Food, delicious food

Graine & Ficelle, St Jeannet, last sunday, Gorgeous place- gorgeous food

We have just visited a wonderful table d’hote in St Jeannet , a small village 10 minutes from where we live. An amazing, passionate woman is running this place called Graine & Ficelle and you can tell she is living her dream …She is definitely “on purpose” there as far as I could sense it! The place is a combined farm with chambre & table d’hotes and the food we had there was absolutely amazing, fresh and flavoured packed – all presented beautifully. The place itself was bathing in nature’s colours: shades of grey, white, beige & brown…loved it !!!

It was so inspiring to see Graine & Ficelle since one of my dreams is to have a chambre d’hotes here in France for sportive & adventurous people and one of the attractions, for me, is the cooking part – I ‘d like to set the table in the evening for everyone to enjoy a meal together in the end of the day, share the days stories, wow….Who would like to join me?


The French are so cool about food and I can talk for ages with them about perfect walnuts from Grenoble, or the juicy lemons from Menton, the rose wines from Provence, the oursins from Cassis, the truffle from Rognes, the flavor packed tomatoes from the south, the olives from Nice, and the list goes on…

For me going to the market in Aix (or for God sake Yvette, ANY kind of food market!!!) is a feast for my senses!!! I can easily spend a whole morning surrounded my fresh, colourful fruit and vegs, cheeses, sea food, honey, spice, bread, cappuchino-break and then more fruit & vegs....As long as it fresh and has some kind of label "local producer" I kind of melt...I have "a thing" with things that grows... As I write this I start to think about the blueberries my parents pick for us in autumn...yummy!!! I belive that in my next life I will be a market lady in Nice, selling all the ingredients you need for a proper ratatouille...

When we are in the area of food I would like to say talk about some more “serious” things!
Be a conscious consumer ! Make it a habit to read the labels when you buy your groceries at supermarkets. Get local products as your first choice so the food doesn’t necessarily have to fly across the globe to get to your table. Go to farmer’s markets and support your local growers. Even in London, where I live, we have them!

And to those of you who have kids: let them enjoy - and grow from REAL food!!! And please give them healthy snacks…fruit, dried fruits, yoghurts & sandwiches are far more better than crisps, chocolates and biscuits. Perhaps I’m very coloured of what I’m seing in the playgrounds in London, UK…perhaps children in other places eat better in the afternoon…(I really hope so) It just upsets me to see how parents, care-takers and nannies give kids all those crap non-foods to little children!!! In general I believe it would be a good idea to be as meticulous with what WE eat as with what kind of fuel we give to our car…

What more with food and I… in my ideal world I have a meal in the evening with the whole family EVERY evening. It’s the Italian Mama in me that wish for this :-)In reality it doesn’t happen - YET ! However it is a core value of mine to cook from scratch and as much as possible sit down and enjoy with all family together.

At the moment we have a wonderful girl living with us who are from India. I love Indian food and we love cooking together in the evenings. Or rather should I say, she is teaching me and I am the happiest assistant she could possibly have! Typically Indian ingredients are so healthy when you cook at home, look at this: turmenic, curry, ginger, garlic, coriander, CHILLIS (love them - love them!!!) , cloves, vegetables & fruits, lentils & beans, yoghurts, …mmm…Acctually Indian food is like a cure, an immune system booster. I strongly believe that if you cook Indian food at home yourself (using little oil) you will have a great chance of staying healthy and your immune system will have this constant boost! Email me for recipies!!!

I looove having friends over for lunch and dinner. The best times are those times when we enroll our friends either by cooking with us or bringing something like when we invite people to a tapas party. I like it when people can mingle, talk and the athomsphere is easy-going. (Saying that I don’t mind a proper champagne party either…every now and again) . An ideal day is when friends join us to Borough Market in the morning and get the ingredients and then cook together in the evening…food, friends and great conversations…can it be better???

So, anyone who is in London in the end of April, let’s make a party together, celebrating spring…we are full of inspiration from France…

Lots of Love and Sunshine from inside
Yvette