Erin French

In a word, gorgeous. There is very little else I can say about Big Heart Little Stove without trying the recipes and telling you how they turn out. The food looks delicious. The memoir portion of the book, disguised as longer then usual introductions to each chapter and recipe, are heart-warming. The photography is stunning. My favorite is the one of French sitting with her mother at an outdoor table. French goes a step further and offers advice about setting the table, making the meal special, bringing nature to the plate... And then there is Maine. What is not to love about Big Heart Little Stove?
While the television show never focuses on the alcohol served with meals (except to say French's mother is the ad hoc sommelier), it was interesting to see beer in some of the the photographs.… (plus d'informations)

It all started with Finding Freedom, Erin French's memoir about overcoming hardships to return to Maine and create one of the most sought after dining experiences in the world. It is truly a rags-to riches, triumph-over-tragedy, feel-good story. Finding Freedom led to me to television series, The Lost Kitchen and that in turn brought me to French's cookbooks. Lost Kitchen (the cookbook) is gorgeous with just the right amount of memoir and menus. Photographs and recipes crowd nearly every single page. There is a bit of her biography in the beginning, but she glosses over the messy stuff in order to get to the endearing parts of her story: local girl comes home and makes her hometown a dining destination and here, she has shared some of her recipes with you.
Confessional: I am not interested in quail eggs, razor clams, or chicken livers. I can't eat shrimp or grapefruit, either. What I did salivate over was anything rhubarb, fiddlehead, or parsnip. I was super excited to see the spicy tomato/tomatillo soup she made on one episode of The Lost Kitchen. She serves it as a summer soup, but I'm thinking it could even be a warm soup served with garlic croutons...… (plus d'informations)

Memoirs are difficult to rate. It's hard to know a person's truth when we are only getting their view of what happened.

This book spends a lot of time recounting her horrible relationships with her dad, husband and sister. She also writes vividly about her drug and alcohol issues which it appears were caused by those dysfunctional relationships.

On the good side, she writes about her love of food and cooking and serving people wonderful dishes and it's nice to know she survived and seems to be flourishing.… (plus d'informations)