About Me

About Zest of France (myparisiankyrchen.com’s new full-English website), the food blog where I share French recipes and stories behind, and a bit about me

Bonjour! Welcome to Zest of France.

I’m Florence, I’m a French woman, born and raised in a small town of French Alps now living in Paris (more precisely just in between Paris and Versailles Palace).

I just love cooking; you might have guessed that! I’ve always cooked a lot, from a kid baking cakes with my mum, as a student the one designated to prepare feasts, as a mum inventing delights for my 3 daughters or a great dinner to gather family or friends. Little by little cooking, inventing recipes, searching for the best ingredients and focusing on local and seasonal produces became part of my daily life.

French home cooking is not a fancy nor sophisticated cuisine, so far away from French chef’s cuisine. Ingredients and produces are kings. Quick and easy, rustic, comforting and indulgent food is my daily go-to. For me, cooking is a great pleasure as well as a way of discovering, creating, giving, sharing and bringing conviviality, good time with people.  It’s amazing for the French to see how French cuisine fascinates and seems so difficult for foreigners, so far away from reality. I’ll hope you’ll be convinced of this while going through the pages of this blog.

Two of my interviews
– A page in National geographic Traveller
– The podcast La vie créative

A few years ago, after becoming friendly with a Japanese mother who was forever asking me questions on food and France, we decided that the best and the more practical way to answer her question was to start cooking lessons. While I stopped working to take care of my 3 young girls, I gave cooking and baking lessons for many Japanese expats living in Paris with the idea of going further than just listing the necessary ingredients and showing method and techniques.
Each lesson was filled with all kinds of explanations on the history, the produces, the customs…

It was a great experience and made me want to start this food blog to share more on French food, gastronomy and lifestyle. I’m sure that many of you, wherever you may be, are also interested in getting a better understanding on cooking and learning stories behind French dishes and traditions. I’m convinced that we remember and absorb better if we have fully understood what we’ve done and why we’ve done it, and if our interest has been piqued. Then we’re able to make recipes or techniques our own, to talk about what we’ve cooked and go further than just reproducing.

Therefore, for most recipes, I tell you stories, explaining the origin of the dish, the region, the culinary custom, the produce and products… You will find both easy and quick to prepare every day recipes and a few more sophisticated ones. Regional dishes (sometimes a bit rustic!) or well-known classic, sometimes with a modern twist and more actual dishes.

I always try to make them very easy to read, understand and execute, with step by step instructions or explanations for specific difficulties or basics you should know.

Let’s keep in touch. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or if there is a specific subject you would like to read about.

Follow Zest of France on social medias Facebook and Instagram, share the link to you friends and give me your feedback on my recipes (by sharing for example your dishes on social media tagging @zestoffrance and with the hashtag #zestoffrance. Please also rate and comment here on this blog.

And if you’re on Substack, I’m just staring but this sounds like a wonderful place to share and interact. Let’s meet there, you’ll also find me on Substack with the name Zest of France.

Florence

• Recipe development, brand cooperation, food photography… You want to work with me ? See the services I offer...
• You’re new on this blog? Head to the start here page where I’ll guide you.