“Food need not be extravagant, complicated, or mysterious to be good. Quite the contrary.” —Patricia Wells in her Introduction to Robert Olney’s Simple French Food cookbook

Whether you love cooking, loathe cooking or fall anywhere in between, we all need to eat.

And if we eat well – a marriage of nutritive and delicious – we give ourself a very good shot at living a long and wonderful life. But we aren’t born knowing how to cook. We have to choose to learn it, and depending upon our experience with food and the approach others took in how meals came together, we may have a whole host of beliefs about what constitutes good food, how to make it or why or why not we want to learn how to cook due to cultural expectations and pressures.

Similar to living a life of contentment, we cannot just go pull the skills of cooking off the shelf, but instead, we do have to invest some time, effort and initially some money (for the tools), but the money need not be much, and the time need not be terribly lengthy if we have the right teachers and ingredients.

Enter the French approach to cooking. The French have long been known for their prowess in the kitchen and with good reason. Auguste Escoffier began cooking at age 13 (1846-1935), and is known for both popularizing and modernizing traditional French cooking methods. You may recognize his name as it is often associated with The Ritz or with the five mother sauces. Rest assured, you do not need to know how to make these traditional French sauces to utilize the skills of the French approach to cooking. You may choose to learn all of them as you begin to find more enjoyment and reward with the basics that will be introduced to you today and further taught in TSLL’s Introduction to French Cooking course for everyday deliciousness, but don’t be intimated by the fanciness that often is paired with French food. Yes, it is fancy and beautiful and thoughtfully presented, but it is the creation that we are going to talk about today, and for everyday life, that is all you need to know.

So let’s get started!

1. Choose high quality ingredients.

“French dishes often use simple ingredients transformed by artful techniques.” —Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts

The gift of France is its varied terroir. From Normandy’s butter made from cows that roam on lush green grass, to Brittany’s salt marshes that give the world some of the best fleur de sel and flaky sea salt in the world, to the olive oil in Provence, the Champagne region’s superior ham and cured pork, along with sausages and cabbage; Anjou and Touraine in the Loire Valley are nicknamed “the garden of France”for good reason as this region is perfect for growing high quality table grapes and fruits such as cherries, pears, strawberries and melons; the Alps regions are deservedly famous for their specialty cheeses—Beaufort, Abondance, Reblochon, Tomme and Vacherin which are widely used in the local dishes; Languedoc with influences from the Mediterranean is vast as it also includes the ability to find truffles and then kissed by the warmth of the southern France sun, the tomatoes, citrus and aubergines. The list goes on, but suffice to say, each region plays to their strengths which lends itself to deliciousness with each meal.

We can adapt this approach wherever we might call home by learning what is grown or harvested nearby or in our own backyard. The flavor profile increases which leaves you with less to do because the food is doing the work for you.

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2. Let the seasonal produce bring the flavor, no extra ‘stuff’ (read effort) required

Once we taste a freshly harvested tomato from the vine, blueberries plucked from the branch, lettuce from the ground, we discover what the seasons give us if only we would dance with them and not force them to be present year-round. Not only are the nutrients more plentiful, but the flavor is off the charts. Eating a tomato much like an apple is not unheard of and completely understandable when it tastes as good as it can picked from the vine in the heart of summer.

While it may not always be easy to find seasonal produce where we live, simply knowing what that seasonal produce is gives us a significant boost of knowledge for creating meals that have the potential to be delicious with the helpful seasonings and cooking techniques. This doesn’t mean we can’t use produce out of season, after all, there is much in our grocery stores year-round that are perfectly suitable, but it is the remembering when something is in season and to capitalize on it that will change the deliciousness, and the effort needed, to make a wonderful meal.

3. The power of the right herbs and spices

Simply saying herbs & spices can feel overwhelming because there are seemingly endless ones to choose from, but when we begin with high quality, frequently used basics – a great fleur de sel from Bretagne/Brittany, freshly grown rosemary, sage or basil from the garden or farmers’ market – we can be reminded of how simply by remembering to season our food, we bring out the flavor our produce and proteins are capable of sharing with us.

4. Learn and use a few basic techniques repeatedly for ease and confidence

 “To be really good at anything, you must master technique to the point where you can relax within it. Like an athlete or a dancer, you must become so familiar with the movements of your craft that you’re completely at ease even at moments of great effort. This ease comes with practice and repetition, and in my opinion, relies on simplicity and lack of pretension.” —David Waltuck — Director of Culinary Affairs at Institute of Culinary Education

From knowing how to properly hold a knife, how to safely use the knife, understanding when to sauté, how to roast, the benefits of blanching, we put skills into our toolbox that give us options of how to cook the simplest of dishes without much time or effort.

Just as the quote above shares, it is by using these techniques repeatedly, that we become more comfortable with them, and before we know it, it is second-nature, and now all we have to do is go find the fresh produce to make a meal!

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5. Have the right tools, and keep the knives sharp

Paired with knowing the techniques is having the tools that do what you need. The most basic and necessary tool is a sharpened chef’s knife, approximately 10″ or 12″, no larger, but not much shorter, and you will be able to do just about anything without fear of losing the tip of your finger or skin off your knuckle (been there, don’t ever want to repeat it – simple fix – sharpen your knife regularly).

Along with a sharp knife are pans that help you cook with ease and knowing how to care for them (clean, season, etc.), so they are readily available whenever you are hungry and want to eat!

One entire lesson of the Intro to French Cooking course will list in detail the necessary tools, where to find them, what to look for and which ones are worth investing in and those that don’t need to be all that fancy, just simply available in your kitchen. As you become more comfortable in the kitchen, and begin to discover what you love to cook, you will then tailor your tools to what you need, and that too is fun because when you have the right tools, cooking becomes like a symphony that just sings as you move from one technique and ingredient prepared to the next without missing a beat or stepping out of tune.

6. The techniques work with all different cuisines

Whether or not you love French cuisine isn’t important. The essence of French cooking at its core is about the skills to create delicious food – and how that comes to be. French cuisine has incorporated many different cuisines into its offerings, so don’t feel you have to like the classic French food to use these skills. Absolutely not. These skills will transfer to whatever food you prefer. We all will need to know how to chop and slice properly, boil, blanche, sauté and roast, know when to flavor our protein, which fresh herbs to add when in order for their flavor to be incorporated as we desire, but then, that is when your time in the kitchen becomes your unique dance and why it becomes all the more enjoyable to step into your kitchen each time.

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TSLL blog is founded on the premise of living a life of true contentment. I quickly realized that food plays a significant role in providing a key ingredient to living well, and France has taught and continues to teach me how it really need not be all that complicated once we have the right tools, skills and ingredients. Patricia Wells further described a truth that American living in France Robert Olney discovered, “[He] understands—and most elegantly expresses—the role that food and wine can play in filling one’s day with joy, happiness, and contentment.” Indeed, it is true, and it really is quite simple.

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~Learn more about TSLL’s new online video course: Introduction to French Cooking: Everyday Deliciousness here

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