Gâteau de Crêpes à la Florentine

Welcome to Exploring the Art of French Cooking! I was inspired to refine my cooking skills after reading Julia Child's My Life in France. The autobiography chronicling her journey to become one of the most iconic TV cooks and cookbook writer of all time focused mainly on her early learning experiences and the labor of love that became Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This first in a series of subsequent cookbooks is detailed in her memoir as a masterpiece in and of itself with each recipe requiring many trials to be perfected for the American home cook. It is much more than a recipe book as Julia and her coauthors explain techniques, ingredients, and cookware that make French cooking what it is.

Beyond an appreciation for MAFC, My Life in France combined two of my passions, France and cooking, and reminded me of how happy I have been during the times when these two things were central in my lifestyle. I've been thinking a lot lately about my priorities in life and the importance of consciously including activities that feel like time well spent. I love cooking. I love French food. I love my friends. And thus this blog will serve as a record of my journey this summer exploring the recipes and instructions of MAFC and the friends who share the experience with me. My goal is to cook one dish per week from the cookbook to share at dinner parties with my closest friends. I don't expect to master french cooking in one summer, I can only be humble enough to say I am exploring the art.

Last night was my first dinner of this project. I made a Gâteau de Crêpes à la Florentine, a mound of crêpes layered with creamy mushrooms and spinach and topped with a Sauce Mornay (béchamel with cheese). For copyright reasons, I will not reproduce recipes in full, but you'll get the idea of the dish. 

The mound with a mushroom layer pre-baking

The mound post baking

I learned a few general things right off the bat:
1) I need to give myself enough time for each component of the dish and not try to do everything at once. If I want to focus on the technique, I need to focus on one step at a time.
2) I need to stop and take pictures as I go. 
3) My food photography skills need work (as you'll see below). 
I am also grappling with the enormous amounts of butter called for in these recipes. While I want to stay true to the instructions given Julia's extreme attention to detail, my 21st century conscience (and waistline!) just doesn't agree. 

Last night's dinner was shared by my dear friends Jaime, Martha, and Zach. Jaime brought a great deal of wine (and did not leave with any extra I might add) and Martha brought a yummy pear gorganzola salad. Here is the finished product! 

Gâteau with salad

Look at all those creamy layers!

We also made some crêpes sucrées - some with strawberries and some with lemon - but we ate them too fast and forgot to take pictures... 

Overall, I believe my first attempt was quite the success and everything tasted wonderful. The challenge will be to continue to maintain quality and also work on presentation of the dishes. Look for a new posting next week!

Becca