Chef Marthe - Macaron Class

 I drew this portrait business card for Chef Marthe as a 'Thank you' for letting me attend her class.

 Then she turned around and invited me to her macaron class the next day!

 My class mates were 4 British bridesmaids + the bride. This was their surprise gift - a trip to Paris and the macaron cooking class.

 I hope the bride(here) is happily making lots of macarons for her honey now.

 Chef Marthe demonstrates the perfect beaten eggwhite texture.

 We used the 'Italian method' for making the meringue shells, which entails heating the sugar and using the dreaded candy thermometer.

 Of course I fell madly in love with chef Marthe's adorable rooster kitchen timer but n'existe pas on Amazon thus far...

 Chef Marthe prefers Picard frozen raspberries to fresh for filling the macarons, because the berries are whole and not mushy. Who knew?

 I'm skipping around in the gazillion macaron making steps. Here the beaten eggwhites are being introduced into the colored almond flour.

 Chef Marthe has a gazillion tricks up her sleeve.

 Has the bride taken this class before? She's making perfect little round shells.

 Into the oven they go.

And out they come looking as perfect as can be with dainty little 'feet'.

 Another Marthe trick - removing the shells from the baking paper without breakage.

 Enfin...

 The tasting begins and goes on and on.

 The lucky bridal group is heading off to a night at la Moulin Rouge.
Au revoir et merci !

Le Road Trip - Vivian Swift

Isn't this the perfect artist's studio?
This is author Vivian's desk (the cat is 1 of 9). I discover new books and authors when I see what you've bought on Amazon.com. That's how I discovered

Vivian Swift's witty book, Le Road Trip.

In her own words she says:

I'm highly qualified as a travel writer.
This is me, in my passport photo, 1975, before my first trip "abroad". I stayed on the road for 20 years. In between my many years of foreign wanderings I worked as a receptionist, gift shop sales lady, luxury hotel concierge, clothing store manager, book shop clerk, office temp, retail jeweler, horologist, auction house executive, and Faberge expert. I've also worked as an au pair, a chamber maid, a jewelry historian, and in a factory making plastic bottles for bleach.

  Obviously, with all this job experience, I am very well-qualifed to be the boss of everybody. This meshes perfectly with my ability to be very judgemental. But I digress.

She came by on Wednesday to talk about creating her book, travel, watercolor and, and, and

A gorgeous map from Le Road Trip of her honeymoon jaunt through France, plus numerous witty tips and advice on how to thrive as a traveler.

There are hundreds of watercolor illustrations.

She even created her very own hand-written type font (at Fontifier for a mere $30).

Including encyclopedic bits of useful and useless but endlessly fun information. Vivian's voice is very tongue in cheek to say the least.

Three Truths on what to wear in Paris:

One, you are not Parisian and you will never be. Don't let that bother you.
Two: Parisians don't want to know you, no matter how well you dress, so you might as well be yourself.

Three: Deep down, Parisians are crazy jealous that they can't let loose like us crazy Americans.

There are no recipes in this book but there is everything else you might want to know about galavanting through France in a devil-may-care vagabond, spontaneous manner.

Le Road Trip is a book meant to be read front to back, back to front or open anywhere and be immensely amused and delighted.

BON WEEKEND!



Macaron Miscellany

Just a bit of this and that macaronesque micellany today for you to chuckle over, if not munch.

My favorite charm on my fav macaron bracelet from the Manu at Salon du Chocolat.

Christolphe Roussel always pushing the macaron envelope when it comes to new creations, like this mac-pop-cone especially for a summer's day like today!

Again genius Roussel came up with a macaron makeup kit for Mother's day.

Merci Jerri-Ann for alerting me to these adorb macaron soaps over on Etsy. what would I do without PB readers to keep me supplied with macarons up the whazoo?

This macaron looks a bit soapy doesn't it? Well a clam shell would make the perfect soap dish since the meringue lids are called 'coque' or shells.

French Amazon is offering a new baking gizmo - Lékué - Tapis à Macarons - to help you get perfect shells or coques. Who knows if it works, ahem.

Want to play with your food instead of eat it?
Click on the link for patissier Fresson and tap away on the macs.

Also at Fresson - the newest soiree treat - macaron pyramids. Piece monte seem to have disappeared from Paris windows.

Patissier Gerard Mulot has joined the pyramid gang.

Or there's always a plain old box of 6 or 8 to keep you happy.

Watch my absolute favorite macaron movie at Fauchon.

I wish the mouth would open occasionally and take a bite.

munch munch munch



 

Eclair-A-Day Diet

Deux eclair, watercolor, 9 x 11

Steph wrote me this morning and inspired today's post,

"chocolate eclair over cake ANY day...in fact, I did so much walking in Paris a couple years ago, I made it a point to eat an eclair a day - I would walk it off anyway.

An eclair-a-day regime

Does it get any better?

True you will have to walk if off in Paris. Also true you will have to hit all the best patisseries for this diet to be effective, starting here with Sadaharu Aoki and his matcha tea eclair.

Next stop - an eclair pistache - I must try this.

La Maison du Chocolat has this artfully designed eclair.

The once delightful patisserie La Bonniere de Buci had giant 12" eclairs for 4-5 people on le regime.

Gerard Mulot offers two flavors at his 6th arr. not-to-be-missed neighborhood patisserie. Only one-a-day PBers!

If eclairs are an anathema to you, why not substitute Angelina's macalons'.
Two equal one eclair.

You could just hangout at Eclair Central. i.e. Fauchon.

It doesn't have to be an 'Eclair Weekend' but it wouldn't hurt.

Drawing by Fauchon chef Christoph Adams

For the eclair-obsessed, this is the place for you.

The most inventive eclairs on the planet are at Fauchon, so if you want some variety in your eclair regime French  is the place to go.

The pictures tell the story.

Better than I can.

Get online PBers and order that eclair.
Part of the deal - wear your eclair-ballerinas.I haven't figured out yet if you're allowed to eat anything else besides eclairs on this diet. I'm working on it. As soon as I get packed and on the plane and and and

BONJOUR ONE-ECLAIR-A-DAY!
(Today is a repost. merci cg)