French virtual cafe

A PERMANENT DIALOGUE BETWEEN A FRENCH FATHER, ALAIN, LIVING IN CHICAGO AND HIS SON, STEPHANE, LIVING IN SILICON VALLEY. BOTH HAVE A SERIOUS FIXATION ON ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING INVOLVING FOOD, WINES, SEARCH FOR NEW EXCITING RESTAURANTS AND RECIPES BOTH IN FRANCE AND IN THE U.S. THE FATHER HAS ALSO AN EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF FILMS AND IS AN AVID MOVIEGOER AND VIDEO WATCHER. THEY WELCOME ANYBODY WHO SHARES THEIR PASSION TO ASK THEM QUESTIONS ABOUT RELATED TOPICS.

October 18, 2006

Costières de Nîmes and Vins de pays du Gard: Sunny, comforting and affordable wines for wintry days.

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Stéphane, You may remember that when you went to this small village in the department (district) of Gard, in Southern France, to watch the ...

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August 16, 2006

Chicago restaurants that welcome kids

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Hey, Stéphane, your mother who, as you know, covers the restaurant scene in Chicago for CHICAGO COLLECTION Magazine has compiled the followi...

August 02, 2006

What restaurants in Chicago would welcome families with young kids?

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Hi Papa, With the baby getting a little older we are starting to consider our summer travel. We'd like to take him to some restaurants ...

July 14, 2006

Nostalgic for French cafés of yesteryear

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One of the things I missed the most when I moved from Paris to Chicago in January of 1970 was the cafés. Of course I found some interest...

June 06, 2006

A French restaurateur talks about the evolution of the restaurant scene in Chicago since1969

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Stéphane, I will never forget our last family dinner at KIKI'S BISTRO when you came to Chicago with Andrea and 5 month old Sébastien ...

April 20, 2006

French cheeses: A few pieces of advice on how to buy and serve them

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Stéphane, When I arrived in Chicago from Paris in January of 1970, it was a very provincial, unsophisticated ''meat and potatoes...

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April 09, 2006

What are your tips for buying French Cheese?

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Bonjour Papa, Often times in the nicer grocery stores in our area I like to buy some nice cheese. Usually I'll buy a camerbert, a roque...

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March 03, 2006

Two simple Mediteranean dishes that I like to serve on Sunday nights.

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Stéphane, As you know, even after 35 years of eating and cooking in Chicago, I, and so is your mother, am very nostalgic of the cuisine of ...

February 27, 2006

Could you give me a couple of your recipes for some simple dishes to cook on a Sunday night?

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Hi Papa, As winter in California forces us to cut down on our traditional outdoor BBQing I'd like to start to make use of our oven. I r...

January 27, 2006

My favorite movies of 2005

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Stéphane, 2005 was not one of the best vintage years in my long career of moviegoer. Relatively few films that I screened in the Chicago ar...

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About Me

Alain: Born and educated in France. In Chicago since 1970. American wife, a free-lance writer and journalist. Two sons and two grand-children Since my childhood during World War II in the Languedoc and Geneva, Switzerland, and especially since the late forties when my parents moved from Southern France to Reims,the capital of the Champagne producing region, where we started to eat a little more normally, I had lots of exposure to the secrets of good food and wines. My Swiss grand mother, aunts, and my mother were great ''cordons bleus''and taught me many of their cooking techniques and secrets. My father initiated me to the art of wine selecting and drinking when I was 17 and explained to me the various regional food specialties of the French provinces. And when I was old enough to accompany them to restaurants, my parents introduced me to the world, rules, and tricks of restaurant going. Since my student years in Aix-En-Provence and Paris, I never stopped trying to improve my culinary skills,to experiment with an ever growing spectrum of new wines and different types of foods from all over the world, and to conduct a non-stop search for new exciting eateries.

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