On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town at Chef2Chef

Following her formal culinary training, Loomis returned to the U.S. and met the man who would become her husband. After the couple's first son turned 2, they moved to France where Loomis was determined to launch her writing career focusing on unique aspects of French farming cuisine. She and her husband eventually purchased an old monastery in Louviers in the Normandy region of France. One of the more humorous and memorable stories she shares concerns the landlord of the small rental that they occupied for a year while her husband remodeled the monastery to livable conditions. During that year, the wife of the landlord believed them to be CIA agents and chose to keep a cold distance from the family. Meanwhile the French police suspected them of dealing drugs.

Every recipe featured throughout this memoir comes with an interesting, anecdotal story, and is very much representative of traditional French cuisine. Gateau au Chocolat de Mamy (or Mamy Jacqueline's Chocolate Cake) is a dense, almost death-by-chocolate confection, but served alone or with a fresh fruit coulis, it will bring a smile, as will the sweet explanation of its origin.

Loomis describes experiences and people with much detail, sometimes several times over, and her prose allows the reader to imagine the tempting smells and vivid colors of the countryside. You may find yourself wishing to see pictures of Loomis's home and the quaint village where she lived, but perhaps that was Loomis's intent--she wants to tempt and challenge you to experience the beauty and foods of Louviers and the Normandy region for yourself. --Teresa Simanton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Loomis, an American chef and author of Farmhouse Cookbook and The Great American Seafood Cookbook, enthusiastically recounts every aspect, both intriguing and mundane, of her immersion into the cuisine and lifestyle of northern France. She moved to Paris in 1980 to study cooking and, after a rough start, found her place as a weekend visitor at one family's home in Normandy. After cooking school, she went back to the States, returning to France frequently to visit friends. It wasn't long before she became addicted to Normandy's fresh ingredients goose, garlic, rabbit, wild mushrooms and rich gastronomy, and found herself longing to live there. In 1994, Loomis and her husband moved to the region and bought a dilapidated convent in the small town of Louviers. Her tales of adventures in restoration and run-ins with locals (e.g., the crotchety priest next door, the incorrigibly gregarious rug salesman) are funny, but certainly familiar, especially given that many recent books have told similar stories about ambitious expatriates' forays into rural European life. The cookbook/travelogue/memoir hybrid has become an overcrowded genre, and Loomis's doesn't distinguish itself. Nevertheless, few food writers have depicted Normandy so attentively, and Loomis has compiled an impressive collection of savory recipes that evoke the region's best, including Civet D'Agneau (Hearty Lamb Stew) and Roti de Cuisse de Sanglier (Roasted Leg of Wild Boar). Furthermore, classic Gallic personalities are accurately and engagingly rendered, making this more than just a culinary memoir. (Apr.)Forecast: This work targets Francophilic gastronomes, but probably won't break out of that niche. Nonetheless, the success of Loomis's cookbooks should help boost this title's sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.