From Paris Bistros to Farmhouse Kitchens - Lessons in Food and Love

This book might be good the Francophile who has never been to France and who never intends to visit.
It is extremely descriptive reflection of the author's time in France - of the simple everyday happenings and personalities one would encounter in France- it has the old grandmother telling you how to properly cut and cook the beans (most every Frenchie thinks their way is best) and the "sounds" of the cafes.. etc.... The author also tells us of the multiple occasions she refused to try French fare, much to the disappointment of the poor person trying to impart their culture to her..

I have read several personal accounts of time spent in France but this one just seems to fall short for me.

If you plan to visit France at anytime in your life, don't try to read the tiring descriptions and cultural musings of a stranger. Experience it for yourself!

If you have visited France, don't worry yourself reading about another person's personal experience with the country. Relish in your own memories.

This book was entertaining enough, but when I purchased it I thought there would be more recipes and food inspirations. While I appreciate the few recipes in the book, I was hoping for more recipes and a little more inspiration to try them. Not a bad read, but not a book I would re-read.

Loved reading about places in France I have been to and even places I haven't. Sometimes I wish I had read this before going there. But over all, a little too much on how much she missed her husband and how she suffered so without him. I kept thinking, "Get a grip!" In fairness to Mah, she says the same thing to herself, but still, too much of it. Recipes are OK, but I'm not likely to try most of them. Some of the history of the food and area is quite interesting.

I received the book today and was disappointed to find a .5x3 inch barcode sticker in the middle of the front cover. I was even more disappointed to find that the sticker was very hard to remove and there is a sticky residue left behind that will not come off.

I found the book to be pretty boring and difficult to pick up every time. I don't think most people get this book looking for recipes, and the story behind them is not attractive enough to keep readers engaged. Wanted to like it but it was not for me.

Still reading this one. Going back to Paris and France cruising second year in a row and love to immerse myself in reading of it first..will take this EITH..plus David Lebovitzs "The Sweet Life! Must have David's..used it last year and tried some of restaurants plus recipes in the fab written novel..he's the blogger to follow. Worked at Chez Panisse!

A better title would have been "How to keep yourself busy while your husband is away on a diplomatic mission." Far too much on personal reveries and not enough on food. With respect to the latter, it's best to keep your expectations low. There are a few hors d'oeuvres, but not much more.

I bought this from reading a number of good reviews. There is nothing new in this book & unfortunately the author does not write well enough to make the old interesting. Paris & France are lost on the author.

Mastering the Art of French Eating is a well written memoir with recipes although I Ann Mah's novel Chinese Kitchen much more.Although I thought it was well written, and engaging neither my husband nor I particularly like French food so some of the descriptions of tripe, brains and other inards , lots of bacon which we only have on a very rare occasion and very little meat or cheese etc. Most of the recipes were very unhealthy and usually very rich food everything loaded with tons of butter/ cream, lots of meat, usually lots of bacon, and way too much cheese and other dairy products etc. This isn't the way we eat, we eat very healthy, but always wonderful very healthy food, a good Mediterranean diet. I use dairy products very very sparingly and very infrequently, EVO instead of butter 99% of the time, very very very little red meat only a tiny bit a few times a year, no tripe , bacon only 1-2 x annually, no steaks, no hamburgers, no frites ( french fries ever), lots of vegetables, salads, fish, chicken , fruit, lentils and other legumes. I cook mostly Middle Eastern food which is healthy and delicious, that's what we eat out also , we also eat healthy Indian food, particularly at a vegetarian restaurant near us, and sushi.

... You're there. This is a delightful little book for the homesick Francophile. If that describes you, expect to devour it in a day or two. And even if you have already read a dozen or more in the genre, I believe you'll find a fresh approach in Ms. Mah's "journal."

She not only covers the specialties and uniqueness of my favorite regions, Paris, Provence and Burgundy, but several I have not had the opportunity to visit -- Alsace, for example. And with each area, she provides the definitive recipe for and history of their signature dish. (All this time I've topped my Cassoulet with bread crumbs! Quelle horror!) Her recipe for Boeuf Bourguignonnne is the classic bacon and mushroom version, but she teases the reader with the mention of "a fine stew" she was served in Beaune, "sparked with the tang of ginger and orange peel," something I intend to copy at the first opportunity. And I can't wait to try my hand, once again, at "Aligot," this time using her suggestion of fresh mozzarella as a substitute for the unavailable "tome fraiche."

So while this is not a cookbook in form, but a most enjoyable travel journal, I am praying for an imminent break in our present Colorado heatwave so I can prepare several of her mouth-watering sounding French classics

Having read quite a few food and cooking oriented books written by food authors who were also chefs, I find this book is unique as author Ann Mah. She is a less adventurous eater and more like the rest of us. I feel that her research of this book, is done in a way, that addresses those of us that don't know the history of area or the recipe being discussed. so I get more out of her approach. I don't know my history (much less France's) and this was delivered in such a way, not to be facts and figures, but the local stories that made up the past of an area.

Ann Mah, had a unique opportunity to live in the city of her dreams, but unfortunately not the way she envisioned it. Instead with her husband miles away in Bagdad she found herself spending this time alone. Fortunately for us she has made the best of it and taken the opportunity to pursue her fascination of French cooking. I find her unique situation (being of Chinese heritage, but being American), while having a nomadic experience in other countries fascinating. I never thought how awkward that could be in China, looking like a local, while clearly not being one. It seems less of an issue for American's in Europe. The irony of this displacement while pursuing the food heritage of a country, is not lost on the reader. So much of who we are is what we eat. The comfort foods of each generation are often passed down and define us. I found this especially pertinent in the section she discusses Alsatian food. Clearly though the area was passed between German and France several times and languages were mandated, the food was unaffected.

Each time I have traveled, it has been the food of the area that has stayed with me. That unique taste that when I recall it takes me back to that place and time. Ann Mah has captured that.
This book is not just a travelogue of food in Paris and France, but that slice of life that was hers at that time. You felt her isolation, insecurity in her adopted language, concern for local custom and awkwardness of meeting new people. You also felt her joy in living in France along with the way of life there. And I for one am thankful she shared it.

There are some books that capture you from the minute you open them and this was one of those books. I always felt hungry when reading it, which as my reading time is usually late at night wasn't good, but that is about the only downside I found with this book. It has also given me itchy feet (again) for this lovely country I live in, but where to head first? Alsace for Choucroute, Brittany for Crêpes, Castelnaudary for Cassoulet, or Provence for Soupe au Pistou are just some of the choices Ann gives us, with each dish featuring in it's own chapter.

The book is a good mix of exploring the food in regional France, giving some great information and history (but not overdoing it) and letting us into the highs and lows of her life as she tries to settle in Paris. It should have been a happy time with a three-year Parisian placement for her and her diplomat husband to look forward to, but within the first months he is sent to Baghdad, leaving her alone in Paris. Reading her story was addictive, not just as I was keen to learn more about some of France's classic dishes and how they evolved, but also because I enjoyed following her personal journey of coping with her new life that was turning out to be a lonely experience. As a wife in a foreign country, away from family and friends, whose husband regularly travels for work, I can understand only too well, some of the things she was feeling. It would be true to say the food of France saved her and it certainly helped me.

Ann shares a lot in this book, her childhood, her life as a diplomat's wife, her time alone in Paris and her knowledge about France and it's lovely food. In the recipes her easy steps-to-success with some of France's greatest regional dishes have given me the confidence to try them out myself - le vrai cassoulet here I come.

This book would make a great gift for the food loving Francophile in your life.

This book was sent to me by the US publishers Penguin, to read and give a fair review.

From page one, Ann Mah transported me to Paris! I savored each tasty page, identified with her frustrations over cultural differences, and travelled along side her as she journeyed throughout France, searching for the best cuisine.

I found myself drifting into memories of Paris and France, sipping wine, eating in cafes and restaurants. Most of the memories were joyous, but some came with a flush of embarrassment as I remembered that we initially ate like barbarian Americans, stuffing food down our throats in comparison to our French counterparts. In France, eating is an art form, something to be savored over hours. (Dinner started at 8 pm - if not later - and would go on for hours. Sometimes people sat until midnight or later. Can't imagine a restaurant here allowing patrons to sit that long. In that period of time, they'd rotate at least 2-3 more sets of guests.) I thought about this and others awkward and embarrassing moments after Mah shares some of hers.

Mastering the Art of French Eating is much more than a book about food. It captures the author's struggles to create a life for herself after her diplomat husband is given a year assignment in Iraq. Mah makes some comparisons to her own life to the famous chef, Julia Child. Like Child's husband, Mah's husband is a diplomat. Mah was raised on watching Julia's show and when she was a child, she cooked recipes from Child's cookbooks. There are plenty of other connections that culinary fans with enjoy.

The subtitle for this novel is: Lessons in Food and Love From a Year in Paris. Yes, there are lots of lessons about food and readers will love the stories and the history behind the tastes and smells. Her trips across France are vivid and readers will have no problem picturing the countryside and the people she met. The lessons on love are interwoven and subtle. Mah had to learn to love herself in a different way, to appreciate what she has to contribute or stay locked up in her apartment alone and lonely. Food helps her get out into the streets of Paris and out of her comfort zone. There's also the love she has for her husband and how they stay connected so far apart from each other.

I absolutely recommend this novel for anyone who loves Paris. France. Cooking. Eating. Or if you appreciate a well-written memoir. There are recipes included throughout the book. You bet that I'll be trying plenty of them!

This was a most charming journey of what happens when love, marriage, career, and France converge for one young woman. Hmmmm....sounds familiar doesn't it? Once again, the lure and passion and fabulosity (is that a word?) of one of the world's most beloved countries come together for Ann Mah, and though you might be tempted to think "Julia", this is truly another interesting journey that was well-written with a different perspective of being a diplomat's wife in a foreign country.

That being said, the perspective I found charming was in how she divided her journaling of her life in France, while being transferred there through her husband's assignment as a diplomat. The irony is that though this was their mutual dream assignment, no sooner had they settled into their Paris apartment, her husband was temporarily reassigned once again for one year out of his France stint, thereby leaving Ann alone in her beloved Paris. Unable to accompany her husband, she hunkered down, and without much in the way of speaking French, but armed with timid courage, she chronicled her adventures into the regions of France, and developed into a more adventurous soul and gained introspection of life.

Anne Mah spent a total of 4 years in France and journaled her education of 10 regions within this gastronomical fortress of food by learning thier signature dishes, culture, and peculiarities, encouraged in part by her love of food and her career as a free lance journalist. The book consists of chapters for each region with its illustrious history in general, its history peculiar to its region, her feelings, and at the end of each entry, 1-2 recipes.

Chapter One: Paris, Steaks, and French Fries
She basically begins her tale of her life that revolves around meeting her beloved Calvin, their courtship and marriage and the frequent moving and travel required in his career as American diplomat. His background, which involved having lived in France in his younger days, help to lay the groundwork for the subject of her book. You meet the friends who are central to her comfort and joy during her stay in this country.

Chapter Two: Troyes and Andouillette
Encouraged by her husband, during a precious "vacation" from Baghdad to Paris, she begins her travels. This chapter interestingly enough discusses the intestinal meat of animals, and far from sharing too much information, it was quite informative. It is at this time that her husband's foreign service life taxes her, and when he must return to Baghdad, the missing and wanting of marriage and her husband, begins to bruise her soul.

Chapter Three: Brittany and Crepes
Her sadness in adjusting to being a married-single gal is addressed while she visits the north and south of Brittany. Making crepes becomes her soothing balm, all entwined in different recipes calling for different flours, flavors, and additives.

Chapter Four: Lyon and Salad Lyonnaise
One of my favorite chapters to be sure! While working at the American Library as a volunteer, she learns the importance of lunch in France, as being the most important meal of the day. She treats us to the bouchon/restaurant, and tells a most interesting story of the history of this once-center for the finest silk, and how they evolved.

Chapter Five: Provence and Soupe au Pistou
Calvin was again, "vacationing" with her, and so it goes, they ate meatballs and spaghetti. It is at this time, that we read more into her life as a child and her relationship with her mom. Then as a soup volunteer.....hence the chapter title.

Chapter Six: Toulouse, Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Cassoulet
While sourjourning in this area, we learn of a friends pregnancy, and Ann's own feelings of wanting to have a family. We are then happily taught that a truly well-prepared cassoulet takes 3 days to make.

Chapter Seven: Alsace and Choucroute
Her working paper finally come in, but during the waiting process, she speaks of the French-German region of Alsace. I found this so interesting as she writes with such genteel force. At this time, she begins to take mandatory classes on French civics.

Chapter Eight: Savoie & Haute-Savoie and Fondue
Ahhhhh....fondue! Who doesn't appreciate tiny morsels dipped in delectable liquid flavors! Learn why a friend taught her that you "never drink water with fondue" as well as enjoy a small dinner party with dumplings.

Chapter Nine: Burgundy and Beef Bourguignon
Now we're cooking!! One of the best dishes that always turns out well and for which guests will feel hearty and well-fed! As most Julia-philes know, this was basically Julia's signature dish. It is at this time that Ann describes in lovely detail, the feelings that she has as a diplomat's wife and how similar they were to Julia; being kindred spirits of sorts. Ann tells us about this amazing part of France and its history of grapes and wine. It was at this time, that she was hired to write about Thomas Jefferson's travels to this region.

Chapter Ten: Aveyron and Aligot
As her husband's temporay assignment comes to a close, and he returns "home" to Paris, they begin their "together" dream and its as if it were their first day in Paris once again. Precious friends become even more precious, as they restart their life together. To celebrate, she helps to cook a Thanksgiving dinner complete with pumpkin pie....with one problem. Cinnamon is "non gratis" in France; find out why.

Epilogue:
As they come to the end of Calvin's assignment in Paris, there is a certain sadness and missing that begins; for those of us who get it, we feel it too for them. For some reason that can't really be explained, perhaps the romance and the history, Paris is a passion for many people. In this vein, Ann and Calvin realize a dream of buying an apartment in their beloved second city. Where it is located and its state make me want to write to her and ask if I could stay there should I get the opportunity to visit "our" Paris.

Peace and Joy!

Mastering the Art of French eating is a delicious blend of memoir, history, travelogue and vivid food writing. Ann Mah has a fantastic way with food description. She achieves a satisfying weave of the personal and the and the "informational." Each chapter focuses on a dish from a different region of France, detailing Ann's personal discovery of that food and then taking you to its region of origin. The depth of flavor is captivating! I don't want to give too much of Ann's own story away, but will say that she is a marvelous and winning guide through French regional cuisine. And, as her title suggests, she feels both a kinship and a respect for Julia Child that infuses the whole book with wisdom and sweet gratitude for the pleasures of the table.

I read and enjoyed Ann Mah's debut novel, "Kitchen Chinese", so was excited to pick up her new memoir. And of course I just loved her mother's memoir, "Falling Leaves", which I read almost twenty years ago.

When Ann Mah and her diplomat husband, Calvin, are sent to Paris for his assignment (they had been in Beijing, the setting of her first novel), it's a dream come true for the couple. Calvin had studied abroad in Paris a couple decades earlier and Ann had always had a passion for all things French. But when Calvin is suddenly sent to the US Embassy in Iraq for a year, Ann is left alone in Paris. Spouses are not allowed in dangerous posts like Iraq.

To keep her mind off her husband's absence, Ann Mah travels around France to learn about regional cuisine. She meets with chefs and restauranteurs, and includes interesting bits of history in each chapter. She also ends each chapter with a recipe.

Although I enjoyed reading about the food (who doesn't?), my favorite parts were the memoir ones. She wrote about growing up in Southern California and traveling with her family. While she doesn't discuss her mother's famous memoir, she does go into some of her mother's background as the step-daugther of a half-French, half-Chinese woman in Shanghai. I also enjoyed the parts in which she wrote about her publishing career, both in New York and in Paris.

This book ends when Ann and Calvin leave Paris for Washington, DC. I would love for her to write more books set in their future posts around the world.

Anne Mah's food writing sings! This foodie memoir about France never falters when reminiscing about the food, Paris, people, and countryside of France. The personal memoir parts can be tentative, faltering, even at times whiny--reflective of the author's experience of a year spent alone in a new country without husband, friends, or family for emotional support and nurturing/nourishment. Her diplomat husband got a dream posting to Paris for a four-year stint, but then no sooner did they arrive and unpack, her husband was called to Baghdad for a year. What does a foodie do in this circumstance? Slowly but eagerly, start finding community through food. Food may be our homeland, but it is also how we discover and bond with the stranger.

The book's chapters are arranged by 10 regions of France, with a representative dish--its history, the author's discovery of its terroir, its variations, and a recipe for the home cook. As the Anne Mah describes it, "...the link between history and place, culture and cuisine." Paris is itself a region and the author's home base. There are Troyes, Brittany, Lyon, Provence, Toulouse, Alsace, Burgundy, and Aveyron--not all of France--another book, I hope. Bistro steak, crepes, soupe au pistou--and seven more dishes to savor, to prepare or dream of preparing. The recipes are easy to follow, though some of them require many hours of preparation or cooking.

What Ann Mah discovered in France was that, "Separate from cooking, the very art of eating is in itself an art to master." Not only savoring the food, but sharing connection and community in a country that mandates, in law and culture, time for the pleasure of dining. As Julia Child (with her own itinerant life and diplomat husband) would say, "Bon appetit,," to foodies and Francophiles.

I received a temporary e-galley of this book through the publisher and Netgalley. Netgalley reviewers are not paid.

Ann Mah, A Chinese-American, moves to Paris with her diplomat husband. He is almost immediately sent to Iraq and she cannot go. Mah, a lifelong Francophile, now has a year in Paris, alone. An accomplished writer, Mah sets out to chronicle her year living solo in the country she loves.

This is a charming account, a look at the new Paris (and France) from the eyes of a food-lover...and Mah also seeks out what remains of the old France.

We see Mah's many eating triumphs and her few failures. Well, she might not call them failures, but her problems with offal--tripe sausage for example--offers a curious look at an American who wants to be French, but never will be, completely.

The setting recalls M.F.K. Fisher's writings from France in the 1930's. While Mah is not Fisher, her prose is deft and paints a nice picture of 21st Century eating in France.

There are recipes which are not really necessary. I suspect these were inserted at the request of Mah's publisher. They don't really fit the book, and are part of the reason the rating is 4 instead of 5.

This book is highly recommended. Seeing France through Mah's eyes is trip worth taking.

I recently came back from a trip to France including Paris and reading this book, took me back to this amazing city full of wonderful art, stunning architecture, endless museums, beautiful gardens and a joie de vivre! What I found interesting about this book is reading about the author's many travels to the various parts of France and learning how to cook or prepare certain dishes that they're known for. Although, I don't necessarily plan to make the dishes from this book, as I don't cook as much as I would like to due to my busy schedue, I still found it interesting to read not just how a dish is made, but the background of that dish, how it came to be, its many origins. As for me, the fact that I have already been to some of those cities or towns that she documents in her book, it made it that much more interesting.

It's obvious that the author has done her homework in researching and putting together this informative book while at the same time, making it fun and entertaining for the reader. There are some French words sprinkled here and there, but certainly not too many. Perhaps I should have read this book prior to my trip to France, as while I was there, I was craving for Boeuf Bourguignon and surprisingly I could not find a restaurant that offered it! But I did eat an amazingly rich dark chocolate pastry!

Anne Mah's food writing sings! This foodie memoir about France never falters when reminiscing about the food, Paris, people, and countryside of France. The personal memoir parts can be tentative, faltering, even at times whiny--reflective of the author's experience of a year spent alone in a new country without husband, friends, or family for emotional support and nurturing/nourishment. Her diplomat husband got a dream posting to Paris for a four-year stint, but then no sooner did they arrive and unpack, her husband was called to Baghdad for a year. What does a foodie do in this circumstance? Slowly but eagerly, start finding community through food. Food may be our homeland, but it is also how we discover and bond with the stranger.

The book's chapters are arranged by 10 regions of France, with a representative dish--its history, the author's discovery of its terroir, its variations, and a recipe for the home cook. As the Anne Mah describes it, "...the link between history and place, culture and cuisine." Paris is itself a region and the author's home base. There are Troyes, Brittany, Lyon, Provence, Toulouse, Alsace, Burgundy, and Aveyron--not all of France--another book, I hope. Bistro steak, crepes, soupe au pistou--and seven more dishes to savor, to prepare or dream of preparing. The recipes are easy to follow, though some of them require many hours of preparation or cooking.

What Ann Mah discovered in France was that, "Separate from cooking, the very art of eating is in itself an art to master." Not only savoring the food, but sharing connection and community in a country that mandates, in law and culture, time for the pleasure of dining. As Julia Child (with her own itinerant life and diplomat husband) would say, "Bon appetit,," to foodies and Francophiles.

I received a temporary e-galley of this book through the publisher and Netgalley. Netgalley reviewers are not paid.

Longtime Francophile Ann Mah considered herself avoir du pot (to be lucky) when her diplomat husband Calvin was assigned to Paris for three years. And she WAS lucky, but only briefly, because Mah was left alone while Calvin was re-assigned, taking over the Chief of Staff position at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. In spite of the fact that during his year away Mah would stay in their Belle Epoque apartment, and she and Calvin would Skype nearly every day, Mah became anxious and downhearted for several valid reasons. First of all, they were very much in love and they had both looked forward to sharing their years in Paris together. Second, Calvin would only be able to return to Paris for nine weeks (three visits) out of the entire year. Third, although Calvin would be as protected as was humanly possible, Baghdad was still a dangerous place.

It did take awhile, but the resilient Mah eventually focused less on her disappointment and loss and more on French history and French food and voila, Mastering the Art of French Eating has joined the ranks of some of the more interesting books in this genre.

Mah highlights one signature dish from ten different regions of France. But it's not just about Crepes, or Choucroute, or Boeuf Bourguignon, or Cassoulet, it's also about the history of these foods (and six others), interviews with master chefs, meeting up with old friends, making new friends, travel and . . . love. Mah states, "The four years I spent in Paris felt like the shortest of my life, except for one -- the year Calvin was in Baghdad -- which was the longest."

Ann Mah has included is a recipe for each signature dish at the end of each chapter.

I enjoyed this book, but I especially loved the last two chapters and the Epilogue.

Ann Mah, A Chinese-American, moves to Paris with her diplomat husband. He is almost immediately sent to Iraq and she cannot go. Mah, a lifelong Francophile, now has a year in Paris, alone. An accomplished writer, Mah sets out to chronicle her year living solo in the country she loves.

This is a charming account, a look at the new Paris (and France) from the eyes of a food-lover...and Mah also seeks out what remains of the old France.

We see Mah's many eating triumphs and her few failures. Well, she might not call them failures, but her problems with offal--tripe sausage for example--offers a curious look at an American who wants to be French, but never will be, completely.

The setting recalls M.F.K. Fisher's writings from France in the 1930's. While Mah is not Fisher, her prose is deft and paints a nice picture of 21st Century eating in France.

There are recipes which are not really necessary. I suspect these were inserted at the request of Mah's publisher. They don't really fit the book, and are part of the reason the rating is 4 instead of 5.

This book is highly recommended. Seeing France through Mah's eyes is trip worth taking.

I found Ann's memoir engaging. She sought out some interesting cooking traditions in France and wrote an honest history and personal preferences. Some she like some she could barely choke down...now that's honesty.

I enjoyed hearing about living as a diplomats wife, basically giving up your career and adapting to the constantly moving and of course loneliness.

I was sorry it ended so that's how I know that I liked it.

I recently came back from a trip to France including Paris and reading this book, took me back to this amazing city full of wonderful art, stunning architecture, endless museums, beautiful gardens and a joie de vivre! What I found interesting about this book is reading about the author's many travels to the various parts of France and learning how to cook or prepare certain dishes that they're known for. Although, I don't necessarily plan to make the dishes from this book, as I don't cook as much as I would like to due to my busy schedue, I still found it interesting to read not just how a dish is made, but the background of that dish, how it came to be, its many origins. As for me, the fact that I have already been to some of those cities or towns that she documents in her book, it made it that much more interesting.

It's obvious that the author has done her homework in researching and putting together this informative book while at the same time, making it fun and entertaining for the reader. There are some French words sprinkled here and there, but certainly not too many. Perhaps I should have read this book prior to my trip to France, as while I was there, I was craving for Boeuf Bourguignon and surprisingly I could not find a restaurant that offered it! But I did eat an amazingly rich dark chocolate pastry!

When it comes to writing about French food, there is no one as famous as Julia Child. She discovered this country's rich (in all senses of the word) culinary fare while her husband was stationed there as a diplomat not long after WWII. Over 60 years later, travel and food writer Ann Mah found herself in a very similar situation. However, almost as soon as they had arrived in the magical city of Paris, her husband was sent to Iraq, without her. That meant she had a year on her own. While being parted from her new husband, one of the ways she dispelled depression was to investigate some of its most treasured foods. And that is how her book "Mastering the Art of French Eating" came to be written.

The ten chapters of this book each focus on a place and the food that they are famous for, starting off with Paris and steak frites. From there we go to Troyes and what sounds like France's most disgusting dish, andouillette (you'd be best to look it up on an empty stomach). We also get crepes from Brittany, Salade Lyonnaise from Lyon, soupe au pistou from Provence, cassoulet from France's southwest (Toulouse, Castlenaudry, Carcassonne), choucroute from Alsace, fondue from Savoie and Haute-Savoie, boeuf bourguignon from Burgundy and aligot from Aveyron. Since only those true culinary Francophiles will be familiar with these places and foods, Mah educates us not only about their composition and taste, but also on how each location became known for their signature dishes. Thrown into the mix is a good helping of recipes and cooking tips, together with Mah's own experiences in duplicating these treasures - not limited to those items in the chapter headings. To top it off, we also get a generous sprinkling of interviews with chefs, restaurateurs and gastronomes.

Probably one of the most interesting things you'll find out through this book is the French penchant for making a club, society, federation or association for some of the most obscure things one can think of. For instance, we are quickly introduced to the AAAAA which stands for the French for "A friendly association of authentic andouillette connoisseurs," of all things! You'll also find out how certain foods considered French have origins from other countries, not the least of which being neighboring Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Together with that, you'll find out just how proud and protective the French are regarding their favorite feast items, especially those that were developed during times of famine.

In order to make this a more personal account, Mah also stirs in some descriptions of the sensory attributes of her surroundings and visits. These come across like travel diary entries, which are lovingly crafted to make us feel like we're almost there. Mah's adoration of France comes through strikingly in these passages, as we live through these experiences with her. My only problem with this book is that some of the more personal parts of her story felt like they edged out all the gastronomic parts. For instance, I don't really think we needed to know so much about why she never learned French while growing up, her mother's relationship with her step-grandmother, or even most of the bits about the trials and tribulations of being part of the diplomatic corps.

In fact, one could almost say that this is really two books. One being everything associated with the food in France and the other being all of Mah's tangents that could almost be described as a coming-of-age story. My problem is that I found some (but certainly not all) of the latter to be somewhat distracting. I often found myself racing through those passages, anxious to get back to the point. To defend this, one could say that without the sauce, the meat will seem too dry. On the other hand, without a good enough sized portion of meat, the extra sauce will just end up being a congealing puddle on your plate.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, which at times felt almost like a novel. The writing was vivid and clear, even with all of the translating Mah had to do. I'm just not sure she struck the perfect balance between the culinary and the personal. If you are the type of person who feels the best part of the main course is sopping up the leftover gravy with your baguette, I'm sure you'll find this book to deserve a full five stars out of five. However, if you think the highlight of your meal should be the luscious marriage of the protein and how it's enrobed, you might find this book deserves no more than three out of five stars. For me, the jury is still out, so I'll compromise and give it four out of five stars.

Ann Mah and her diplomate husband get a dream assignment to Paris. Three years in the city of lights is a recipe for heaven to foodie Ann until her husband is sent off to Iraq for a year on an unaccompanied tour. Ann, lonely and shy, must learn to deal with this and this book is part of her solution. Ann visits 10 regions in France and delves into the signature dish of each area. If your taste buds aren't deficient, you should be drooling by this time. At the end of each region is the recipe for that signature dish. Having lived in Paris myself, I can understand Ann's dilemma but I think her solution is brilliant. She finds a job and then travels the different regions of France in search of the "real" thing in a signature dish. Try the recipe on page 226 for Boeuf a la Bourguignonne...yummmmmmmmmmm.
My advice about this book is , Buy it, Cook with it and enjoy. Bon Appetite!

Ann Mah's ambitiously titled 'Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris' is a delightful book. Ms. Mah takes the reader through a variety of well-known French menu staples, visiting in turn each region to find the most authentic version of a particular food.

She balances the personal and the culinary shifting between culinary tales and personal tales, discussing her husband's absence from Paris, and the culinary by visiting different parts of France taking the reader along with her. At the end of each chapter she includes a recipe for the particular regional specialty - my favorite might be the one for Cassoulet de Castelnaudry.

The test for me of any personal tale such as this one is: are you sad the book is over? And this book definitely passes that test. I look forward to reading Ms. Mah's next book.

Mastering the Art of French Eating ostensibly combines two of my passions: travel and good food so even before starting it, I was already predisposed to enjoy myself. This is narrative nonfiction at its nuanced and deft best, combining personal stories and anecdotes, historical origins of well-known French foods, and insights into French life and culture (plus recipes!) Be prepared, however, because Mah's delicious food descriptions will have you salivating ... and booking your next flight to France. I suggest you take this book along to a nice little French bistro and read with some Boeuf Bourguignon and a glass of Burgundy wine. Bon Appetit!

Excellent information for foodies and all those interested in French traditional cooking. She combined that with her experiences, weaving in and out of her narrative with information and recipes of several--a good job of keeping reader interest. Basically a good writer. I took off one star because her narrative of her experiences got a bit old at times, almost whiny, with the too-often repeated descriptions of how difficult it was for her personally without her husband that year.(some of it could have been edited down, IMHO).

Several years ago, while leading a group of American teenagers on a cultural adventure, we spent a wonderful evening at a small restaurant somewhere in the Champagne region. Each course lovingly served in its own good time. My fast food charges...they got edgy. "Why are we waiting?" "What do we do while we wait?" While they may have enjoyed the authentic French meal, they didn't understand the art of French eating.

Ann Mah's wonderful memoir of a year spent learning about the signature regions and foods of France should be required reading for groups such as the one I led, along with anyone who enjoys learning more about the foods from a nation known for its love of it.

As the promotional previews promise, Ms. Mah combines her passion for food and writing when she decides to spend her year alone in Paris while her diplomat husband is assigned to Iraq. Crepes and cassoulet, dishes for which France is well known, are all discovered in their regions of origin. The chefs and home cooks she meets along the way as she studies each dish are as engaging as the food itself. Along the way, she takes us to places such as Poilane in Toulouse, a well known boulangerie, and her tour includes an insider's look at the tiny bakery itself. One can almost smell the loaves of bread as Jean-Michel slides them from the brick wood fired oven.

She shares stories and recipes of some of the lesser known foods as well, such as aligot of Aveyron or andouillette, a sausage concoction not well known outside of its home region of Troyes. She channels Julia Child as she travels to Burgundy to learn the secrets of a good beef bourginon. She learns, as Ms, Child states in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," that there are more ways than one to arrive at a good beef bourginon,"

With a journalist's keen eye for detail and a gourmand's love of food, Ms. Mah entertains even as she informs about her experiences in the kitchens and the tables of her hosts throughout the country. If you enjoy this unique genre that might be called 'food memoirs," this is a great one to add to your reading list.

Ann Mah's Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris is an interesting memoir of the author's three year stay in Paris with a particular emphasis on the year she was alone there as her husband had a diplomatic posting to Iran. She makes occasional trips to various regions of France to explore specific foods and writes well about her trips to Brittany (Crepes), Lyon (salad), Provence (soup), Alsace (cabbage), Burgundy (beef), and others. Each chapter ends with a recipe for that region's specialty. The writing is very good and she has a good eye for detail.

I became rather irritated with the author as I read the book. She starts out passive, drinking wine as her husband reads to her about France from an atlas, and ends passive, watching the people at a Thanksgiving dinner dance without joining in. In between, she spends a lot of time alone in her apartment avoiding Paris. And she's often late to appointments to interview people for the book. I kept wishing that she'd leave an hour earlier for her appointments and spend more time in Parisian cafes. However the fact that I cared enough to get irritated is a sure sign that this is a well-written and engaging book.

Mah is not an adventurous eater and gives no evidence, at least in this book, of mastering the art of French eating. But she does write very well about France, food, and her struggles alone in Paris.

Could not get into this story even after putting it down and picking it up several months later (and doing it again one more time). Too self-centered. Did not enjoy the writing style or the story at all.

A very personal experience about living in France, Ann Mah has written a charming memoir about relocating to Paris only to find out that her foreign service husband has been called away to Iraq, leaving them with Skype visits and Ann alone to eat and explore her way through the city and beyond. I know what it is like to land in another country and be alone - in my case it was Rome - and even though you have open air markets and cafes and restaurants at your disposal, there is an aching loneliness that pervails, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how she adapted to the circumstances and, being a journalist, she set out to about French cuisine and write about her discoveries. Mah does a magnificent job, taking the reader along on her journeys to the regions as she describes the local speciality and offers up the recipe at the end of each section. Beautiful, enjoyable, and heart warming, this is a unique book on the much-written about the country and its food.

I bought this book because the title intrigued me and I wanted to learn about the subject. This book could easily be an autobiography, except in a non-chronological order. There were far too much personal sentiments about not having her husband around than I cared to read about. It takes away the focus of French eating and certainly losses the readers' attention by going back and forth with details of her private life.
The writing, when talked about France and French encounters, were interesting. For example, the story of the author driving up the Swiss Alps to look for the Alpine chalets that produce Beaufort cheese was a good topic. The story went on to talk about the author's first taste of fondue. After that it went on to describe the gathering of expats at the author's apartment to make dumplings in celebration of the Chinese New Year. After that, it went on to describe the second taste of fondue during a raging summer heat wave. Then the story talked about the regulations on Beaufort cheese and it was then the story on the cheese-making chalet was picked up on (remember back to the beginning of this paragraph). Turned out that the cheese-maker she had the appointment with had recently lost his certification. The chapter concluded with the dumpling party mentioned earlier and the recipe of Fondue a la Maison.

