THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Just how do they eat cheese and sip wine daily while staying so slim and chic? Their alluring sense of style - and a spate of books - have fueled a recent frisson of interest in la vie Francaise.
The dream of chucking it all and moving to the French countryside has loomed large in the psyche of the English-speaking world, especially since Peter Mayle penned his "A Year in Provence" in 1990.
The success of Mayle's books perhaps inspired another flurry of French lifestyle books, such as "Joie de Vivre" (Simon & Schuster, $30) by Robert Arbor, an expat Frenchman who owns a chain of New York restaurants called Le Gamin; and "Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl" by Debra Ollivier (St. Martin's Griffin, $13).
With her first book, "French Women Don't Get Fat" (Knopf, $25), Mireille Guiliano, president and CEO of the champagne house Clicquot, created an international sensation and lots of curiosity as she wrote about how it's possible for people to indulge in things they love such as chocolate and champagne, while remaining healthy and slim.
While obesity rates in France have risen in recent years as more people adopt a fast-food culture and eat between meals, the French on the whole remain more svelte than Americans.
In her second book, "French Women for All Seasons" (Knopf, $25), Guiliano expands more on the concept that "Frenchness" isn't about following a certain diet or fashion, but adopting a way of life.
Using winter, spring, summer and fall as a guide, she details a way of life where the simple pleasures enjoyed at the table expand to all areas of life.
"You're eating at the table, sitting down and taking time," Guiliano said. "The table is the place to connect, communicate, laugh, relax. It's about giving and making friends happy."
Growing up in the eastern French province of Alsace-Lorraine, Guiliano said that she learned to mark time not by the end or beginning of her favorite television show's season, but by what flowers were in the garden and what produce was in the local open-air market or her grandmother's garden.
"I grew up in touch with nature and food, and I realize how lucky I was," Guiliano said. "Many people don't pay attention to that, and that's why so many people eat like robots."
Doing all one's shopping in a grocery store, where apples and grapes can be found year-round and herbs come in plastic packages, divorces one from the appreciation of where the food came from and its limited season. Had she grown up shopping this way, Guiliano would have missed out on her memories of finding the first spring strawberries hiding beneath the neat rows of leaves in her father's garden.
In even the smallest French town, shopping for food is a social event and a sport, as people vie for the most beautiful fish, the most tender peas, the ripest Reblochon. With more than 4,300 farmers markets in the U.S., according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, most people can shop for produce the way people do in France.
"When you go to the farmers market, there's a little sentiment also of helping the world and your local business, and you control to some extent what you eat and the ingredients you put in your food," said Arbor, the author of "Joie de Vivre."
BACK TO BASICS
San Diego pastry chef Michele Coulon, who spent her high school years in Paris, recalls that the food they ate in France was simple yet very satisfying. One of her favorite dinners was eggs shirred in the oven in little ramekins.
"You don't ever stand up and eat," Coulon said. "You always sat down at a table with candles and nice plates and real napkins. It made a meal a real special event."
Portions of everything from meat to coffee in France are typically smaller than those served in the U.S. Coulon recalls visiting a restaurant shortly after returning to America.
"Someone took me to a steak place, and it was this huge, white plate with a piece of meat and a potato, and I was shocked," Coulon said. "I was used to have three or four courses and small amounts of a bunch of different things."
Guiliano said her typical breakfast might include a little yogurt, some toasted walnuts, prosciutto, toast and half a grapefruit, because she feels more satisfied when she experiences a variety of flavors.
An indispensable part of a satisfying dinner is wine, whether it's her own Veuve Clicquot champagne or a still wine.
"A glass of wine is like a piece of meat; it's an element of the meal and so healthy, especially red wine," Guiliano said.
To avoid over-drinking, she and her husband follow what she calls the 50 percent solution. They save empty 375-ml half-bottles, and when they open a full bottle, they drink half and store the rest for another meal.
Guiliano said she's also careful to read food labels and avoid things with lots of dyes and high fructose corn syrup.
Arbor, who writes about a French approach to cuisine, also favors cooking with simple, natural ingredients such as leeks, carrots, tomatoes, garlic and chicken, over the use of convenience foods. He thinks time-saving is a flimsy argument for using processed foods, such as pre-marinated chicken.
"If you're going to have a breast of chicken, what's the difference in time for you to peel garlic, take rosemary and mix it with olive oil and lemon?" he asked. "It's not that much, and it's so much better for you, you know what you're putting in it, and you have a sentiment of achievement, because you made it yourself."
It's kind of French-Zen, but finding joy in details, whether it's the scent of basil plucked from the garden, a perfectly ripe July peach ora beautifully browned tarte tatin, makes life richer.
"It is all in simplicity," Arbor said. "It is not about a revolution in life. Little details and little things make your path more agreeable and softer and bring you some consciousness about what you eat and how it is done."
GARLICKY MONKFISH
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 teaspoons finely minced garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 pound monkfish fillets
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup basil, cut into thin strips
Yields 4 servings.
In large skillet over medium heat, warm oil and saute garlic until it is cooked but not brown. Add tomato paste and white wine, and mix well.
Add monkfish and cook over medium to low heat for 10 minutes on each side. Season with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with basil. Serve immediately.
- "French Women for All Seasons" by Mireille Guiliano.
POACHED PEARS WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon stick
1 to 2 whole cloves
4 to 5 strips orange peel
4 ripe yet firm Bosc pears, washed and unpeeled
Chocolate Sauce (recipe follows)
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
Yields 4 to 8 servings.
In large saucepan, place water and sugar and bring to a boil. Add cinnamon stick, cloves and orange peel. Submerge whole pears in syrup and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until pears can be pierced with a knife with some resistance remaining, about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on ripeness of pears.
When pears are done, leave in pan until cool enough to handle. Carefully remove pears from pan, cut in halves and core. Place halves flat side down on dessert plate and serve with chocolate sauce, and if you like, vanilla ice cream.
- Robert Arbor of Le Gamin in New York City.
CHOCOLATE SAUCE
6 ounces good-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream
Yields 1 1/2 cups.
Break chocolate into pieces. Place in heavy-bottomed saucepan with cream and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until all the chocolate melts into thecream. The sauce should be thick and fluid. Serve warm.
- Adapted from Robert Arbor of Le Gamin in New York City.
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