ReportingThe American chef has been running a French cooking class since 2008. With the help of her daughter and her son-in-law, she has developed a comprehensive culinary immersion program, including a general store devoted to gastronomy and, since the health crisis, a vegetable garden and an orchard.
The last gourmet apprentices have left for home, in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Australia or New Zealand. In Beaune, the prestigious Hospices wine auction, which takes place every year on the third weekend in November, marks the end of the tourist season. In the heart of the Burgundy wine region, the small medieval town then quietly enters into hibernation. But no question for Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini to hang up their linen apron.
“We are taking advantage of this period to plan the coming year, to visit wine producers that we did not have time to visit, to update the online store… explains Laurent Franchini, Marjorie’s son-in-law. For Marjorie and Kendall, this is especially the time to think about new ideas. “ While waiting for the return of spring and the reopening of their cooking classes, mother and daughter will work on other recipes, test utensils and products. They point out that this essential renewal allows them to continue having fun.
Very early on, Marjorie Taylor developed a passion for French cuisine, discovered in particular thanks to Julia Child, star of the American television program “The French Chef” from the 1960s, and author of numerous culinary bibles.. In Phoenix, Arizona, first pastry chef in the 1980s, in 2000 she co-founded the Ruby Root, a restaurant where she puts slow food precepts and cooking classes on the menu. In 2006, during an internship at la Varenne, the school that the Englishwoman Anne Willan, promoter of French gastronomy, opened in Burgundy, she found herself in Beaune with her daughter, Kendall, then an art student in Paris. .
It was such love at first sight for the small fortified city of Côte-d’Or that Kendall Smith settled there to learn viticulture. Marjorie Taylor will join her soon, leaving all of her life before, except for her kitchen utensils and old dishes: “I felt that Kendall was not coming back to the States, and I wanted to see my future grandchildren grow up. “
Copper saucepans, cooking piano and large table d’hôte
Two years later, the enthusiastic entrepreneur moved into an old apartment to house her concept of initiation into French family cooking. Traditional recipes – gougères, cheese soufflé, beef bourguignon, Orches apple pie … – simmer as in the past, in copper pots, cast iron pans, on a Lacanche Classic model cooking stove, before tasting them around a large table d’hôte.
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