French Toast from New York Times - June 1, 2008

We've Always Had Paris...and Provence Paperback
We've Always Had Paris...and Provence Paperback

Many culturally hungry Americans dream about moving to France. “We’ve Always Had Paris ... and Provence” is the story of two who did so and have lived happily ever after. Patricia Wells, known best for her seminal “Food Lover’s Guide to Paris,” and Walter Wells, a high-ranking editor of The International Herald Tribune from 1980 to 2005, have written a he-said, she-said memoir, volleying back and forth to tell how a girl from Wisconsin and a boy from South Carolina met while working at The New York Times and went to France in 1980 on what they assumed would be temporary journalistic assignments. They found their lives’ calling as expatriates, transcending prejudice to be accepted and even revered by the foreign culture they embraced. Walter was awarded the French Legion of Honor. Patricia recounts with no small measure of self-amazement the time she showed the Frenchman Joël Robuchon, “the greatest chef in the world,” how to make her special bouillabaisse.

The couple describe France’s allure with converts’ enthusiasm. Of her early research for the guide book, Patricia writes: “Everything was new, bright, exciting. There were so many first-time experiences, so many thrilling new tastes. ... Many a night, as Walter walked in the door from work I would shout with joy, ‘I just had one of the best days of my life!’ Walter would respond, ‘You say that three times a week.’” Regarding their decision to stay abroad, he writes: “Why Paris? What was it about the city that pulled us there and kept us? Well, how high is the sky?”

Patricia’s accounts of Provence are full of storybook moments. Of their house, Chanteduc, she rhapsodizes: “We did plant a butterfly bush, a buddleia, that we cut back in winter. From spring until late autumn its brilliant purple flowers attract white and yellow butterflies that dance around over the terrace. One day the Three Tenors were singing loud and clear from the speakers in the corners of my kitchen, and I would swear that the butterflies were dancing to the music. It made me cry with happiness.” Of Provence itself, “It symbolized all the essential elements of the happiness we sought in life: friends, family, food and feasts.” Walter’s description of Chanteduc as it was when they bought it is less starry-eyed: “The bathrooms were inadequate, the windows didn’t shut out the wind, and those tangles of wire in the basement meant that the electricity needed attention, too.” Although he notes that “even a fantasy life has its share of uphill struggle,” Walter is smitten in his own way, rhapsodizing about all the merchants of which they become clients fidèles, creating for him and his wife a sense of community.

A memoir is intrinsically self-centered, at best offering a fresh vision of the world through other eyes, at worst reading like an overlong Christmas letter. Patricia Wells’s recipes, which follow every chapter, are indeed delicious and unusual, some so evocative that you can practically smell the lavender fields outside the kitchen window and feel the chill of the mistral. Appearances of Robuchon, Julia Child and a Provençal truffle hunter are frothy peaks in the story. But when the Wellses focus on themselves the cream curdles. The book is overloaded with pictures of them separately and together, beaming out at us with politicians’ pasted-on smiles, perfectly outfitted for a night on the town or a morning in the garden, always looking just right and manically happy. It is not just the canned pictures that make it difficult to relate to our omnipresent bibliohosts the way it is so easy to do in such disarming memoirs as Peter Mayle’s “Year in Provence” and Adam Gopnik’s “From Paris to the Moon.” They write like ad men trying to sell readers on the excellence of their self-proclaimed fantasy lives, from the distinctive wines they make to Patricia’s triumphs as a long-distance runner. Without irony, Walter quotes the cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli observing their shopping habits in France: “You originated the Dean & DeLuca lifestyle.” He then sincerely boasts that their lifestyle is even better than that, because the excellent butcher delivers their leg of lamb to Patricia’s car, “parked far away.” What might have been a delicious invitation to a banquet winds up reading like a brochure for an expensive gated community

stern-600
stern-600

Do we need to know that Patricia’s personal maintenance routine consists of “weekly visits to the hairdresser for upkeep and a manicure, twice a week to the massage therapist, a weekly facial, a monthly pedicure”? She reveals, “I even multitask when I have a facial, having facial hair removed and putting my eyelashes up on rollers so they have an even curl.” The payoff for her beauty routine comes “when Walter and I passed a woman who clearly did not subscribe to the maintenance theory. Her hair was a mess, and dirty as well. She walked with difficulty, overburdened by excess weight. Her clothes were rumpled and too tight. She wore no makeup and the deep wrinkles on her face suggested she was a lifelong smoker. Walter turned to me and said quietly, ‘Thank you for taking care of yourself.’” L’addition, s’il vous plaît!

