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A Pig in Provence
Available Now in Paperback

Available online from Amazon

The award-winning food writer describes her 1970 move to Provence, her adventures and experiences of Provençal cuisine, her development into a renowned food writer and cooking teacher, and the daily rhythms of life in southern France and the celebration of living according to the cycles of food and nature.

From Frances Mayes:
"Georgeanne Brennan's romance with Provence continues to deepen, and the result of her long residency there is an intimacy with local people, food, and folk ways. I would love to pull up a chair to her table."

From Alice Waters:
"Georgeanne Brennan's memoir reminds me of why I, too, was enchanted by Provence. She beautifully captures the details of living in a place where the culture of the table ties a community together - where everyone knows the butcher and the baker and everyone depends on the farmer."

From SFGate.com:
"Memoirs are a tricky genre. They can easily turn maudlin, self-aggrandizing, or dwell on details that aren't of great interest to the outsider. Georgeanne Brennan doesn't fall into any of these traps in A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France." read more

From NY Times:
“With her historian’s appreciation for fading and bygone traditions, Brennan offers fascinating accounts of the mass sheepherding known as transhumance and the habits of the itinerant food purveyors of the Provençal hinterlands. She revels equally in the preparation and consumption of the regional cuisine, whether it’s chocolate cake moistened with pig’s blood or le grand aïoli, a local festival in which snails and vegetables are doused in garlic and olive oil and gobbled up at communal tables. 'In listening to people recount their food memories around a table, I’ve seen their eyes glow and their body language soften with the telling of the taste, smell and texture of a beloved dish.' You can almost hear her lips smacking.” read more

From More.com:
“But, all in all, her mushroom hunting, bouillabaisse eating, melon and tomato picking, and so on, evoke an enviably satisfying, sensual existence and make this book a wonderful mini-vacation. She writes so well that we can taste the hot, slightly runny cheeses and feel the snugness of the bed in which she lies toward the book's end, "looking at the ceiling of hand-hewn planks and the smooth, plastered walls lined with bookshelves, [thinking] how lucky I was to have such a life."

CulinaryMuse.com:
"Enchanting." read more

Project Foodie Cookbook Spotlight:
A Pig in Provence

Welcome!

On my web site, you'll find information about my cookbooks and garden books, my recent and upcoming articles in newspapers and magazines, my seasonal cooking school in Provence, and forthcoming events in which I will be participating.

You can also take a virtual tour of a small village house in Provence that I own and that you can rent by the week. Contact me with questions and comments.

If you would like to receive my quarterly newsletter with tips and updates about food and life in Provence and Northern California, as well as other interesting places I visit, please forward your contact information on the feedback form and request to be put on the mailing list.

July, 2008

Cooking from the Winter Garden 'Provence in California'
It is a amazing how many different vegetables grow in my winter garden, almost more than in summer and spring. Nothing tastes better than fresh, crisp broccoli or cauliflower freshly cut. One of my favorite winter dishes is cauliflower gratin with lardons topped with St. Marcellin cheese. Everyday I harvest a basket of mixed escarole, frisee, radicchio, and arugula, maybe a little parsley, to make the slightly bitter winter salads that go so well with the blood oranges that I pick from my trees. Leeks, kale, cabbage, chervil, celery, and even celery root can be harvested at any time, and the thyme, rosemary, and winter savory is still abundant. The cellar (really a shed) holds winter squashes, sweet potatoes, apples, shallots, and garlic, and the pantry dried fruits, walnuts and almonds from my neighbors. It is a wonderful time to cook from the garden. Book your class early......

I think having a potager, a year-round vegetable garden, is one of the most rewarding things anyone can do. After returning from our sojourn in Provence (see my food memoir, A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France, my husband and I planted one in our front yard. The back yard we reserved as a safe play area for our children.

For me, having a potager like my neighbors in Provence, allows me live in the same way that I do there – checking the garden in the morning, seeing what looks good, later in the afternoon or early evening gathering what I’ve chosen for dinner, and then spending time cooking it, and sitting down to a leisurely meal.

My garden is enhanced by apple, apricot, peach, plum, nectarine, and citrus trees, and my cooking by an outdoor, wood-fired oven as well as a barbeque grill, all perfect for summer and fall. In winter, I can cook in the big fireplace in my kitchen, just like I cook in my fireplace in Provence.

It occurred to me, now that that dollar is so low against the euro, why not share my “Provence in California” world and have cooking classes here? We can go to the farmer’s market in Davis, come home and gather from the garden, have a cooking lesson, followed by an aperitif under the deep shade of  100-year old black walnut tree near the grape arbor, and then a long leisurely lunch. The next day we can have another cooking lesson, one that includes using the wood-fired-oven, aperitif and lunch.

So, please look at “Provence in California- Weekend Cooking Classes from the Garden” for all the details, and I hope to see old friends who have come to my program in Provence and to meet new ones who love good food.    

I continue to get notes and emails from people who have read A Pig in Provence, even one wishing me happy Mother’s Day. I enjoy them very much.

For those of you who have read A Pig in Provence, you’ll be sad to know that my dear friend and neighbor in Provence, Marcel Palazolli passed away this fall, leaving a gap in the community, the landscape, and many people’s lives. Marie is doing very well, and continues, with help, to maintain the fruit trees and market garden.

 My new consulting business, Evans & Brennan, LLC, which I share with my business partner, Ann M. Evans, has been full of exciting work. We are currently working to increase fresh, local, seasonal food in the Davis Joint Unified School District, and working with the Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner on promoting the food, wine, and agriculture of Yolo County, a tasty job. For more information about what we are doing, visit atasteofyolo.com

-Georgeanne