, the stories behind the creation of recipes are truth to some, and perhaps anecdotal to others. Through regions and times, longstanding recipes and their stories fused and mashed, leaving us with myriads of versions and hypotheses behind them. In this book, I am sharing my version and story of them; but be assured you could open another French cookbook to find a recipe under the same name, with another story and version being told.

How to Successfully Achieve the recipes

French cuisine is known as a precise art; but I believe it doesn’t always have to be. In baking, sure, precision and following directions are key. But for some other savory recipes, the serving portions, weights and measurements are here to guide you to achieve successful recipes. But if you wish to add more mushrooms to a stew, two extra pieces of chicken or a bigger splash of calvados, it is perfectly fine (as long as the integrity and soul of the dish isn’t altered). In France, every region, every town, every family has their take on a recipe; which shows how there is always room for personal expression. When tasting the same dish in different cities, I always expect it to be different from one another, and it always is. Tweaks and twists are not only acceptable, they are somewhat expected. They’re what keeps a recipe alive and makes an old-timey dish, a dish that never gets old. Homecooking as done in France is liberating, free of stress. It’s simply about getting pleasure and bringing pleasure to the table. I think this goes with expressing your creatvity, and your own judgement of course. With that in mind, a key for acheiving a successful recipe is to taste. Your palate is your best friend. Taste, taste, adjust seasonings, and taste again.

The French Pantry

Throughout my years of living outside of France, I have developed a list of pantry staples that allows me keep authentic French flavors in my cooking. Whether alternative flours used in different regions of France (buckwheat, chickpea), specialty dairy products (crème fraiche), herbs and spices, or regional spirits (Calvados, Armagnac, Kirch…), these items are always in my pantry – and you will find them used in many recipes from this book. Adding a sprinke of Espelette pepper on an egg or a splash of Calvados in a sauce… these are the small details that will bring authentic and unreplicable French flavours to your table.

You will encounter these items throughout the book under “The French Pantry” side notes. I have kept the list short and sweet, and attempted to keep hard-to-find French ingredients to a minimum in the recipes that follow them. All the products listed are all available in North America. Some are widely available in grocery stores, and some might need a little (worthwhile) effort to be tracked down in specialty stores, bulk food stores or online.