Jane and Michael Stern are the authors of “Roadfood.”

What We’re Reading: We’ve Always Had Paris . . . and Provence from Washingtonian.com - June 4, 2008 - What We're Reading

We've Always Had Paris...and Provence Paperback
We've Always Had Paris...and Provence Paperback

Who hasn’t dreamed of leaving everything behind and moving to Paris? For Patricia and Walter Wells, that dream became a reality when they packed up their lives in New York and moved to the City of Light more than 25 years ago. As the young couple negotiated their way through the initial loneliness, figured out a foreign language, and learned the Kafkaesque rules of French etiquette, they fell in love with the country and their temporary stint turned permanent. We’ve Always Had Paris . . . and Provence (HarperCollins, $26.95) is their joint account of their life together in France, an adventure enhanced by friends, engaging work, and above all, food.

In the 1970s, Wells wrote about food for The Washingtonian. She went on to become food critic for the International Herald Tribune and author of The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris as well as several bestselling cookbooks, eating her way across France in the process. These meals form the backbone of this meandering memoir as she interviews brooding chefs and travels to restaurants both famous and infamous in search of great food. In alternating chapters, her husband, Walter—who retired as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in 2005—adds his witty and perceptive observations about les Français and life as an expat. Though a “scrapbook” of reminiscences may sound like a recipe for pretension, the Wellses have a gentle, self-deprecating tone that prevents the book from lapsing into self-indulgence.

Sprinkled through the book are more than 30 recipes inspired by the Wellses’ memories. If you’ve ever wondered what a renowned food critic eats at home—or how she maintains her trim figure—the answer lies somewhere between Patricia’s lemon chicken with roasted onions and the five miles she runs every morning. Inspired by Patricia’s description of that “simple” yet “sublime” roast chicken, I prepared my own bird, stuffing it with lemons and thyme before popping it into the oven for an hour or so. I followed her detailed instructions carefully, flipping the bird from side to side to back—and the result was a crisp and golden chicken, the moist meat gently flavored by the herbs and citrus. The next day, I tossed the leftover meat into the suggested “celery, tarragon, spinach, and chicken salad,” a crunchy, bright mixture enlivened by the acidic bite of capers and pickles. My husband and I ate our simple meal accompanied by the recommended Sauvignon Blanc and flickering candlelight. It wasn’t quite Paris or Provence, yet somehow I still felt touched by the Wells’s joie de vivre.

Louise McCready: Francophile Food Critic and Cookbook Author Patricia Wells on Writing, Cooking, and Running from The Huffington Post

James Beard Award winning cookbook author Patricia Wells started as a food critic in the U.S., and then Paris. Today, she runs marathons to keep in shape and teaches disciples how to cook simple, healthy, and delicious dishes. I stopped by Patricia's pad in Paris to find out the best sushi spot in Paris, her favorite types of cheese, and how she became the first American female to work as a restaurant critic for a major French publication.

LM: You've been a food writer since you were 31. How did you start?

PW: In third grade I knew I wanted to be a journalist and write for newspapers. I took the straight and narrow path: high school editor of the newspaper, college, graduate school, master's degree in journalism. I always loved to cook, and my mother was a great cook, so I always assumed I would grow up with good food around me. At that time, there were no food writers. I kept cooking all the time, but I liked art and history, so I got a master's in art history. I was an art critic at the Washington Post, but it was very boring. There was nobody to talk to! I always joke that artists and chefs are the worst to interview because their work speaks for itself. I would find myself going to the Smithsonian to read the history of something, and I thought, 'This isn't why I went into journalism.'

I gradually drifted more towards writing about modern crafts, like artisans and glass blowers. I traveled around the country and wrote a book for National Geographic on the craftsman of the 70s. I started writing about food bit by bit, and in 1976, I moved to New York. The New York Times was just starting their new sections: Weekend was their first section, then Living Home, and then Living. I started out as an editor on the daily culture desk. When they started the Home section, I worked there, and then for Living. At that time, there were [food critics] Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, and Pierre Franey. They needed another food writer and I raised my hand. I was a vegetarian at the time. One editor told me, "You don't have to eat meat, just say you do," but I like to say I'm the only person who gave up vegetarianism for their career.

