Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes

Darien Library, along with Essex Library Association and Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, welcome food columnist, cookbook author and James Beard award winner Aleksandra Crapanzano to talk about her newly published cookbook, Gâteau:  The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes.

Register for Gâteau:  The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes with Aleksandra Crapanzano

Learn what the average Parisian home cook makes when in the mood to whip up something sweet.  Hint: it's not complicated.  It is the simple, no-fuss, and completely irresistible gâteau in all its many varieties. Aleksandra will explore her new book, a celebration of these classic recipes, that will introduce American cooks to a style of baking that is practical, adaptable, delicious—and very French.

Aleksandra spent part of her childhood in France, and this is the inspiration behind Gateau, a cookbook that gets to the heart of Parisian home cooking.  Many Parisians are natural cooks, and Aleksandra has yet to meet a Parisian who didn’t finish dinner with a little something sweet, effortlessly made and casually served. The recipes in this book are largely traditional, but many feel surprisingly modern. A gâteau may be lightly glazed, dusted with cocoa or confectioners’ sugar, drizzled with rose water, but rarely heavily iced. A splash of brandy, a squeeze of lemon or a thin blanket of ganache elevates even the easiest of cakes in mere minutes. And then there are the savory cakes, ideal for picnic lunches and made to be served with a salad and a glass of chilled Sancerre. The cookbook is filled with recipes that are perfect for any occasion—from birthday parties to weeknight dinners, summer festivals to winter holidays, and last-minute dinner parties to school lunches.

About the Author

Aleksandra Crapanzano is a Wall Street Journal food columnist and screenwriter. A graduate of Harvard College and the M.F.A. Program in Film Directing at NYU, Aleksandra has also written a food column for The New York Times Magazine and a series of essays for Gourmet, for which she received the M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing from the James Beard Foundation.

She is the author of The London Cookbook and Eat. Cook. L.A. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Food Writing, and her essays on food, drink, beauty and design have appeared in Bon Appetit, Food52, Food & Wine, Saveur, Departures, Travel & Leisure, Elle, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast, and Town & Country.