Today’s review is about THE FRENCH INGREDIENT by Jane Bertch. It’s a memoir about an American expat who opens a cooking school in Paris. Along the way she gains a better understanding of French culture and astutely shares that with the reader.
Author: Jane Bertch
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publish Date: April 9, 2024
Print Length: 304
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The French Ingredient Synopsis
Synopsis
The inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris—a true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way
When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French—how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris?—as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients.
Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.
The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking—and living.
The French Ingredient Review
THE FRENCH INGREDIENT is a memoir about a twenty-something Midwestern woman in finance who realizes her dream is to open a cooking school in Paris. Along the way she comes to understand and love French culture despite her rocky introduction to Parisian attitudes. Part memoir, part casual anthropological guide, Bertch astutely shows the reader why French people are they way they are.
First, I love Bertch’s writing approach to this memoir. She is in no way accusatory toward the French despite a confusing start in Paris after her work transfer. Who’s to say how she initially felt in the heat of the moment. Retrospect and experience allow Bertch to reflect upon and appreciate the interactions along the way that taught her what it is to be French. She acknowledges that, as an expat, she will never be French. However, her 15-year (and going) stint in Paris allowed her to adopt and adjust to French habits.
Starting a cooking school is a large part of the book. But Bertch balances it well with all of her cultural observations and reflections. I’m not a huge foodie, so the cooking school aspect wasn’t a huge draw for me. It’s more the characters and what Bertch learns along the way that make this memoir so interesting. My favorite part is how she seamlessly ties everything to various aspects of French behavior or culture.
For example, one of the first lessons Bertch learns is that the French don’t mix work with their private life. A coworker is a coworker, not someone to socialize with and pour one’s heart out to in one’s personal time. The French also don’t make or want fast friends. Friendship is a serious endeavor to them. It takes a long time to truly become a good friend to someone and sounds more like a courtship. For weeks or months one might meet with a potential friend for the rough equivalent of a happy hour. Then, one might graduate to an invitation to dinner at their house, which is a big deal.
There are plenty of other examples and explanations of French culture that Bertch illuminates in different chapters. Other topics include the right to protest and how that introduction begins at a young age. Or French pride in artisanal products as well as their country. In the last couple of chapters Bertch briefly discusses the French’s approach to politics and their response to the pandemic.
THE FRENCH INGREDIENT is a well-balanced memoir about opening a small business in Paris and understanding French culture as an American expat. It’s engaging and even a little humorous in parts. I read this as a library book. But afterward I purchased my own copy because I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to flip through it again in the future.
Rating: 4.25
Content warnings: pandemic, cancer, death
Reading format: Library hardback
I think I would like the cooking school parts the best. For some reason I’m reminded of the memoir Julie and Julia 😁
I was also reminded a bit of Julie and Julia! I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen the movie.
Great review. It was obviously really enjoyable for you to go out and buy a copy after reading if from the library. The parts about French culture especially friendship sound fascinating.
Thanks! The parts about French culture were pretty interesting to me and kind of played into how she approached opening a cooking school.
This sounds different than I imagined- I thought the focus would be on the cooking school a bit more strongly – but still like a interesting read over all. I’d never have guessed that French friendships took quite so much work and it sounds like a varied mix of topics are covered. Lovely review.
There is a focus on the cooking school, but she kind of uses it as a way to explain French culture. But yea, I guess there’s a little more emphasis on the culture thing, but she has good stories about the cooking school, too.