LM: You are the only American woman to have been a restaurant critic for a major French publication. What was that like?

PW: It was so incredible. I moved to Paris to write for the Anglophone papers. It never occurred to me that I'd write for the French. I moved here in 1980 when the chefs who are now at the top—Joël Robuchon, Guy Savoy—were just starting out. We're the same age, so we were all starting out together, and I was able to watch their rise to success. When the Food Lovers Guide to France was published, I appeared on l'Apostrophe, which aired at 8 o'clock on Friday nights. As the most watched show in the country, being on it was like getting on the old Johnny Carson. When I got home from Amsterdam, after my book had come out in Dutch, my husband met me at the door with a glass of champagne. I thought, 'Oh God, he's having an affair.' He said, "Sit down. I have to tell you something…[The French newspaper] L'Express called and they want you to be their restaurant critic."

My spoken French is fine but I've never learned to write. I called the editor on Monday and I said, "You've got the wrong girl. I don't write in French." He said, "We're a very liberal publication but you don't mind if we translate you?" I said, "I'll take it on one condition: I get to pick the translator. I have one woman who's translated all of my books and when I read it, it reads like me. She's a food writer and a translator." She and my editor are now married. It's the only match making I've ever done.

In the beginning I thought, 'I'm going to have to write differently for the French.' But one only has one way of writing. You can't change your style. It was very exciting, but it was killing me too because I kept up my [International Herald] Tribune reviews, and I never wrote about the same places.

LM: You don't consider yourself a chef. Do you think people understand what you teach better than if you had trained professionally?

PW: I think that anyone who teaches anything brings a certain amount of knowledge and passion for the subject, which is what it takes to transmit ideas, philosophies, points of view. I don't know if I would be a better teacher if I had been professionally trained. I only know that I teach with a passion and I know that it is transmitted to my students. I try to teach a lifestyle—great ingredients, simplicity.

LM: Any new or up and coming chefs you're especially fond of?

PW: I really love a couple restaurants. One is called Epigramme, at 9, rue l'Eperon in the 6th. The owner I knew from years ago. He was a maî tre d' for Guy Savoy and he opened this tiny little restaurant in what used to be a wonderful tea salon. We must go once a week. It's what I would call a modern bistro. What I love about it is there's not one dish on that menu that you would find anywhere else, and yet it's very traditional. They have little terrines. It seems as though terrines are coming back—all of a sudden they're everywhere. I forgot how good they are and satisfying.

There's another new, very ambitious restaurant on Cherche-Midi where they just serve terrines and four dishes that you wouldn't normally see. We had a pig parts salad the other day with pigs' tails and ears. They serve a very classic dish called Lièvre à la Royal, which is wild hare cooked in blood. It's very spicy, and it was one of Robuchon's classic dishes. One night they said, "Everyone's having Lièvre à la Royal, so if you don't want to eat that, don't come." It's very traditional and yet very modern—those are the kind of places I love.

At another called Itineraires, at 5, rue Pontoise in the 5th, I had a terrine with mustard ice cream. I had had that years ago at Alain Passard's—he had put mustard ice cream in gazpacho. I made it for a while and totally forgot about it.

LM: You're originally from the cheese-loving state of Wisconsin, and you now live in France, where they have more cheeses than days in a year. What are your top three favorite cheeses?

PW: I love all cheeses and I'm always finding new ones. I'm lucky enough to have two of the best cheese merchants in the country: Josiane Deal at Lou Canesteaou, in our village of Vaison-la-Romaine and Crémerie Quatrehomme in Paris. I love Vacherin Mont d'Or because it's seasonal and there's nothing like it. I love all sheep cheeses. Now that it's truffle season, I cut Chaource, Brie, or Camembert in three, put black truffles in, and let it age for three or four days. That is heavenly.

LM: You make a point of keeping fit and I understand you like to run, but when I was living here I felt I was one of the only people out jogging.

PW: People say that, but I've been running since I moved here and there are always people running in the park. If you go to the races, running's huge. I think running's more of a class thing here—middle and lower-middle class people tend to be runners. I don't know why that is, but it is. I love races here, and the Paris marathon is great. Running is a part of me that's carried me through my whole adult life. When I'm running, I feel most like myself, more than at any other time of the day.

