Jane Bertch, THE FRENCH INGREDIENT: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zippy Owens, and I am the host of this podcast, Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:08]I am also a newly minted USA Today best-selling author of the novel, Blake,
[0:14]and created a whole community of book lovers around this podcast, a publishing company,
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[0:31]Jane Birch is the author of the French ingredient, making a life in Paris one lesson at a time,
[0:36]a memoir. Jane has spent more than two decades living and working in Europe. In 2009,
[0:41]she started La Cuisine Paris, or maybe La Cuisine Paris, which has become the largest
[0:46]non-professional culinary school in France. She holds a BA in English, an MA in labor,
[0:51]and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and an executive MA from the French
[0:56]Business School in Seattle. The French ingredient is her first book. Welcome, Jane. Thanks so much
[1:01]for coming on Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss. The French ingredient, a memoir,
[1:06]making a life in Paris one lesson at a time. Yes. Yes, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
[1:14]Okay, well, it's pretty self-explanatory basically, but people listening might not know what
[1:19]the cover is and that there's all this food on the cover and that the lessons, what type of lessons
[1:24]you're talking about. So, dive in a little bit and tell readers what to expect in the French
[1:29]ingredient. Okay, fabulous. So, I've tried to fine tune this because I started a business in the
[1:36]culinary world and so people will potentially expect a cookbook or a recipe book and it is not that.
[1:44]And I'm not a chef. I hold a small area of expertise that I like to focus on. So, the book,
[1:50]I like to think simply is a recipe for doing life in Paris and hopefully, hopefully, which I
[1:57]hope maybe you saw a little glimmer of a recipe for just doing life in general and starting again
[2:04]and falling down and getting up and having faith in yourself. So, that's the book.
[2:11]It's true. Whether it's your job and just going into like a new totally new functional area
[2:17]in your industry at first, which you've got you to Paris or redoing things and saying like,
[2:23]this could be really fun. Maybe I'll just open a cooking school in Paris. I mean, that sounds so ridiculous.
[2:28]It doesn't sound really good. It's so fun because so many people have dreams like that,
[2:32]but they don't necessarily do them. They're not like, I'm going to leave and just go to Europe
[2:37]because Europe sounds fun or, you know, I'm going to build something, exquisite, and the way I
[2:43]I would want it and then make it happen despite all obstacles, which you could chronicle
[2:48]in detail here. You know, the difficulty of doing anything in Paris and how you show us what that's
[2:54]like. And it's sort of a hats-off moment to you of resilience and especially with all the things
[3:01]that happen while you're running the school. You know, you are the ultimate, get knocked down,
[3:05]get back up again person here. I try to be. Sometimes I get up with that slower, but yeah,
[3:11]I try. As long as you get up. Exactly. So talk a little bit about what led you
[3:17]to this idea and then what is it about you or the idea or the environment or whatever that
[3:23]made you be one of the people who takes it from dream to reality? Okay. So I talk a bit about it in
[3:30]the book. It's not law cuisine, which is one of the big characters, which is the school that I
[3:36]created was not a lifelong dream. And I'm always so happy to share that with people because
[3:42]there's a lot of people at any age that haven't really figured out what they want to be when
[3:46]they grow up. And I know a few who were in their 70s who are still redefining and recreating
[3:51]themselves. So law cuisine came out of the blue during a crisis time. And I don't want to give
[3:56]too much away, but I had a lot going on with my family and I was living overseas. And I just
[4:02]realized that I didn't feel right where I was. And over a few glasses of wine, which I talk about
[4:08]in the story, the idea came to me. And I don't know where it just came to me. Mind you, in that same
[4:15]discussion, I probably said I'd like to be a professional tap dancer or, you know, we were just
[4:20]talking about things we could do. What would life look like? And how often do we allow ourselves
[4:25]even do that? And that's so important. So law cuisine came up. And, you know, sometimes these little
[4:31]ideas come to you and they just stalk you. They just sit with you. They harass you. They pick
[4:37]at you. It starts to make you feel not great where you are. So I use that discomfort to try and dream
[4:44]and imagine. And then slowly, I realized, well, this dream could be reality because I saw these little
[4:50]sparks or doors with a small opening. And I just chose to go through. There's no secret sauce to that.
[4:56]I like the word of sauce, no good intended. But I know I'm trying to keep the
[5:00]the thinking of food metaphors. I'm having such a food morning before you. I interviewed
[5:05]Lottie Hazel about her book, Piglet. Have you heard of that book? No, but let me, oh my gosh, I have
[5:09]to put the two of you in conversation. I need to like do a mashup sometimes in my podcast because
[5:14]the two of you would learn so much or each other. But anyway, yeah, food on the brain.
[5:18]Yes. So when you got started, you realized how difficult it was, not only to start a cooking
[5:24]school, which is the thing anywhere. But to do so in Paris, talk a little bit about that.
