Paris is a bookish town. Where else do you see signs for a book fair like Salon du Livre plastered on the fronts of all the buses. Or get the catalog attached to your free metro paper? Not in New York I can tell you. Students of all ages get in free too. The joint was jammed.
I hung out mostly in the Culinary Square - stand X77. I'm addicted to cooking demos since the Omnivore Festival and what better way to practice your French comprehension?
I was delighted to see Rachel Khoo's The Little Paris Kitchen now has a French edition, so the French can learn a few tricks from a Brit - quite a coup non?
French publishers put out a lot of novelty cookbooks focused on one subject and often in a shaped format. Plus loads of adorable kits with all the essential bits like molds or stamps included.
Of course there were real edible macarons for sale in the culinary square.
And macaron-shaped recipe books. This one looks like an open box of macs. Most of these single subject books are quite cheap in the 6€ area and you can find them at Amazon.fr
On to the delectable demos - Friday I caught top star pastry chef Christolphe Felder.
Making financiers with a touch of strawberry embedded in them.
Christophe Felder has a new iPad app out with demos for 200 recipes called 'Patisserie!'. You might have to be French to download it from the Apple store. Qui sait?
Food scientist Hervé This is France's Harold McGee with a big helping of the magician thrown in. His main area of scientific research is molecular gastronomy. He put on a terrific show for a pack of school kids on how egg whites are actually yellow. If you add a touch of water to your egg 'whites' they will foam up considerably. This was demonstrated by turning the bowl upside down over his head. The egg white emulsion stayed put. Loads of fun and a real charmer.
On Saturday I caught top cooking blogger Pascale Weeks of cest moi qui lai fait! She was perhaps the 1st French blogger to start doing a slew of cookbooks and is hugely popular for her excellent recipes. Do take a look.
Pascale's merinque Pavlovas were to die for. I managed to grab a forkful. If you're in Paris run to Porte de Versailles for the last day of Salon du Livre. Why not?
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