LM: Even more so than when writing?

PW: Yes. Even cooking. I get all of my ideas when I run. My head is just cleared.

LM: Other than "simple", how do you define the cuisine you teach?

PW: That's a hard question to answer, but my books are certainly French influenced. Learning to shop is so important. For without great ingredients one can never create great food. So learning to respect ingredients and do the least possible with them, is my philosophy.

LM: I haven't come across many good sushi restaurants in Paris.

PW: My favorite is right around here: Tsukizi on rue de Ciseaux. It's very traditional—no California rolls. I went for lunch yesterday. There are no bells and whistles. They have 5 employees. It's so tiny, but yesterday they were turning people away.

LM: Where do you see the future of cooking going?

PW: I think it will become more what I was talking about the food at Epigramme—traditional, sane, healthy. Ingredients just get better and better, fresher and fresher. People are more aware of freshness and variety.

LM: Any thoughts on how chefs have become celebrities with shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef and the Food Network?

PW: I think it's too much. I haven't seen most of those shows, but I know it's not about food anymore. It's about performance. As long as you understand that, it's ok. It's entertainment. People love it. I was talking to a friend who had cancer and she said that in the oncology ward, all the people do is watch the Food Network. A lot of elderly people live for it. It nourishes people in some way, which is positive. It's a trend. We want to make everyone a star in America.

Announcing TASTES OF VIETNAM

Nam Hai Poolside
Nam Hai Poolside

A Unique Week of Cooking in Vietnam with Patricia and Walter Wells

Patricia and Walter Wells are especially pleased to announce an exceptional new culinary experience, a weeklong event at Vietnam’s most luxurious resort, The Nam Hai. This special TASTES OF VIETNAM week – May 9th to 14th 2010 – will focus on the best foods that Vietnam has to offer in an extraordinary setting.

Guests will stay at the exclusive oceanfront resort on the famous “China Beach,” just outside the storybook village of Hoi An. Patricia and Walter returned recently from a 10-day scouting trip that took them all over Vietnam, sampling the country’s spectacularly light and elegant cuisine.

Poolside Lighted The grand pool at the Nam Hai at sunset. (Download the Nam Hai Factsheet)

ABOUT THE COOKING CLASSES

The week will include four full-participation classes with simple Vietnamese menus taught by Patricia and Walter, followed by lunch; daily wine pairings; two afternoon demonstrations by local Vietnamese chefs; two restaurant dinners in the village of Hoi An; a wine tasting with a leading importer; a gala opening dinner and a special beach barbecue dinner at the resort. On one of the days we will travel by boat from Hoi An to the misty Cham Islands, where we will enjoy a beach picnic, featuring produce grown on the islands, as well as freshly grilled fish and shellfish from the South China Sea.

Patricia and Walter have selected the premier luxury wine company Goelet Wine Estates as their exclusive wine partner for the week. GWE owns winegrowing properties in Napa Valley (Clos du Val), Victoria, Australia (Taltarni) and the Languedoc, in Southern France (Domaine de Nizas).

All of these domains are known for producing extraordinary and balanced wines that express the terroir of their unique sites and are produced specifically to be savored with food.

Sylvain Bournigault from Les Celliers d'Asie, one of the foremost wine experts in Indochina will be our host for the wine tastings, which will include a presentation of rare older Cabernet Sauvignon vintages from the library at Clos du Val. The Clos du Val’s inaugural Cabernet Sauvignon vintage, 1973, was among the wines poured at the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting. This vintage, along with Patricia’s reflections on the event that rocked the wine world, will be an unforgettable experience.

Patricia at sunset in Hoi An
Patricia at sunset in Hoi An

ABOUT THE SETTING

When guests are not cooking or dining, there is plenty to do at The Nam Hai (www.ghmhotels.com). The resort, opened in 2007, has established a reputation as one of the hottest resorts anywhere. It was singled out by two of the most influential travel publications in the world – Travel + Leisure (USA) and Gourmet Traveller (Australia). The former named it “Best Resort” in its annual design competition; the latter voted it the “Best New Hotel” in 2008.

The all-villa resort consists of 35 acres of impeccably landscaped tropical gardens overlooking the South China Sea, 30 kilometers south of Da Nang. We will all be staying in the hotel's pool villas each of which features a private, temperature-controlled pool.