[5:29]Yes. So this is the classic. Sometimes it's best you don't know what you don't know because I
[5:34]understood all the complexities of running a business and running in Paris. I probably
[5:40]would not have had the courage to get going. So sometimes being a little crazy and moving ahead
[5:45]with your whatever ideas you have, there's value and not having to know everything in the beginning.
[5:52]I did learn a lot about the structure of setting up a business in general. I learned a lot about
[5:58]trying to have courage in myself because I did not have any free information about the industry
[6:03]again. I'm not a chef. I learned to value what I could bring and trust other experts on what they
[6:08]could bring. So putting those elements together, Lottie Hazel was finally born and she's changed.
[6:14]I say she because I guess I picked up the habit of law versus law as cuisine is
[6:21]female. She's changed directions many times. A friend did tell me the business that fails is
[6:26]the one that doesn't do what its clients want. And every year you have to figure out what your clients
[6:31]want. So that's been fun. And I guess what I will realize that my clients want is I'm not selling
[6:37]cooking classes. We are selling memories because we've got a lot of international visitors.
[6:42]And this is a very special moment. And I'm honored that they spend it with us. But that's what
[6:47]they're taking away. So I try to do that part. My chefs try to do the, there's a beautiful
[6:51]macaron at the end of it as well. Wow. Well, not only did you face obstacles, but you faced
[6:58]international crises taking place, you know, the victims of terrorism from the Baticland, which is
[7:05]literally like a block away from you. And you wrote about that so beautifully and in such vivid
[7:11]detail. And from the ambulances, whatever the police that like write down your alleyway to finding
[7:18]out about it. And you know, it's like the 9 11 of Paris essentially. And how you personally
[7:26]were affected. And your business, but your emotions and not to say, take me back to this
[7:32]horrific time in your life, but talk a little bit about, you know, being a business owner and
[7:38]being a human being and melding all of those things to get through that time.
[7:42]Yeah. That was really such such a difficult time. Wow. And I think we all learned so much.
[7:50]I learned so much about resilience of people. And I learned a lot about grief. And I learned a lot
[7:58]about questioning when you have the right to grieve and why, you know, as a business, it meant that
[8:04]things because we were in tourism, you know, overnight things changed for us. Nobody travels when
[8:11]they're concerned about safety. And that was hard because I saw something that I created that I
[8:18]had people relying on me just come to a screeching halt. I did not have any sort of person in my life
[8:25]that was affected by this. So I felt that I didn't have the right to feel so upset and hurt.
[8:31]And those are so many trying feelings because you kind of, you come to terms with what's appropriate.
[8:36]So trying to grieve and run my business and respect what was happening around me and be fearful
[8:41]at the same time, but be strong for my team. There was just so many things going on. But one thing
[8:47]that I did take away is the resilience of humanity in general and the strength of Parisians
[8:53]is exceptional. They're very, very strong, proud people. It was really quite beautiful to see them.
[9:00]In this notion that you don't have the right to grieve, I could echo the 8 million grief
[9:05]counselors out there who would tell you that that's not true, right? That that, of course,
[9:10]you have a right and it doesn't have to be about a person. You know, you can have,
[9:14]I mean, it's a trauma. It's a trauma and that has the grief response a lot of the time.
[9:18]Right. And those are things we all dealt with. You know, so many people in this city were
[9:22]dealing with that feeling and trying to figure out how to contain it, how to hold it,
[9:28]how to honor those that really did have profound, you know, their lives change in such profound,
[9:34]horrible ways, but still feel bad themselves. So that, you know, it was it was a difficult time.
[9:42]I'm so sorry you went through that. Well, you know, the power of the human spirit to get through
[9:48]basically anything is mind blowing, right? And really, it's sort of why we're all still here.
[9:54]He's like, you know, I guess we would, you know, over a few thousand years, I guess we've gone through
[10:00]I mean, if we if we laid down and just said forget it, you know, where would we be?
[10:05]But it's every time it happens, it's a marvel because it feels so insurmountable.
[10:09]And yet we somehow do it.
[10:11]You know, and then you had the fire at Notre Dame, what you write about.
[10:15]And then you had COVID affecting your business.
[10:17]I mean, this is like blow after blow after blow.
[10:21]Um, like how did you keep, you know, how did you just keep your chin up?
[10:24]Which I know at times you didn't, but you know, how did you?
[10:27]I don't know.
[10:28]Just like in it.
[10:30]The first thing I ask myself, you know, I know there is the concept of the Bermuda triangle where just bad stuff happens.
[10:37]I did ask myself is Paris this like vortex of beauty, but cruelty all at the same time because it seems like there was always, you know, always something going on here.
[10:48]And when you're in my industry, which is food and tourism, it gets quickly impacted.
