Not a Cookbook: A Confinement Project: My Almost 45 Years in the Restaurant Business

By Marina Fiore

As I made it clear in the title, do not expect a cook book, let alone a well structured one. A recipe will take you to a certain story or a cooking tip, and from there, more recipes or a memory will pop up. This book follows my mind which is always musing when I cook. Food and memories go hand in hand for all of us. One thing is for sure, though: this book does its part to keep the dairy farms in business! And I hope it will keep you smiling, too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665517188

Marina Fiore

Marina Fiore was born in Turin, Italy, but was raised and educated in Paris. After a couple of years studying Art, she decided to go visit her then-boyfriend, Patrick, who had left Paris to go study percussion at Indiana University. She was supposed to stay for a year but it has been 46...She and Patrick opened Le Petit Cafe in 1977, have two children, and are still working part-time, preferring to retire gradually rather than abruptly closing the door. She loves going back to Paris but has no intention of retiring there. "We will stay in Indiana where we belong," she says. "Besides, the French complain too much!"

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© 2021 Marina Fiore. All rights reserved.

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transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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ISBN: 978-1-6655-1719-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-1718-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021903197

Published by AuthorHouse 03/01/2021

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1   All About Chicken and Sauces

Chapter 2   Rabbit, Crêpes, and a Few More Entrées

Chapter 3   Mayonnaise, Appetizers and Soups

Chapter 4   Desserts

Chapter 5   Windows and Family

Acknowledgements

To all my regular customers and friends who

have supported us through thick and thin.

Some since the very beginning.

Introduction

This is not a cookbook.

I stole this introduction from Paul Gauguin’s autobiography. He doesn’t say, This is not a cookbook, of course, but he says, This is not a book.

And this is not a cookbook, either. It is a hodgepodge of memories – lots of memories. Some good and some sad. Mostly stories about my family and a few cooking tips.

And some recipes, too.

But, in reality, this is a Coronavirus confinement project.

Some recipes are not mine. They may be recipes of traditional dishes I love, recipes I borrowed from friends, many from my mother. But they all are recipes I have served and that some of you already had in our restaurant.

Many customers have asked me to write a cookbook over the years. My answer was always the same: when I retire. I have not retired yet, but this confinement is giving me plenty of free time. More than I’m accustomed to, really, and I need a new project.

Besides, something else prompted me to write this book.

Last summer, our first grandchild, Felix, was born and I decided to write and draw little books for him. In French, always in French. When my daughter heard I was already working on my 3rd book for him (on Coronavirus, no less!) she complained I had never written a book for her. She had been the baby in our family for almost 30 years before Felix was born and had no intention of relinquishing her position. Thus, she asked me to write her one; a cookbook, she suggested. No, in fact she ordered.

So I did, and I enjoyed it so much I decided to write one for you as well. Although, I wouldn’t put it past Anna-Caterina to have tricked me into writing this one by asking for one for herself. She knew I’d enjoy it.

So, I started writing the book you are about to read. Filled with memories, drawings, drawings of memories, cooking tips and drawings of cooking tips. Plus a few recipes.

I could fill pages and pages with memories. After 43 years of being a chef in the restaurant I have always owned with Patrick, my husband, what do you expect? A book with no memories? That would not be our restaurant and it certainly would not be us.

After more than four decades in this business, we are seeing the third generation in our dining-room: the grandchildren of customers who came when they were starting their life together – some as early as 1977 – when we were starting ours as well. Some of those people even had their first date here. Isn’t it something?

I hope you will enjoy this book and will find it useful, but remember:

This is not a cookbook.

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Patrick hanging our first sign (1978).

CHAPTER 1

All About Chicken

and Sauces

Indeed, I have not revolutionized the cooking world. I am no Paul Bocuse. I haven’t even made any great contribution to it. I am no Julia Child, either. But for all these years (and still counting) I have cooked to the best of my abilities and added my own touch to dishes created by others, without changing their character. I have eaten too many "Choucroutes and Cassoulets which, when compared to the originals, shared only the names. Or Tiramisù" that brought my morale down rather than up. I never wanted to risk changing a dish’s spirit through imitation. But thinner sauces, as little salt as I could get away with, and always fresh herbs (the norm today, but we are talking about 1977 after all) was enough to make my dishes lighter and still true to the originals.

One thing our customers have always appreciated is the way I cook my chicken breasts. Your chicken breasts are always so moist, they often say. How do you cook them? This is how I do it and this method will allow you to prepare your chicken ahead of time and keep it in the fridge up to four days. On the day of your dinner party, you will only have to worry about preparing the sauce.

It is not the most conventional way to start such a book, even a not-a-cookbook book, but it is the less exciting part, so let’s get it over with:

4 Recipes of Sauces for Chicken

• Caramelized Garlic Sauce/À l’Ail Caramelisé – My recipe.

• Tarragon Sauce/À l’Estragon. Easily found