Fall 2026 Cookbook Club: Forever French
Each season of the Kitchen Arts & Letters Cookbook Club is built around a theme, three books, and six evenings of guided conversation on Zoom: two 90-minute sessions per book, led by beloved chef and culinary historian Annette Tomei. Members receive each book at the start of the season, along with menu assignments and supplemental materials from Annette, access to a private discussion group, and recordings of every session. Most months include a bonus Q&A with the featured author.
No cuisine has seduced Americans quite like the French. This autumn, we give it our full attention across three months and three books that together cover remarkable range—from a Provençal vineyard kitchen to the regional home cooks who built the French culinary tradition to a former Chez Panisse pastry cook making his home in Paris. Annette is classically trained in the French tradition and a former instructor at the French Culinary Institute, which makes her exactly the right guide.
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October: Lulu's Provençal Table by Richard Olney. Richard Olney was one of the most respected voices on French food in the twentieth century. Lulu Peyraud was his friend for more than thirty years before he wrote this book about her. The legendary matriarch of Domaine Tempier, the vineyard that made Bandol wines famous, she never used recipes for the food she made for her family, the vineyard workers, and the stream of pilgrims who came to her table: Alice Waters, Kermit Lynch, Edward Behr, and others. Forceful, personal, and vraiment provençal. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, October 6 & 20, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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November: When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman. Kamman grew up cooking in her aunt's two-Michelin-star restaurant in Touraine, moved to the US, and spent more than forty years as one of the most demanding culinary teachers in America. This part memoir, part cookbook, part regional tour of French cuisine, profiles eight women whose skill reveals the depth of the country’s traditions. Among them: an Alsatian whose quenelles of frog legs come dressed in herb sauce, and the grandmother of Paul Bocuse—to whom Kamman dedicates the book, in an unsubtle response to the chef’s claim that women lack the instincts for great cooking. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, November 3 & 17, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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December: My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz. Lebovitz is an expat pastry cook who has lived in Paris for many years and built a devoted following through his books and blog. His first savory cookbook is a concrete argument for the pleasures of contemporary French home cooking, enriched by sharp, charming observations on Parisian life. The recipes range from a quickly made tapenade of green olives, basil, and almonds to a sausage of pork, chicken liver, and chard, with desserts including buttermilk ice cream with olive oil and fleur de sel. The most accessible of our three books, and a warm note on which to close the season. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, December 1 & 15, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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October: Lulu's Provencal Table
