Life is What Happens to You.......Part One: Cecile Delarue

When you're on your way to somewhere else.......(John Lennon).  This is no less true on the Internet than on the streets of Liverpool or Hamburg.  I was on my way somewhere one morning......and this is what I found:

Cecile Delarue, who, is a serious French journalist (and according to her Wikipedia entry might as well be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist - I did say kinda SERIEUSE!) is now doing cooking videos out of her L.A. kitchen.   The best part about this video, besides being about FRENCH FOOD is that it is funny and irreverent.  About that Most Serious Subject, being French.  (Strangely, in America, it is almost as serious as it is in France!  But usually in all the wrong ways.)

I share it with you because

1)  Her recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon is way easier than the Anne Willan recipe I use

2)  She shows you a giant beef tongue (but does not cook it!) which proves how authentic she is i.e., when the camera goes away, she will probably eat that monster thing!*

3)  She uses the colorful roasting pans from Crate and Barrel that I covet but don't really need

4)  You MUST check out her salt (or is it pepper?) grinder - too fun

5)  HER APRON!!!!!!!  I WANT IT!!!!!!!

I discovered her here, at Sinosoul.  Featured on a post about Chaumont Bakery and Cafe in Beverly Hills.  The "proper" French patisserie that has opened in Beverly Hills.  (More on that soon!)  

I could find only two Cecile Delarue (yes, she even has that French last name that every American imagines for a French person) videos, but show them to your husband - (he won't mind them!),  and leave comments at YouTube.   She might be persuaded to make more!

Meanwhile, she also has a blog, here.  (Where you might find a more complete recipe that explains at what point the mushrooms, potatoes and bay leaves got into her recipe, and how it ended up in a completely different pot at the end!)

Happy Cooking, Happy Weekend and Bon Appetit!

 *  OK, my Chinese mother served me beef tongue too, in my youth.  I did not die.  Tongue is probably showing up already in the trendier restaurants in London and NY.