On Rue Tatin
Living and Cooking in a French Townby Susan Herrmann Loomis
Broadway Books, 306 pp., $24
In 1980, American cookbook author Susan Herrmann Loomis went to Paris for a year of professional culinary training, fell in love with the cuisine, the country, and the people and ultimately made France her home. We meet the author during her early days in Paris as a stagiaire, or student, at the renowned La Varenne, an experience she describes as ” an invaluable bootcamp for cooks.” New to the country, she learned French by hiring herself out to a family in Normandy as a cook during school vacations. Once her culinary course work was completed, Loomis realized that her love affair with France had just begun and she found jobs, such as cooking in an American-owned salon de thé and assisting Patricia Wells with the new edition of the Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, to keep herself there. When her American fiancé, artist/sculptor Michael Loomis, joined the author in Paris, the talented young couple decided to make a home in France. The family who first welcomed Loomis into their home in her student days had by then become lifelong friends and played an important part in the Loomises’ decision to settle in the picturesque French village of Louviers, Normandy.
In this charming memoir, Loomis recounts her adventures as a student and as a new mother juggling work and the restoration of a dilapidated centuries-old convent the Loomises chose for their home on Rue Tatin in Louviers. She also speaks candidly as an outsider tackling the social challenges necessary to adapt to life in a different culture. She learns to haggle with shopkeepers even though it’s very much against her nature, and both she and her husband adapt to the tuyau system, whereby French citizens endeavor to bypass the myriad authorities and regulations in everyday commerce. Soon after moving to Louviers, the Loomises are shocked to find they’re suspected of being spies because the landlady and the village police are convinced the job of “cookbook writer” is a frequent CIA cover-up. The suspicion passes and the young family eventually begins to feel at home in local society.
Throughout her story, the author introduces readers to the bakers, shopkeepers, butchers, fishmongers, and other food artisans who become her friends and share their authentic French country recipes to enhance her tale. There are the Pommes de Terre en Robes de Champs (tiny baked potatoes with cream) from the owners of her favorite vegetable stand; Le Soupe aux Pois Chiches (chickpea soup) from the small cafe across the street from their house; and Les Pains de Rapprochement, fresh, warm rolls that solved a disagreement with the florist who was accustomed to storing Christmas trees in the Loomis’ yard. The recipes are tested and work well in American home kitchens. Readers who are fans of Loomis’ Farmhouse cookbook series as well as any Francophile considering a life in France will enjoy joining Loomis and her family in the kitchen of their home On Rue Tatin.
This article appears in June 15 • 2001.