One More Croissant for the Road: Felicity Cloake

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Here we are. Still staying home. More travel restrictions announced here in Canada (about 10 months too late but better late than never…). The outlook for travel is looking bleak for 2021. If you’re missing travel as much as I am, you’ll no doubt be looking for ways to travel from home and, while technology is fantastic and there are SO many fabulous ways to travel virtually these days, there’s still nothing quite like a good book, right? As with everyone else, "Once More With Feeling," was a lot of fun. I think if you want to watch a show that takes place in SoCal Agreen bike drunkenly weaves its way up a cratered hill inthe late-morning sun, the gears grinding painfully, like apepper mill running on empty. The rider crouched on top in arictus of pain has slowed to a gravity-defying crawl when, fromsomewhere nearby, the whine of a nasal engine breaks through her ragged breathing. Put the chopped shallots and the cider or wine into a large pan and cook gently for 10 minutes, then turn up the heat to medium-high. This is the creamy, chunky version that you will find in Limousin bakeries, rather than the crisp clafoutis served hot for dessert in restaurants and after dinner. Sturdy and surprisingly portable, it is a good choice for a picnic at the height of cherry season, although make sure you warn people to watch out for stones. Leaving them in may seem like the height of laziness, but in fact it adds to the fruit’s flavour, as well as making life considerably easier for the cook. (The use of demerara sugar is a tip from the food writer Sarah Beattie, who lives in the south-west of France.)

Remove the stalks from the cherries, but don’t bother to stone them unless you are feeling very energetic. Put them in the base of the dish – they should cover it in a single layer. Eat any extra cherries. I’ve had a hard time focussing on reading recently – too much going on in my head – but I just finished a fabulous read that transported me to France for 30 minutes each day as I read my way around each “stage” of a very special “Tour de France”. Clearly I just needed to find the right book! Felicity’s Cloake’s One More Croissant for the Road is, quite simply, a delightful escape that all Francophiles should read!If you make it to lunch, that is… Part travelogue, part food memoir, all love letter to France, One More Croissant for the Road follows `the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake’s very own Tour de France, cycling 2,300km across France in search of culinary perfection; from Tarte Tatin to Cassoulet via Poule au Pot, and Tartiflette.

Then there were the myriad hyperlocal specialities I had never even heard of, such as spicy tomato macaroni with braised beef and sausage in Sète on the south coast, or the creamy deep-fried tripe eaten with relish in Lyon. These are now as much a part of my mental image of French food as old friends such as the moules marinières or cherry clafoutis below. New discoveries were as thrilling as the classics were comforting – I thought I was au fait with French food, when I had barely scratched the surface. She also squeezes in some brilliantly cheesy tourist attractions, mostly food-related, such as Mercier champagne cellars (complete with tourist train) and the cookie cutter collection in the Museum of Alsatian Life. One More Croissant for the Road sees ‘the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake embark on the trip of a lifetime, cycling 3,500km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. Felicity has long established herself as an absolute authority on everything that is important about food. This lively and charming account of her search for the ultimate Quiche Lorraine, la meilleure Tarte Tatin and a Cassoulet par excellence culminates in a triumphant two-wheeled tour of Paris’ boulangeries in pursuit of France’s finest croissant. Accompanied by charming line illustrations, each chapter concludes with Felicity putting this newfound knowledge to good use in a new ‘perfect’ recipe for each dish, the conclusion of her rigorous and thorough investigative work on behalf of all our taste buds. The nation's 'taster in chief' cycles 2,300 km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. Pour on top of the cherries, carefully put into the hot oven and bake for 50 to 65 minutes until firm on top with a slight wobble in the middle.The nation’s ‘taster in chief’ cycles 2,300 km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. I did not watch this as it came out- I was a little young when it started and busy with my life by the time I was a teen. Yet although French food has maintained its traditional status at the top of the tree – think of a fancy restaurant and I bet your mind conjures an image straight out of Ratatouille – our passion has been cooling since the turn of the millennium. It was the pesto I noticed first, a sludgy green interloper in the door of the fridge at home, the vanguard of an Italian invasion that would eventually see the Naked Chef cosy up to Keith Floyd on the kitchen bookshelf, and the butter dish on the dinner table replaced by extra virgin olive oil (which, my dad’s anxious face suggested, was expensive stuff, not to be wasted on teenagers).