Continuing from last week's musing being up close and personal on the set of The DaVinci Code movie, I'm sure you are wondering if or where the actual cooking took place... Well look no further...
The chateau kitchen is huge, really huge, not well equipped but huge, and should I actually own a home someday with a kitchen that I could design, I would love one this huge with a huge table like this right in the middle. Baskets under the table held all the dry goods so one basket had flour, sugar, baking power, etc. Another held pastas and bread and so one. One family that stayed there would come in during the late afternoon and have appetizers and champagne at one end and while I finished cooking dinner at the other end. I also gave a few cooking lessons around the table including making gougeres with two 10-year olds and cutting up whole fish with a plastic surgeon 🙂 In the center of the room hung a huge chandelier - something every respectable kitchen should not be without. It was dazzling in the afternoon when the sunlight would stream in, reflect off the thousands of crystal raindrops and splash tiny rainbow dashes about the walls.
the chateau's main kitchen (there are 3!)
The produce was surprisingly not as good nor plentiful nor varied as I can get in Paris. I never knew if the market would have zucchini or melons or tomatoes or herbs on any given day so dinner was really what inspired me that afternoon at the market. If you have ever shopped for 30 people day after day after day....sorry, back to the story. As I mentioned, I tried to buy the freshest, most delicious produce I could find at the markets, the freshest fish from Madame Charlotte, the freshest bread from the local boulanger hot out of the oven that morning, and the most succulent meat from Mr et Mme Saunier. The strawberries were magnificent last summer so I bought flats of them whenever possible making everything from strawberry soup to strawberry sauce to strawberry tartes. I have yet to taste a strawberry like those in the states, except perhaps the ones I grew in my backyard when I was little.
