As autumn settles all over France, the light becomes moodier. Cinderella pumpkins spring up in the markets, along with wild mushrooms, and crisp heirloom apples. Kitchens are alive with soul comforting food- and no one evokes that spirit better than The Cook's Atelier's Marjorie Taylor who helps run a French cooking school, boutique kitchen, home store and wine shop in Burgundy. The Cook's Atelier's most recent book French at Heart contains 100 go-to recipes that exemplify living well, the French way.
In the mid-thirteenth century, the Dominican preacher Étienne de Bourbon compiled his vast Tractatus de diversis materiis predicabilibus at the convent of Lyon (c. 1250-1261). Structured around the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit-though death prevented him from completing more than five-it was a storehouse of exempla designed to enliven sermons. One of its most striking passages appears in the first book, under the gift of Fear ( de dono timoris), in the seventh section devoted to the fear of particular judgement.
The concept of terroir has been essential to the history of Burgundy since (at least) the Middle Ages when the Cistercian monks started documenting vineyard sites across the region. Each plot was meticulously mapped out and categorized based on where the vines were most successful and what the resulting wines tasted like. Many of the areas that were selected as the cream of the crop back then are still highly regarded to this day.
Over the last 30 years, the harvest has started almost two weeks earlier, and in a year like this one, it can be up to 20 days earlier," said Bernard Farges, president of the Comite national des interprofessions des vins.