The Techniques of the Kitchen The Making of a Cook–The Making of a Cook

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top 1000The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth
The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth

By Roy Andries De Groot

Published 1973

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After lunch, I asked permission to visit Mademoiselle Ray in her kitchen. As I walked in, there was a noise as if someone were tap dancing on a stone floor. Her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, she was vigorously slapping a mound of dough on the marble top of her work table. On the chopping block, at the far side, the white-fleshed carcass of a baby kid goat gave off the warm smells of garlic and fresh tarragon.

A fair-sized kitchen had been made by combining two rooms of the original farmhouse. A wide window faced the mountains; another, on the west side, had been adapted as an indoor-outdoor greenhouse for potted herb plants. On sunny days the outer window could be opened. Mademoiselle Ray said: “In summer, of course, I step outside the kitchen door into our herb garden. But in winter it is my chief secret of good cooking to be able to reach out my hand and pick the fresh green leaves at the last moment before using them. Also, I always try to avoid overheating the herbs so that their oils do not evaporate. I may cut them into a sauce a few seconds before it is served. Or they may he added to the garnish of a dish just as it goes into the dining room.”