[10:53]How did I get through it?
[10:55]Because after time you put things in perspective.
[10:58]And the wonderful, it is wonderful because it teaches you crisis can be so helpful in your personal growth.
[11:04]And the challenges you finally start to realize I can get past this, I will get past it.
[11:09]I've been here in some form or another.
[11:11]And your intuition tells you it will be okay.
[11:14]But that intuition is just the previous nine years of things falling apart that you've managed to get through and deal with.
[11:21]So you slowly build confidence in yourself to pick up and start again.
[11:25]And that that's all I can really tell you.
[11:27]I wish I could bottle it because of course there's the moment something happens.
[11:32]We've just had something happen recently in Paris with the farmer's striking.
[11:37]There's that split second where you're like, oh, here we go.
[11:40]It's all going to fall apart.
[11:41]And then you say, okay, let's be rational.
[11:43]How am I going to move forward?
[11:45]Yeah.
[11:46]I guess that's really it's all you can do.
[11:48]But it's still impressive.
[11:49]You know what?
[11:50]We do that just in there.
[11:51]The struggle to get up some days.
[11:52]Yeah.
[11:53]When you're just like, I'm not feeling this.
[11:54]And you say, okay, well, I can get up.
[11:56]And this is how I'm going to do it one foot at a time.
[11:59]My son got up yesterday morning and he was like, oh, I want to go to school.
[12:04]I don't have like put on my clothes and get in the car and brush my hair and brush my teeth.
[12:11]And I was like, oh, I feel you.
[12:13]You know, that's the one human connection we all have.
[12:18]At any age, some days are just like, I have not feeling this.
[12:22]I don't want to do it.
[12:24]So why what do you find so important about giving people the memory of learning to cook things, teaching them, giving them these experiences where they can partake and maybe learning something new that they didn't know how to make or meeting the friends that they make because community is a huge piece of your company and your school and all of that.
[12:46]Right.
[12:47]It's that sense of home base in a place that's not necessarily yours.
[12:51]Like tell me about the importance of that or what it means to you and all that.
[12:56]You know what?
[12:57]This is something I've come to discover over time.
[12:59]That was important and so much so.
[13:02]You know, it's we're just so lucky to have people visit from all different parts of the world.
[13:06]And one thing is true.
[13:09]We all eat and food.
[13:11]I didn't come up with this quote.
[13:13]I kind of feel like I'd like to say that I did, but I'm sure I read it somewhere.
[13:16]Food is a language we all speak.
[13:18]And I do find it's the one thing that connects people.
[13:21]So when you get people from all over the world in a kitchen, having fun, building a wonderful memory, creating a meal together, which is beyond just the meson class.
[13:32]It's that there's something sacred and creating a meal and eating together, I think.
[13:37]I feel like those little pockets of time change the way people see one another.
[13:43]And I love that and I'm so honored to be a part of that story.
[13:47]So that's become really special to me now that I understand that.
[13:51]And it puts a lot of darn pressure on me and my school because how do you know what?
[13:56]If people are buying a memory, how do you know what you want to deliver them?
[13:59]You know, like your expectations when you come in are very different than mine and how do we create consistency?
[14:04]Where at least people leave having a wonderful time meeting somebody new and, you know, making that such a nice part of their parents experience.
[14:14]Well, not only did you do all of this stuff, but then you turned it into a book, which is a whole nother accomplishment and another skill set and all of that.
[14:24]Talk about writing this book and when you decided this should be a book.
[14:28]Okay, so this is fun. I've always thought I wanted to write a technical book about doing business and France.
[14:35]So that was kind of my idea and I did have a few very supportive loving people that said that's a great book and two people will buy that.
[14:44]Okay, your mom and whatever best friend feels bad for you.
[14:50]Nobody cares, but what they might be interested in is your experience in running a business in Paris.
[14:57]And I've always been a rather private person silly. So I toyed with that idea, but then lo and behold, another crisis came COVID and that, you know, in Paris, it was really quite tough.
[15:09]We had a very difficult existence.
[15:11]So again, food and tourism vortex of discomfort and my business was shot.
[15:17]So I had a lot of time to sit and think about how to maintain my sanity in the fear of everything again falling apart.
[15:23]And I took to writing and the wonderful magical thing about this story is, as I wrote, I would just, you know, feel like I'm channeling Hemingway and it's just all beautiful.
[15:34]I would go back and read it the next day and I thought, my God, I don't even sound like I have an education. There's like no verb that the sentences are not even hanging together.
[15:43]I called a friend and said, I need a writing coach, I need help because I've got time and I want to write well and how do I do that after lots of discussions, the gal that I chose to work with me and help read my stuff and tell me how to improve it turns out she had already been
[15:58]in the book was in three times over different visits to Paris. So I thought that's just serendipity.
