French copper pots cook the best food. Every good kitchen needs one. Not only elegant and beautiful, they hold a steady heat and build a dish’s depth and character.  So I went to France to collect one.

St. Amand De Coly is a quaint, picture perfect, tiny village in the upper Dordogne region of France. Home of the humble, non-English speaking Dinandier, Alain Lagorsse. He is an “Artisan of Art,” or  a brazier who makes functional and decorative objects out of copper and tin. My guy. I reseached him before we left, and didn’t really expect to make it all happen. I wasn’t really going just for the copper pot.

Because it was within an hour’s drive North of Sarlat, and much more fun to meet the atisan in person instead of buying a piece from the reputably arrogant Parisian sellers of stellar chef ware, Dehillerin, we were determined to go.  We started our day wandering the narrow, cobbled streets of Sarlat, the swashbuckling town of the almost 1000 year old Saturday Market. Do you need more of a reason to go? The food was outstanding-everything you could ever want in season, and then all the cheeses, olives, meats, the famed foie gras…and so it goes in Sarlat. But that’s the background story. I was talking about Alain, the Dinandier. I digress, but worth so much more conversation.. read more »

I’ve got this ingredient splattered recipe book I’ve been using for the past 25 years. Its actually the first of three I’ve filled. One of those journals covered in cloth with blank pages.  One stroll through it and it is very obvious which recipes have been most loved. Some of them, the more complicated (and therefore not memorized), are so badly smeared and roughed up that it is only through constant use and repetition that I can figure out the details. These books have been the hallmark of the kitchen, the backbone, if you will. Thus, I’ve been motivated to pull out my favorite core recipes and maintain an electronic library, perhaps more secure, and for all to share. read more »