And we have a winner (or two!) - Books

After a week of deliberation, the wonderfully talented and incredibly generous Kimberley Lovato has selected the two winners of our Walnut Wine and Truffle Groves book competition! I know that this wasn’t an easy decision as the entries were all so good! In fact, Kimberley did ask if, that as well as choosing the two winners, she could also mention two entries that she thought deserved a special mention. So here, with no further ado, no more waffle and no more faffing around, are the winners of the Kimberley Lovato Competition are….

The Walnut Wine & Truffle Groves Competition Winners!

Jacqui – www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Kimberley Lovato : I loved her account of the five hour dinner, which even by French standards is extremely long! But that’s how it is and the best is to sit and enjoy the bounty. Meals are served with great passion and are meant to be savored, rather than raced through. To be invited to a French table, in someone’s home, is an honor. I think Jacqui captured that well, with a positive spin rather than complaint, though I did sympathize with her four year old son and the Patois being spoken. I learned to bring a notebook to these affairs and jot down new words and memories so I could remember them after all the wine!

Jacqui’s entry was.. “My most memorable French dining experience has to be the village 11th November remembrance meal. As a young family newly arrived in France it was the first communal event we attended and was full of those villagers ‘of a certain age’. It started at noon following the service of remembrance with a killer kir; a combination of very cheap white wine with a rather large dose of some very sweet, very alcoholic peachy stuff – to be avoided at all costs if dignity is to be maintained and I talk from experience. We were then served a lovely seasonal vegetable soup, a serving bowl left at the end of a communal table, passed down as we all helped ourselves. As newcomers we were encouraged to have seconds, which we did. This was followed by the fish course of scallops in a white sauce, again delicious, and the inclusive wine started to flow. The ‘main’ meat course then arrived, a simple yet tasty pork, and again we are encouraged to take more, which we did. A couple of hours has passed, our neighbours are slipping into incomprehensible patois and our 4 year old is very bored, having never spent this long at a table in his life! The sorbet, a delicate pear flavour is squeezed in before the local goats cheese is passed along the table, slowly followed by the pastries, fresh from the boulangerie. Five hours eating what felt like five days of food; vivre la France.”

Laura – The French Country Challenge

Kimberley Lovato : This is such a short story but teaches a valuable lesson. Sometimes what we fear is all in our head. Her aunt enjoying the cheese until she ‘heard’ it was unpasteurized. Funny, and very typical of many travelers. I still recall my own mother eating delicious foie gras on toast with fruit chutney, declaring her adoration for the amuse bouche until I told her what it was. The look on her face told me she wanted to die. Despite my reminders that she was enjoying it, she refused to eat the rest. Don’t invite your imagination to the dinner table, unless you’re cooking the meal.

Laura’s entry was.. “One of my funniest French dining experiences was when I had my aunt from the States visiting me in Paris. As a special treat her last night, we went to a really nice restaurant in St Germain des Prés. After a fantastic meal, they brought an amazing cheese cart round to the table, and we selected a range of beautiful samples. As we were savoring the delectable morsels, my aunt commented on how good it was and how you can’t get cheese like that in the States. I agreed and laughed that a lot of Americans couldn’t take the idea that it was not pasteurized. My aunt, a health care professional, froze mid-chew, eyes wide, “You..mean…this…is…not…pasteurized?!?!” Oops. She did manage to swallow that bite, but refused to eat the rest of the plate, which I however, happily finished for her!”

Honorable Mentions

Diane (My Life in the Charente)- Kimberley Lovato : Bravo for being adventurous and letting serendipity be your guide to an amazing meal that you’d have never found had you not been so curious. I have found many a new place myself by following a sign or peering into a window. Well done. Keep up the adventurous spirit.

Diane’s entry was.. “My most memorable meal was when a friend was visiting from the UK. We were looking for somewhere to eat when in the back streets of La Rochefoucauld we discovered a sign on a door that said Le Coq d’or. We peered inside and saw many pool tables, but to the right was a small hand written sign with an arrow that said restaurant. A lady appeared and ushered us through a barn up to a room hidden away at the back. It was full of truck drivers and we wondered what we had let ourselves into! Well, we had the most stupendous lunch, six amazing courses, help yourself to as much as you liked, and a bottle of red wine thrown in all for the cost of €11. The cheese board alone was worth that money! We quietly rolled our way home afterwards and we have returned many times since.”

Michel (Our House in Provence) – Kimberley Lovato : Poor Michel. I know Beaune well and have had some amazing dining experiences there myself. And the wine. Oh la la. I am sorry he missed it and had I been in the car, would have been on his side to stop and enjoy a good meal in one of the most gastronomic corners of France. Next time Michel, put your foot down and INSIST!!

Michel’s entry was.. “Well this would be my saddest dining experience ever and occurred about 15 years ago. We were nearing the end of our driving tour through France and had spent the weekend near Geneva visiting cousins. We left Sunday morning by car to Paris as we were scheduled to fly out on Monday. Prior to our trip I had researched to figure out where we would eat lunch and had chosen a wonderful bistro enroute in Beaune. Well, just as we were pulling off the autoroute, my friend said (we were two couples and our combined 4 kids traveling together), Krisy really wants to get to Paris in time to see Monet’s garden at Giverny, can we please skip lunch and try to get there for her. Well, I was the only foodie in the group and really cared where we ate lunch. I was urged by wife to head to Paris and told we will find you a wonderful place to eat in Paris and off we went. Just to make it, I had to drive like a crazy man and we arrived about 1/2 hour before the gardens closed. Well being Sunday and you guessed it, not much open in Paris on Sunday night. The only restaurants we could find were several Moroccan restaurants serving couscous which is what we ate. To say the least I was most unhappy. It has taken 15 years to eat and like couscous again.”

So, I suppose that all there is left to say is…

Congratulations to you winners and thank you all for joining in!

We’ve got another couple of competitions coming up in the near future so watch this spot!

And finally, a big, big thank you to Kimberley, without whom none of this would have been possible!

All I can suggest is that the people who didn’t win make sure they put Walnut Wine and Truffle Groves on you Christmas pressie wish list!

I know I shall (are you listening, Mrs A Taste of Garlic?)

All the best

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4 Comments

• 

  By Jacqui, October 20, 2010 @ 8:36 am

  Yippee! Whoop, Whoop!
  Thank you so much Kimberley and Keith, I am very very excited. Can’t wait to read it, a book combining food and France, a perfect combination in my opinion!
  Jacqui

• 

  By Michel, October 22, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

  Thanks Kimberly for the sympathy. I appreciate it. I will be buying your book when I see it in the bookstore. I saw it at Vroman’s in Pasadena, California and didn’t buy it then because I didn’t want to have to carry it on the plane; but have not seen it up here in Northern CA.

• 

  By Roz, October 22, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

  Bum, thought I had that in the bag.

• 

  By Michel, October 24, 2010 @ 7:44 am

  I found the book and bought it. I look forward to reading and cooking from it. Kimberly, I am curious; in France at least in Provence where we shop, you don’t find stock or low sodium broths that you can substitute for stock. We only find the cubes. Several of your recipes, call for stock. When you are in Dordogne, what do you substitute for the stock you show in the recipes.

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