Join Us in France Travel Podcast · Annie Sargent

What People Get Wrong About French Food

·51 min·3 clips

Alexandra Crapanzano goes straight from Charles de Gaulle to cheese shop Bertalame, then Poilane for bread and tarte aux pommes.

1. Join Us in France Travel Podcast episode 590 focuses on French food, especially Alexandra Crapanzano's view of everyday baking and chocolate. 2. Annie Sargent hosts the conversation, and Alexandra Crapanzano joins as a food writer and cookbook author whose books Gâteau and Chocolat shape the discussion. 3. The episode asks what Americans get wrong about French food, and Alexandra answers by describing the simple home recipes she grew up with in Paris. 4. She says her first stop from Charles de Gaulle is Bertalame, the cheese shop where she smells the cheeses before buying any, then she goes to Poilane on Le Cherche-Midi for bread and tarte aux pommes. 5. Alexandra explains that the pandemic in Connecticut pushed her back toward France, her friends, her language, and a daily French cake project that kept expanding. 6. She says she started by planning a small book of French cakes, but by day 25 of 250 she had 250 cakes and a much larger manuscript. 7. Her research led her to conclude that French families bake yogurt cakes, pound cakes, savory cakes, and crêpes at home rather than only the elaborate pastries seen in magazines. 8. She says recipes like yogurt cake are learned early, including in maternelle, and then become a basic repertoire for improvisation. 9. Alexandra contrasts that home repertoire with professional patisserie, saying croissants and millefeuille are better left to bakers who trained for years. 10. She and Annie discuss how Americans often assume French cooking is always professional-level cooking, and Alexandra says that assumption is what intimidates people. 11. Alexandra describes choosing illustrations for her book because she did not want readers to feel they had to compete with perfectly styled food photographs. 12. She says the goal was accessibility, not a polished production, and she points to her own experience with large-scale food styling on The London Cookbook and Eat, Cook, L.A. 13. Chocolate becomes the second major focus, and Alexandra says the Parisian love of chocolate started early in her life with a Bouvier dog named Romeo and regular visits to chocolate shops. 14. She says chocolate truffles are easy once you know how to make ganache, and she gives examples like cocoa powder, sparkling sugar, coconut flakes, praline nuts, and Frangelico. 15. She also says the book includes nine chocolate mousse recipes because mousse can be eggy, creamy, or made mostly from egg whites. 16. Later, Alexandra explains that madeleines are one of the great secrets because the batter can be made ahead, chilled, and baked fresh in 10 to 14 minutes. 17. The tone is conversational and practical, with Annie and Alexandra trading recipes, family examples, and kitchen shortcuts back and forth. 18. The episode stays relaxed and detailed, mixing memory, technique, and place names such as Normandy, Lyon, Champagne, and the sixth arrondissement. 19. Listeners who like French home cooking, Paris food memories, and usable recipes will get the most from this conversation. 20. Listeners looking for restaurant criticism or formal pastry instruction may want a different episode.

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