Florence Richomme was born and raised in a small town in the French Alps now living in Paris (more precisely just in between Paris and Versailles Palace).

Florence has always had a love of cooking – from a kid baking cakes with my mum, as a student the one designated to prepare feasts, as a mum inventing delights for my three daughters, or a great dinner to gather family or friends. Little by little cooking, inventing recipes, searching for the best ingredients, and focusing on local and seasonal produce became part of her daily life.

French home cooking is not a fancy nor sophisticated cuisine, so far away from French chef’s cuisine. Ingredients and fresh produce are kings. Quick and easy, rustic, comforting, and indulgent food is the daily go-to. For Florence, cooking is a great pleasure as well as a way of discovering, creating, giving, sharing, and bringing conviviality, and good times with people. 

Let’s hear from Florence about the rest of her story –

“It’s amazing for the French to see how French cuisine fascinates and seems so difficult for foreigners, so far away from reality. I’ll hope you’ll be convinced of this while going through the pages of this blog, Zest of France”.

“A few years ago, after becoming friendly with a Japanese mother who was forever asking me questions on food and France, we decided that the best and the more practical way to answer her question was to start cooking lessons. While I stopped working to take care of my three young girls, I gave cooking and baking lessons to many Japanese expats living in Paris with the idea of going further than just listing the necessary ingredients and showing methods and techniques.
Each lesson was filled with all kinds of explanations on the history, the produces, the customs…

It was a great experience and made me want to start this food blog to share more on French food, gastronomy, and lifestyle. I’m sure that many of you, wherever you may be, are also interested in getting a better understanding of cooking and learning stories behind French dishes and traditions. I’m convinced that we remember and absorb better if we have fully understood what we’ve done and why we’ve done it, and if our interest has been piqued then we’re able to make recipes or techniques our own, to talk about what we’ve cooked and go further than just reproducing.

Therefore, for most recipes, I tell you stories, explaining the origin of the dish, the region, the culinary custom, the produce and products… You will find both easy and quick-to-prepare everyday recipes and a few more sophisticated ones. Regional dishes (sometimes a bit rustic!) or well-known classic, sometimes with a modern twist and more actual dishes.

I always try to make them very easy to read, understand and execute, with step by step instructions or explanations for specific difficulties or basics you should know”.

This website adventure first started with a bilingual blog, My Parisian Kitchen, that is from July 2024 separated in two separate websites:

Zest of France is the new full-English website for you English-speaking French food lovers and francophiles.

www.zestoffrance.com

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