Along with a luxurious spa, the Nam Hai includes three swimming pools, four tennis courts, a basketball and badminton court and an adjacent 18-hole golf course, Montgomerie Links www.montgomerielinks.com, designed by Colin Mongomerie. In 2009, Montgomerie Links Vietnam joined the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Asia’s most talked about golfing itinerary. If you are interested in adding a world class golf component as a complement to the course, please let us know.

making spring rolls in open market
making spring rolls in open market
fisherman hoi an
fisherman hoi an

MORE ABOUT THE WEEK

All instruction is in English. Recipes are geared to the recreational cook. Guests are supplied with aprons, a special kit of Vietnamese cooking tools, as well as detailed recipe booklets that are theirs to keep.

The class is limited to 20 participants. The week begins with dinner on Sunday night May 9th, 2010, and ends after lunch on Friday, May 14th, 2010. The fee is $6,750 per person for single occupancy and $5,750 per person for double occupancy. The price includes luxury lodging from Sunday night to Saturday morning, all breakfasts, a gala Sunday night dinner, Monday full-participation cooking class and lunch, afternoon demonstration, Monday dinner, Tuesday full-participation cooking class and lunch, afternoon demonstration, Tuesday dinner, Wednesday trip to Cham Islands with lunch, Thursday full-participation cooking class and lunch, wine tastings, Thursday Nam Hai beach dinner, Friday full-participation cooking class and lunch. The fee includes all local transportation and transportation from the Da Nang airport to the Nam Hai. Guests who would like to be accompanied by a spouse/partner who will not participate in the cooking classes can attend for the price of $5,250.

DEPOSIT: A non-refundable deposit of $2,000 per person is required to confirm enrollment.

FINAL PAYMENT: The final payment must be received no later than January 10, 2010. If the balance is not paid on time, we reserve the right to regard your reservation as cancelled and retain your deposit.  Please refer to FAQ’s for information on the cancelation policy, trip insurance, etc.

In the event that Patricia Wells must cancel for any reason, all fees, including deposits, will be returned in full. The costs of any travel arrangements you may have made will however not be reimbursed.

Making Spring rolls in Open Market

Only direct bookings are valid. A reservation that is resold to a third party will be invalid and all fees forfeited.

The class is designed for adults only. Therefore, students must be at least 21 years old.

TRANSPORTATION NOTES:

Most major airlines fly to or have code share agreements to Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi including Air France, American, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Emirates, Eva Air, Japan Air, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airlines, United Airlines and Vietnam Airlines.

It is a short flight to Da Nang from either Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. Interior flights in Vietnam are plentiful. They can be booked on line through Vietnam Airlines or Jet Star, a low cost carrier.

If you want to splurge the best routing from the US is LA/New York-Singapore, Singapore-Da Nang on Singapore Air All Business.

Fisherman in Hoi An

Please note that you will need a visa, easily obtained through the Vietnamese Embassy/consulates or on-line. It is possible to get one upon arrival but it must be arranged in advance for pick-up.

John at Trails of Indochina www.trailsofindochina.com and info@trailsofindochina.com can help with your travel arrangements. They are one of the best travel operators in the region. The course/hotel reservations will need to be purchased directly through www.patriciawells.com .

About Clos Du Val Wine Co., Ltd.

French-born winemaker Bernard Portet and American businessman John Goelet founded Clos Du Val in 1972. After traveling the world for two years in search of winegrowing regions of great potential, Portet selected two sites in Napa Valley—150 acres in the Stags Leap District for growing Bordeaux varieties and 180 acres in the cooler Carneros region for Clos Du Val Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Today, winemaker John Clews joins Portet to craft wines of balance, complexity and elegance.

About Goelet Wine Estates (GWE)

Goelet Wine Estates (GWE) is a portfolio of exceptional estate and reserve wines that express the terroir of the world’s finest winegrowing regions. GWE was established in 2007 to unite the five Goelet family wineries as one global fine wine alliance. The company produces and markets the wines of Clos du Val (Napa Valley, California), Taltarni Vineyards (Victoria, Australia), Clover Hill and Lalla Gully (Tasmania, Australia), Domaine de Nizas (Languedoc, France) and Kato (Marlborough, New Zealand). For more information about Goelet Wine Estates, visit www.goeletwineestates.com

enroll