First published 2010
Elizabeth Bard finds herself adjusting to married life in France, where every meal becomes a lesson in cultural differences. She struggles through miscommunications with her husband while learning to navigate French kitchens and customs. The young American woman discovers that her usual approaches to love, happiness, and success need complete revision in this new country. As she faces the daily challenges of intercultural marriage, Bard turns to cooking as both comfort and connection. She experiments with summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare, and molten chocolate cakes, finding that food becomes her bridge between two worlds. Each recipe tells part of her story as she works through the ups and downs of starting over. This culinary comedy reveals how one woman reinvents her life's recipe while building a marriage across cultures.
Genres: contemporary, memoir, food-and-drink, food-writing, culinary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: France, Paris
Period: 21st-century
300 pages · Paperback · Prometheus