When we spoke with Chef David Goulaze, who conducts our cooking classes in the kitchens of the Paris Ritz Hotel, he mentioned that his favourite home-made dish is braised sweetbreads with Madeira sauce. So we thought we'd give you an idea of how this dish is made.

When I am in Provence my kitchen becomes filled with my favourite ingredients, including goat cheese, Nyonsais olives and Herbes de Provence. This delicious appetizer makes the most of the small jet-black olives from Nyons, but you can use another type of black Provençal olive.

Some things in life you just don’t forget. It was a chilly fall day in Paris when I first had real profiteroles. With one hand, the waiter placed before me a plate of three luscious puff pastries, filled with ice cream...

At our first multi-course tasting extravaganza in the summer dining room of Hotel Bristol the meal concluded with a selection of chocolate truffles. It's those little things that are long remembered...

These puffy cakes are filled with almonds, butter, honey and just enough flour to bind them. They are inspired by madeleines, the famous French cookie that, in turn, inspired Marcel Proust...

I first had this dessert in Avignon, where Chef Jean-Marc Larue showed me how to turn this classic dessert into a distinctive Provençal version with the addition of lavender and honey...

On a crisp, bluesky day in fall, we shared a delicious lunch at La Boeuf sur la Toit, a lovely original 1920s Art Deco brasserie, where I had the luck of ordering this completely decadent dish...

These tasty polenta fingers perfectly accompany meat dishes like Duck Magret and Steak au Poivre. You can make your own thick polenta from scratch, but I usually use the pre-cooked tubes of polenta...

This recipe was inspired by Provence chef Lydie Marshall and her wonderful cookbook, Passion for My Provence, a book I return to often. Though this is a simple recipe, the results are spectacular...

This is the best way to cook asparagus. Once I discovered this method of cooking asparagus I gave up steaming, pan frying and baking. It works especially well with big, fat spears of asparagus...