[16:05]So she helped me and writing helped me get through again another horrible time. I tried to channel my energy into something I knew nothing really about and try to enjoy it and take pleasure in it.
[16:17]So thank goodness for that book.
[16:20]Were there parts of it that you figured would be a lot easier?
[16:25]Like I know you said the whole thing, you know, you'd feel like you barely went to school, but or what part came the most easily to you.
[16:32]That is such a good question. Well, first of all, what I was so bitterly disappointed about Zabe.
[16:37]It just was like, I imagine myself sitting with a beret, like red lipstick, maybe my my martini on the side just flowing and writing beautifully. That just did not happen.
[16:49]Writing was really hard. The process of it, I thought was hard, but enjoyable and trying to learn about me and my attention to detail and my ability to focus myself.
[17:03]So it was just a huge huge learning lesson, but very fun to birth, very fun to birth and still challenging, you know, you've there's a couple of areas I write about family and how that fundamentally changed my path.
[17:16]And those are her things to evoke and to share. And then I asked myself, why am I sharing these? Well, that, you know, again, the story is I want people to see that you can do most anything and it doesn't have to be big scale.
[17:28]It's just about believing in yourself.
[17:30]I love the parts about your family talk a little bit about how you decided what to include. I know people are always like, how did your family feel about that?
[17:39]You know, I know you've lost people, you know, but yes, how do you take somebody who is so important and translate them into a character?
[17:46]Yes, that's hard. Oh, my goodness. So I guess in telling this story, I wanted people to understand important things like one of the characters that was very important to me as my grandmother, so she features.
[17:59]And she's been such a big part of my foundation, but also the loss of her and trying to turn that into me becoming myself, we all deal with grief and we all deal with things that are uncomfortable.
[18:15]But I wanted, again, to share that you can try to find light in those stories and honor the people that have been a big part of you to become a better version of you.
[18:27]So yeah, I tried to pick those things that I think really showed what we all go through, you know, living as an expat.
[18:34]It seems so charming until you get a call at three in the morning that you need to come home. And that's hard. But, you know, we can all find better versions of ourselves in difficult situations.
[18:46]I always wonder when I want to a plane, you know, who is rushing to someone's bedside, who is like where where's that, you know, who's going through that who's grieving, who's, you know, most of the time I'm just like going from one place to another.
[19:03]But then there, there are the flights where, and I've had a lot of people I've spoken to in the podcast who are like, I just had found out my husband died and I cried the whole flight and I listened.
[19:14]You know, just all the emotions contained in those flames, you know, that's so true. You never think my gosh, who is sitting next to me and what's their story and hopefully little things like that make us more humble when we come across somebody that is grumpy or doesn't feel good or isn't, you know, there's always a story going on.
[19:32]Yeah, behind the scenes. And I also wanted to share it because I know sometimes people look in at those of us living in Paris and they go, my God, life is so perfect. Well, it's not.
[19:43]We have ups and downs and human existence like everyone else. Yes, there's the Eiffel Tower, but that doesn't stop life from being difficult sometimes.
[19:52]Still, I mean, it's like we can all live vicariously through you like what it would be like and I don't know.
[20:00]I'm sort of happy to keep it a dream.
[20:02]You don't understand. I don't understand. But like, so I was just having this discussion with
[20:07]some visitors from Hawaii and they looked at me with such seriousness and it was just so
[20:13]beautiful. They said, where do you go on vacation? And I'm like, right, I guess that's been stolen
[20:22]for me, hasn't it? So do you have plans to do any more writing? I kind of do.
[20:30]This is a big sigh. When I finish that darn thing, I wanted to toss it out the window and it's
[20:37]love hate. As with so many things in my life, I love luck with it in my haters some days. I love
[20:42]Paris. I hate it some days. Sing with the book. But now I'm having this little bug of just a couple
[20:50]of other fun things I'd like to write about. We'll see nothing. It's damn it. I feel like I put it
[20:56]in the universe now. It's like, sorry, sorry, we speak it. Oh, my God. You made it out there now.
[21:05]I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You're totally your fault. Okay. Well, what if it becomes like this amazing
[21:12]thing? And you know, say what? You're right. That's it in some way. Exactly. Exactly. You can put
[21:17]me in your acknowledgements. I absolutely will. If you write it, I'm totally kidding. Well,
[21:23]you never know. It's good to have all those things percolating. And I should use a food analogy,
[21:28]baking, slooping, simmering, simmering. Yeah. Exactly. Well, what advice would you give to aspiring
[21:36]authors? What advice would I give? I feel so strange calling myself an author. And I felt so
[21:43]strange calling myself a writer. But you are. And don't give up. Just keep pushing through. Don't
[21:50]be afraid to get the support you need. We don't do things alone in isolation. Get yourself a
[21:55]little community that helps you. Don't feel ashamed about that. