Anne’s Mentor

Many people in my family have a passion for food and cooking, and we all inherited that joy from Mamous.

Mamous, my maternal grandmother, lived in Provence, right on the Mediterranean. I spent my summers with her and our time was divided between the market and the kitchen. She taught me how to shop at the market, and she taught me how to manage a kitchen. Not how to prepare specific recipes, but the basic principles of cooking fresh foods.

At breakfast, Mamous would think out loud about what the next meals would look like. She considered many factors, including what was already available in the pantry, what was in season, dietary requirements and personal preferences, what we actually found at the market, and her own mood, abilities, energy level and logistics. It seemed quite natural and easy to me, when it was presented this way.