Lunch in Paris

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was very well written. It was a love story and a food story and cookbook all in one. A fast read, entertaining and had more recipes than I was expecting (some of which I would actually make and eat). I'm not sure why I like these "I gave up everything to move to a foreign country for love" stories... but I do! The French ones seem to be the best.

Synopsis: In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again.

Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.


Recommended Reading:
Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas
Every Day in Tuscany by Frances Mayes
C'est la Vie by Suzy Gershman
Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler
Paris in Love by Eloisa James
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert