Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Bard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2010

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.

Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this pleasant memoir about learning to live and eat à la française, an American journalist married to a Frenchman inspires lessons in culinary détente. Bard was working as a journalist in London and possessed of the wonderful puppy-dog enthusiasm of young Americans when she first met her husband-to-be, Gwendal, a computer engineer from Brittany. Soon he had the foresight to put her name on the gas bill of his Parisian apartment in the 10th arrondissement, and they were destined to marry—and cook together. Her memoir is really a celebration of the culinary season as it unfolded in their young lives together: recipes for seduction (onion and bacon); getting serious over andouillette; learning to buy what's fresh at the Parisian markets (four and a half pounds of figs); surviving a long, cold winter in an unheated apartment; and warming up their visiting parents over profiteroles. Bard throws in some American recipes that feel like home, such as noodle pudding, and comforting soups for a winter's grieving over the death of the father-in-law. Bard carefully observes the eating habits of her impossibly slender mother-in-law for tips to staying slim (lots of water and no snacking). Bard keeps an eye to healthful ingredients (Three Fabulous Solo Lunches), and, as a Jewish New Yorker, even prepares a Passover seder in Paris, in this work that manages to be both sensuous and informative. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

“I slept with my French husband halfway through our first date,” begins Bard, a Paris-based American journalist, and she goes on to describe falling in love with both Gwendal, her Brittany-born amour, and with her adopted city, where she learns to shop for and cook delectable meals on a tiny two-burner stove (instructions for preparing the dishes close each chapter). Bard lacks the culinary chops of other recent romance-and-recipe memoirists in the increasingly crowded genre, such as New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser, whose Cooking for Mr. Latte (2003) also chronicled her path to marriage. And while Bard does include numerous, cinema-ready glimpses into her relationship with Gwendal (when she finally moves in, the adorable way he welcomes her feels pulled from a romantic comedy), both the love story and the food story feel slightly muted next to what seems to be the book’s deepest undercurrent: how to build an adult life that reconciles societal pressure, personal ambition, cultural dissonance, and true happiness. --Gillian Engberg

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031604279X
• ISBN-13: 978-0316042796
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Bard is an American journalist and author based in France. Her first book, Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes has been a New York Times and international bestseller, a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" pick, and the recipicent of the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best First Cookbook (USA).

Bard's writing on food, art, travel and digital culture has appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Wired, Haper's Bazaar and The Huffington Post. You can follow Elizabeth's continuing culinary adventures on her blog, facebook and twitter:

www.elizabethbard.com
www.facebook.com/LunchinParis
www.twitter.com/ElizabethBard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and Laughter With An American In Paris, January 8, 2010

By 

Marianne O. Schmidt - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes (Hardcover)

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I can not say enough wonderful things about this book. I confess that I am a sucker for all things French, and any book that tells me about Paris, food and the French is a book I will treasure. I didn't read the chapters in order, necessarily, and that is what I really loved about it. Although there is a chronological time line, you can read it out of order and enjoy it just as much as if you had done it the way most people do. The chapters really stand on their own, and the writing was delightful. It was tender, sassy, and kind, but honest. Ms. Bard clearly loves France, but she doesn't hold back from offering critiques either. I like her honesty, and I like that it was tempered with affection and humor. These are the stories that a friend would tell you, and make you laugh and think about, long after the covers are closed, and the book is sitting on a shelf. This is not a book that will, or should, sit on a shelf. It is part philosopher, part lover, part friend, and part chef. I loved the fact that the recipes are generally simple and good, and things that the French themselves eat, and are not show off or Haute Cuisine. Ms. Bard fell in love with a guy and with France, and she got both. Hats off to her. She made me feel like part of the family with her stories; this book is infectious and really invades your consciousness, and makes you want to read it. I would definitely give her high marks for voice, style and content. The only disappointment with my copy of the book, was the binding. The first time I opened it, one of the pages nearly fell out. I felt that the publisher let us down by putting up with such shoddy workmanship. I love this book enough to buy copies for my daughter and daughter-in-law, but I will warn them to handle it with care! It does detract from the joy of reading when you have to handle a book as gingerly as if you were holding a baby. It's a real shame that the book wasn't put together better, because it is one that you will want to read and savor more than once.

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Winsome and fun, December 31, 2009

By 

Leanne (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes (Hardcover)

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I'm a francophile who devours anything and everything I can get my hands on that is about French culture. I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this book since it sounded exactly like the kind of book I love, one that combined two of my favorite pastimes -- food and France. While I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it very substantive, and for that reason would give it 3 1/2 stars.

While the book was interesting, it seemed much too self-indulgent in places. Memoirs, of course, are nothing if not self-indulgent, but Bard's recounting of her relationship with her husband seemed to draw out scenarios that didn't quite merit the attention that she gave them. I did enjoy the intermingling of her stories with the recipes that inspired each narrative, and found it to be a creative (if not original) play on the memoir genre.

The book itself is light-hearted and fun, although it is also tinctured with darker elements, such as Bard's revelations about her father's manic depression. Having lived in France for a year when I was about Bard's age, I could also relate to her descriptions of French culture and the French mode de vie. Overall, I would recommend this book if you're looking for a light read.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars some cheese with that whine?, August 3, 2010

By 

analog shoujo (Foggy San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes (Hardcover)

A whiny professional student moves to Paris and frets about trials such as attending cocktail parties, not being able to find canned chicken broth, and working exhausting three-hour days at the Louvre (followed by a leisurely lunch out). When I got to the part about her stepfather taking out loans and paying her credit card bills so that she could maintain her Parisian lifestyle, I had to stop reading. Her petty gripes and sense of entitlement ruined what could have been a wonderful story about a cross-cultural relationship. Tant pis.