Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 12/04/1995 All articles from this issue

Culinary author at Heintzelman's to offer cuisine fresh off the boat

printer friendly version

By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

Culinary author Kate Radcliffe will appear at Heintzelman's Bookstore in Los Altos 2 p.m. this Saturday to sign her new book, "A Culinary Journey in Gascony: Recipes and Stories From My French Canal Boat."

Radcliffe's latest effort is a cookbook of stories and recipes. Radcliffe is a chef/captain of the 80-year-old Dutch canal barge she charters along with her husband and travels the Garonne River in southwest France. The book is a culinary travelogue of a week's journey on the French canals.

An accomplished cook and storyteller, Radcliffe began to copy down the recipes and stories from her canal neighbors on the French canal. Guests on Radcliffe's popular canal barge, the Julia Hoyt, drift down the canal and stop frequently to sample Gascony's distinctive cuisine.

A typical meal might begin with tapenade verte (green olive spread) and roasted bread with herbed sea salt, followed by radish leaf doup or wild mushroom pie. Main courses include such classics as daube de boeuf gasconne (braised beef in the Gascon style) along with superb vegetable dishes as les petites billes (potato marbles); and for dessert, fraises au vin (drunken strawberries).

The 80 recipes are easy versions of the Gascon country cuisine based on fresh poultry, game and produce from village markets and farms. The recipes are culled from secrets of local farm wives and chefs who have welcomed the author into their homes and opened their kitchens to teach her traditional recipes found nowhere else.

A former puppeteer and artist, Ratcliffe has an intuitive sense for the theatrical nature of travel, cooking and entertaining. When not traveling through Europe by barge, she conducts cooking classes in United States, France and Italy.

"A Culinary Journey in Gascony" costs $16.95 and is published by Ten Speed Press in Berkeley. It is 184 pages and features full-color photographs.

Heintzelman's Bookstore is located at 205 State St., Los Altos. For more information, call 941-1842.