Products
Looking for all kinds of spices for your recipes? I suggest you visit epicesdumonde.com, where you'll find great products at very reasonable prices, especially considering the quality on offer. And it's not just spices, you'll also find salts, teas and lots of other tasty stuff.
If (like me) you love olive oil, then you've got to try Arnaud Gillet's, who on Crete near Heraklion produces it from his own olive trees(see video).
It's an excellent virgin olive oil, delivered to your door in record time, straight from producer to consumer. See his website, terre2crete.com for more information (prices, delivery times, etc.).
As a loyal customer of the Domaine de la Famille Rolet in Arbois, Jura, I particularly recommend their Cotes du Jura Blanc, made mainly from Savagnin grapes with a little Chardonnay. If, like me, you appreciate the typicity of Savagnin, you won't be disappointed.
An even more loyal customer is the Domaine du Moulin de Chauvigné in Rochefort sur Loire, where the winemaker is a winemaker (rare enough to be highlighted). Sylvie Termeau produces the whole range of Anjou wines, but I have a particular weakness for her Savennières, a dry, very fruity white wine. I recommend these wines all the more, as I had the opportunity to harvest with Sylvie and see her make this wine. By the way, if you get the chance, go and harvest for a day, it's a magical moment when you can really see, touch and taste the wine being made (and ruin your back in the vines when you're not talented, like me).
Hardware
The pastry blender or mixing bowl, in short, the big thing that's used for just about everything in pastry-making and baking. I'm a fan of the Kenwood brand, and for about fifteen years I had a 600-watt "Chef" model that seemed to be indestructible and easy to repair. It finally gave up and I replaced it with a more powerful model, the 1500-watt "Major Titanium".
These food processors are extremely versatile: they know how to knead and whip, of course, but they also use all kinds of accessories to mix, mince, press, etc. In short, they know how to do almost everything.
This "Major Titanium" is very efficient, but I have noticed a drop in quality in the motor block, with unpleasant jerks at minimum speed. I've heard that Kenwood was bought out by Delonghi, and since then it's not the same thing, what a shame...
When it comes to siphons, there's a simple hierarchy: ISI and the others. ISI is an Austrian brand that makes extremely solid (steel), efficient and easy-to-clean siphons. You can find them just about everywhere now in various sizes, but for family use, a 0.5-liter capacity is just right.
For cartridges, opt for N2O(nitrogen peroxide, silver or gold) rather thanCO2 (carbon dioxide, gray), as the silver ones are totally neutral, while the gray ones can add a little acidity.
"Magimix makes a very sophisticated ice cream maker that has its own cold production unit, so there's nothing to put in the freezer in advance and a constant, permanent supply of cold.
All right, it's expensive (almost 500 euros), but it's well worth the investment if you like ice cream.
Since 1916, the Barbier company has been manufacturing and selling wooden shovels for bakers (both professional and amateur).
They can supply you with all kinds of shovels, pellons and racks, all made from high-quality natural wood. I particularly like their rectangular shovel with its square cross-section handle, which you can see in these photos, a must-have!
Baking bags can be found in supermarkets in the "aluminum foil - freezer bags" section, but unfortunately this is not always the case.
You're more likely to find them in professional stores (see the yellow pages) like "La Bovida", for example.
For some recipes, you may need a pan that can be used both on the stove and in the oven. Professionals use pans with metal handles (which often burn), which they always handle with a cloth.
As our amateur pans, with their plastic handles, can't stand being put in the oven, there are now pans with removable handles. It's very practical: you use it just like a normal saucepan, and when it's time to put it in the oven (or wash it, for that matter), you remove the handle with a pinch of two fingers.
I recommend Tefal's Ingenio system, which is very practical: a series of bases in different sizes and heights, and a click-clac handle that you can use on all bases, frying pans, saucepans, sauté pans, etc.
Books
"Faites votre pâtisserie" by Gaston Lenôtre is THE pastry book for me. I learned everything I needed to know about basic recipes (pastas, creams, cakes, tarts, etc.), and what's more, my mom gave it to me over 30 years ago.
Very educational, the book has been reprinted many times, and the edition I have shows the master holding a saint-honoré on the cover, instead of the charlotte that's there now.
Objectively speaking, this book has aged a little, and the photos in it are not the flashy works of art you see in today's cookery and pastry books, but the recipes, and in particular the basic ones like pâte sablée, brisée, choux and feuilletée, are timeless.
In short, you need to have this book in your library!
After this first opus, Gaston Lenôtre published several other books, including "Faites vos glaces et votre confiserie", and "Faites la fête" (dedicated to buffets).
"Révélations gastronomiques" is the first book by Hervé This, a chemist at the Collège de France who specializes in the chemistry-cooking duo, and is thus at the origin of the famous molecular cuisine.
But above all, he's an excellent teacher, with whom everything can be explained, and everything seems simple... This is a recipe book, but for each recipe given, the whys and wherefores are explained: why whipped whites rise, why cut fruit browns, why whipped yolks blanch, etc.
"Ma cuisine" by Auguste Escoffier, a French cooking legend of the last century.
Hundreds of recipes in this book, almost no photos, but it's more like a museum piece, extraordinary to leaf through, that speaks of a past cuisine and art of living, with a deliciously old-fashioned charm.
An extract about coffee:"Carefully prepared coffee, taken some time after a meal, aids digestion. Coffee is best served in the living room; as it develops, its suave aroma rises to the head, awakens the spirits and lends brio to conversation.