I would like to encourage the author to continue writing, hopefully by finding the humble opinions of her readers constructive. Her choice of topic in visiting different regions while exploring their representative cuisine was a great one. Further exploration to other regions would make a great sequel.

Imagine your husband getting a dream diplomatic posting to Paris for four years and finding soon after the two of you arrive that he's been transferred to a war zone for a year. As a man, this book was as much of an eye opener about where a spouse is placed when supporting their partner's career as it was for learning a lot more about French food. Not too many recipes but that's not really the point of the book. There is a lot of interesting reading if you want to know about how and where classic dishes come from. I've now become addicted to making gallettes de blé noir (buckwheat crepes) and I'm determined to make my 'aligot' run even after two unsuccessful tries even if I have to make my own mozzarella! Learning about the origins of these dishes seems to add to their flavour! But overall I empathised with the author as she at first struggles to find her identity and cope with being separated from the most important person in her life. How she finally triumphs and how this triumph is linked to the French and how and where they eat made for a fascinating read.

Yet another lovely memoir of a year spent in Paris, with trips to some of France's significant culinary regions, such as Bourgogne, Aveyron, Provence and Alsace, where this diplomat's wife enjoyed her time and sunk into a world of rich culinary adventures. Ann Mah writes cosily about the year she spent alone in France while her husband was on assignment in Iraq. Each chapter ends with a recipe from the region described. Looking forward to trying the "steak frites" and the "aligot" , now that I've found that one of my favorite shops in Orlando, FL carries a type of tomme cheese.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the stories around the author's culinary travel experiences, and the rich history of various traditional dishes from the different regions of France. Every time I think of this book, I start to crave buckwheat crepes.

I picked up this book hoping, from the title, that it would be a thoughtful examination of the French culture and particularly the French attitude towards food, a kind of guide to the pleasure-loving way of life that they're so envied for, à la French Women Don't Get Fat but without the dieting angle. Instead, I was disappointed to discover that this book is no more than a printed-and-bound food blog. Full of personal anecdotes of little to no substance, enthusiastic descriptions of food, and the occasional, infuriatingly shallow foray into the country's rich culinary heritage. All that was missing were the insta-worthy photos of each dish (which even mentions taking!!!). Gag.
It felt to me like a book she needed to write just to have something to do while her husband was away for the year. I got the impression that she wanted to be congratulated for existing in a foreign country and speaking basic French. She wrote an entire chapter about a kind of sausage which she refused to ever take more than a single bite of. At the end of it I asked myself, why do I care about this at all..?
If you want to read the bland chit-chat between an American and her ex-pat friends in Paris and then hear her describe what a crepe tastes like, be my guest. Personally, I was not inspired and even a little bit annoyed that this book got published. Waste of a good title.

Ann gives you visuals of the many foods of France. After many visits to France, Ann took me back with her details of cafes and special plates. I so enjoyed her feelings and memories of the foods and her research in creating the foods. Ann gave a good view of life alone being married to a diplomat. But, her food passion kept her busy and warmed your heart to read the story. I can't wait to check out her cafe recommendations when I get back to Paris.

Anyone who can write a chapter about the history of cassoulet and its origins, and have you searching anxiously for the ingredients (with clues about where to find them), knows that of which they write.
Ann has done a masterful job of capturing some of the essence of that which is French. The title is the perfect play on Childs' cook books. She may have left room for a follow-on volume, and I hope that is so. A great, quick read for all those foodies who miss the true French style and the food.

I received this book as a Christmas present. My family knows I am a Francophile and a foodie. This book was perfect. Every chapter weaved together Ann's journey dealing with her ever changing life in Paris along with trips around France to seek out details about a particular regions iconic dish. As I read the book I had a map of France beside me. Each chapter had me searching the map to see the location of her destination. I read with great interest the people she met along the way and how the highlighted food dish related to the people and to the geography. The facts were fascinating. But did I mention the recipes? Each chapter ended with the recipe for the featured food in that chapter. I made the beef bourguignon and will soon schedule a cold winter's night cheese fondue. (I live in Wisconsin!) This book will inspire you to invite over some friends and celebrate with great food. And don't forget to pull out some of the food facts from the book to keep the conversation going along with each bite. Yum.

There are lots of memoirs about expatriate life in France, with recipes, but this one is special. I was especially impressed by the way Ann successfully wove together French food, culture, even history along with affecting memoir about making a life for one's self in another country, loneliness, anxiety and eventually triumph. I was with her, rooting for her and cooking, every step of the way. Ronnie Hess, author of the culinary travel guide, Eat Smart in France

Since returning from Paris, I'm doing everything I can to savor my trip for as long as possible. Reading Ann Mah's memoir is just that. A relatable story, paired with armchair travel, and mouthwatering recipes. So far, I've cooked the steak frites and soupe au pistou...both great recipes and well received. Do read!