de Jane Bertch
“An engaging, multilayered story of a woman navigating innumerable cultural differences to build a life in Paris and create her dream: to establish a French cooking school.”—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen
When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French—how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris?—as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients.
Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.
The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking—and living.
“An engaging, multilayered story of a woman navigating innumerable cultural differences to build a life in Paris and create her dream: to establish a French cooking school.”—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen
When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.
Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French—how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris?—as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients.
Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.
The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking—and living.
Critiques-
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February 26, 2024
Bertch chronicles the ups and downs of running a Parisian culinary school in this saucy debut. Growing up in the Midwest, Bertch learned to cook by observing her grandmother throw meals together without glancing at a recipe. That informal attitude served Bertch well in her personal kitchen, but it clashed with the outlooks she encountered in Paris—first as a wide-eyed teen on a high school trip, then as an adult when her banking job transferred her to a French office. “Paris was tough on me,” Bertch admits; her French was rough, and she found locals snobbish. The author gradually curried favor with her banking colleagues, but when she developed an itch to open a tourist-focused French cooking school for people who “wanted more than a trip to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower to remember Paris by,” she faced backlash from acquaintances and professionals alike. Still, she got La Cuisine Paris off the ground in 2009, and in the memoir’s back half, she recounts the challenges of keeping it open, from real estate snags to the existential threat of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout, Bertch is tenacious, self-aware company, cognisant enough of her own judgmental tendencies to balance her portrait of nay-saying French nationals. Entrepreneurial readers will find much to admire in this tale of grit and gumption. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Literary. -
February 15, 2024
A Midwestern "meat-and-potatoes-eating gal" chronicles how she opened a successful cooking school in Paris. Bertch has lived and worked in Europe for two decades, and in 2009, she founded Le Cuisine Paris, now "the largest nonprofessional culinary school in France." In her first book, the author offers valuable, often hilarious nuggets of lived wisdom--and not just in terms of cooking. Originally from Chicago, Bertch targeted finance as the way to a wider world, first working in London before being transferred to Paris as a "relationship banker" in the early 2000s. The author recounts how, early on during her time in France, she was lonely, spoke little French, and was shunned by most of her older colleagues. Eventually, she realized that everything in the city is "coded...from its professional trajecto-ries to its wardrobe," and she had to learn the ropes the hard way, via faux pas. She began to understand that most people focus on one thing and disdain being "well-rounded," and relationships develop slowly through trust and referral. "They wanted to put me in a box, but I didn't fit in a box," writes Bertch. "Instead, with my red hair, American accent, and audacious ideas, they considered me a circus animal." Dissatisfied, the author quit her job and started a cooking school with her then-boyfriend, Olivier, who helped open doors for her. They were unable to "seduce" the concierge of the building, who considered the school a "nuisance," so they found a new space in the fashionable Marais on the Quai de l'H�tel de Ville, with its promising busy foot traffic. Despite numerous obstacles, including the terrorist attack on the Bataclan concert venue, the fire in Notre Dame, and the pandemic, Le Cuisine Paris has become a highly successful business. An inspiring story that will appeal to foodies and budding entrepreneurs alike.COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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March 1, 2024
Chicagoan Bertch was working in Paris as a banker, feeling unfulfilled by the job, when she opened La Cuisine Paris, a cooking school for English speakers. With a French partner who shared her enthusiasm, she found a space to renovate. Just as the school began to attract faculty and students, neighbors declared the school's comings and goings in the otherwise residential building to be a nuisance. The partners then found a prime location on the Seine, in sight of Notre Dame, and the school hit its stride--only to have COVID-19 shut down the flow of tourists it depended on. Along the way though, Bertch gained competence in French and learned Parisian social and personal customs and habits, as she recounts in this memoir. The French, she finds, resist mixing business and friendship; Parisians express strong political opinions volubly but never take such arguments personally. As an entrepreneur, Bertch ultimately comes to terms with "business as usual" being more like a perpetual roller coaster ride. Bertch's nonjudgmental insights make this an entertaining and revealing exploration of French business and pleasure.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
