I don't try to follow a trend. I have my own little path. - Sarah Brightman I am anti-trend. Yes, I have worked in the arts in New York. And fashion in Milan. And food in Paris. How much trendier, how much under the influence can one get than art, fashion and food? Yet I recoil from trends, ...
Classic Lemon Chiffon Pie
My father planted a lone lemon tree in the backyard. This was about the time that he went on his homegrown produce kick and had planted a small vegetable patch at the side of the house, which eventually would boast big fat red tomatoes and long, slim chili peppers. He worked long and hard on ...
Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake and Mme. Lainel’s Visit
A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine. - Anne Bronte Sometimes one must just force summer’s hand a little bit. Mme. Lainel showed up in reception Tuesday evening, later than was her habit of dropping in, making her way carefully across the courtyard, clutching her cane in one hand, crunching ...
Pastry, Petitions, and Politics, Part I
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. - Edith Sitwell It’s nice to have a few down days at the hotel, nice to be able to spend time with the staff, get ...
Chocolate Espresso Layer Cake for a Birthday
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.- Chili Davis I don’t know which astonishes me the most: that I have reached this age and am still standing or that I am standing on the threshold of our second year at the Hôtel Diderot … and I am still standing. “Oh, grow up!” he often says to me ...
Amaretto Brownies with Amaretti
From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining. - Leonard Bernstein It’s the same thing, year in and year out. December comes to a lively end, a rousing, bubbly conclusion, flowing by faster than we could ever have imagined. As the end of one year draws ...
Dust to Dust
A life without love in it is like a heap of ashes upon a deserted hearth, with Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery I pick through the ashes of my childhood, like sifting for gold ...
Decadent Chocolate Cake with Christmas Spices
Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store. - Dr. Seuss The weather is mild, much milder than anyone of us would have expected. Or desired. Breakfast is served in a dim dining room early morning, warmth and light blazing from the fireplace, the old fourteenth century fireplace of limestone and wood, while outside ...
Chocolate Chestnut Fondant
Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humor, and like enough to consent. - William Shakespeare I love the holidays. Halloween comes and goes swathed in orange and black, tiny marzipan jack-o’-lanterns and chocolate skeletons dancing across supermarket shelves and shop windows. Thanksgiving arrives sharp on its heels in a burst ...
Cherry Chocolate Maple Challah
A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long. - e. e. cummings A day like today. One week after the attacks in Paris, the weather is stormy, the sky a hazy pewter gray, the ...