What's Cooking

This event is currently sold out for in-person attendance but you can still attend remotely with a glass of wine on Thursday June 18th at 6.30pm Paris time.

The Cholita Climbers of Bolivia, or Las Cholitas Escaladoras Bolivianas, are a group of Indigenous, Aymara, women mountaineers who climb peaks in Latin America.

Peaches grown right here in Paris? Believe it or not, centuries ago, Paris became home to a thriving peach farming industry that produced up to 17 million fruits a year– and even today, a little-known community of cultivators are still growing them in the very same orchards.

Beautifully handcrafted French artisanal paper notebook, featuring original 18th-century engravings set into soft handmade paper. Each piece is framed with delicate gilt detailing and finished with a textured, deckled edge. Made in France

(A word of caution: this is not an article to read on your lunchbreak). 

Okay, so we took a bit of a hiatus on the web series there. We've got tons of footage and not enough time to edit it. The good news is, we're back– but with mini-bites ... snackable little episodes of Don't be a Tourist.

Behind an unmarked door in the 9th arrondissement, at the back of peaceful courtyard, I found another Paris secret. The kind of place that you would only hear about via word of mouth, I heard about it from a guy in a bar one night who was teasing a few of his favourite local secrets after one too many rounds. He didn’t provide any specific directions, which felt much needed when I went on a determined search for it the next day…

Meet us for dinner in Paris under the Iron Lady … circa 1900? Over the 135 years since the Eiffel Tower was built, there have been some surprising additions that have come and gone from the site of city’s most iconic landmark. In our archives, we’ve shared the tower’s various transformations and experimental uses, including a train station, a WWI bunker, a newsroom, a start-up laboratory, a penthouse apartment, a giant advertising billboard and even that one time it nearly became a drive-through tower. And our latest descent down the Parisian rabbit hole has led us to the discovery of a long-lost Art Nouveau treasure; a palatial restaurant that once set up camp at the foot of the Eiffel Tower’s arches…

You can’t beat a bit of Fanny, especially in the kitchen. Overshadowed by modern day macho MasterChefs, Fanny Cradock paved the way as the first ever celebrity chef and remains one in a million, like a dish you can perfect just once and never recreate.

Opening a restaurant is like playing service industry roulette. Yet, somehow, Paris' La Tour d'Argent — quite literally, "The Silver Tower" — says it's survived 436 years of history on the Left Bank, with a backside view of Notre Dame, as the unmatched king of posh Parisian cuisine.

Ever tried a 'champignon de Paris'? The real one– cultivated in abundance and almost exclusively once upon a time in the catacombs of Paris?

It actually makes a lot of sense. It's also genius marketing. But really, how did the world's most talented chefs and esteemed restaurants and come to be so concerned with the approval (and stars) of a company that sold rubber tires?

It’s hard to imagine anyone ever salivating over a quivering tower of jellied meat, but for centuries – that’s right, not just the seventies – it was the height of haute cuisine. A hundred and fifty years ago, if you were an ambitious chef out to knock the socks off your guests, the centerpiece of your holiday table would’ve likely been ham or chicken congealed in an elaborately tiered gelatinous sculpture. And believe it or not, after a meteoric drop in popularity following the 1970s, ornamental jelly is now enjoying a resurgence as edible art.

A wonderfully eccentric vintage curiosity cabinet-style box, arranged like a miniature natural history collection. Set inside an antique box with a hinged opening, the interior is lined in deep black velvet. Inside is an atmospheric assemblage of vintage ephemera and natural specimens…