We’re so excited to again be chatting with you here on the blog! What’s new?! Could you share a brief look into your life and career since the last time that we spoke in 2021?

Hello! It’s so lovely to be back, thank you for having me again. So much has been happening since we last spoke, but the biggest of which is that I spent a lot of time these past few years traveling from my home in Paris to the south of France to research, write and shoot my most recent book, le SUD — which just came out this spring! I also managed to fit in a bunch of travel outside of the south for both work and personal life, including time in Mexico, Korea, Japan, England, Austria and Spain amongst elsewhere. Most recently, I returned home to Paris after spending the spring on a really special book tour across the US and Canada. While it feels great to be back in my home (and kitchen!), I’m already plotting the rest of the year’s travel — including heading back to the south of France this fall. I truly can’t wait!

Congratulations on the recent release of your newest cookbook, le SUD! What inspired you to write this book and what do you hope it offers to its readers?

Thank you! This is an easy answer: le sud inspired le SUD! The region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur is such a magical, stunning, endlessly inspiring part of France. It was an honor to capture a bit of its enchantment on these pages. My hope is that it transports readers to the south of France — at least for the duration of reading a page or recipe or making a meal. The images (photos are by the incredibly talented Joann Pai), recipes, and text all work together towards this goal.

And I also hope that it inspires a trip or two. The south of France really is one of my favorite places in the world. I feel very grateful to have been able to spend so much dedicated time in the region…and sometimes call it work!

You describe le SUD not simply as a recipe book, but an inspiring and approachable guide to the south of France. Could you elaborate on how you personally connect with culture through food?

It was really important to me that le SUD be both a workable cookbook and a transportive body of work — through both the visuals and text. As a working journalist, dedicated time and space for research and discovery was really important to me and I ended up spending months across the south of France researching. I enlisted some very much-needed help for this endeavor by asking my partner Laila Said to join me in researching the book. (Lucky for me, she did her masters in food studies at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, focused on how food impacts culture. I was thrilled that she was down to take on the project!) We gathered the input of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends to visit farmers, producers, artists, cooks, and agronomists— really anyone who would talk to us about the region and its tables. All of these conversations, meals, and experiences came together in a really special way to bring le SUD to life through each page.

I also wanted the images in le SUD to showcase the unique beauty of the region, so we shot the book throughout the year in multiple locations across Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur — from Marseille, to Menerbes in the Luberon Valley, to Julia Child’s former holiday home near Grasse. The images include a lot of recipe shots, of course, but also scenes, places, markets, and landscapes that all work together to tell the larger story of le SUD.

You just wrapped up a coast-to-coast book tour for le SUD! Could you share some of your favorite moments from the tour?

We started the 10-city tour in April in New York City at Prune and ended in June in Los Angeles at The Ruby Fruit. I mean it when I say every stop was a favorite! It was important to me to work with people and places I would want to visit regardless, which effectively turned le SUD the TOUR into a series of greatest hits. I also met so many incredible people along the way. Books take years to make, and while I got to do a lot of travel and collaboration for this one, there is still a lot of that time that was spent solo in front of a screen, hoping I was doing something right. So, the experience of getting to see the final physical book in the hands, kitchens, and hearts of others is one of my favorite parts of my work. As for a specific favorite moment… starting the tour at Prune by hosting my dream dinner party with THE Chef Gabrielle Hamilton cooking my recipes and getting to toast the book with friends in that iconic, deeply special space was a top top moment in both the tour and in my life.

Your first two cookbooks, Apéritif and Á Table, are also collections of French recipes. Could you elaborate on your choice to focus your newest book on the southern region specifically?

Well, my first book Apéritif took on apéritif culture in France and included recipes for both drinks and snacks. À Table focused on the modern French table from apéro, to the main meal, to dessert, to digestifs. For le SUD, I wanted to focus on a specific region of France that I love deeply that also has such a mystique around it. I approach all my work from a place of curiosity and there was simply so much to dive into and learn about in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur. Plus, it served as a valid reason to take the train from Gare de Lyon in Paris to various stops in the south of France over and over and over again in the name of work! It was a dream project.

You also run a substack newsletter, Shortlisted. Can you share what readers should expect with a subscription?

Yes! It’s a really fun newsletter to write each month and I’m always popping in to update past lists with new favorites. Basically, the idea behind Shortlisted is that if you’ve ever wanted to text, email, or DM me and ask for my Paris (or Marseille or Mexico City or Arles or or or) food and drinks list, each month I drop the actual <insert city here> list I send to friends and family. They’re very intentionally curated and include all the places I would go if I were you — from restaurants, bars and cafés, to select hotels, shops, and beaches. I often include a recipe or two inspired by the place as well.

What are your favorite rituals around food and eating with others?

What’s next for you? How do you hope to see the impact of your work take form?

As a working food and travel journalist (I write for The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, and Travel and Leisure, among others), I’m often on a deadline so in the granular, the next deadline is followed by a round of pitches to my editors! Balancing that aspect of my work while ushering le SUD into the world has been a beautiful-meets-terrifying-meets-exhausting task. So right now, I’m continuing that juggle while continuing to see le SUD out in the world all while doing my best to enjoy the present moment and not rush to the next thing too quickly. (But, yes, I do have some thought on what’s next in the bigger sense…stay tuned!)

Favorite place to visit to spark recipe inspiration?

Travel is always such an inspiration for me, recipe or otherwise. For a person who absolutely loves to be home, I am on the road more often than not for both work and personal pleasure. I’m lucky that I’m in a relationship with someone who values and prioritizes travel as much as I do. One of my favorite things to do in any place I visit is to wander around the local market, see what’s in season, peek at what’s in other people’s baskets, and ask what vendors recommend to do with their products. It’s such a rich, expansive source of inspiration.

Most nostalgic snack or treat from childhood?

In the summertime, it’s a piece of hot, very generously buttered toast with lots of flaky salt, alongside whatever fruit is in season and perfectly ripe. That combination of flavors and textures takes me right back to my mom’s house.

Favorite space in your home?

My dining room table. It’s this big slab of marble I found on leboncoin (sort of like a Craigslist equivalent here in France) and set directly on top of another table. It plays a lot of roles — from my desk in the daytime, to where we host friends for apéros and dinners.

Most-used item in your kitchen?

The salt dish. I rotate between a few, currently it’s a shallow ceramic brought back to Paris from Oaxaca.

Current favorite cooking spice?

I always have piment d’espelette in my pantry. It’s a lightly-spiced, robustly-flavored pepper from France’s Basque country and can be found in powdered and paste form. I sprinkle it on top of eggs, aïoli, crispy potatoes, tomatoes, and more.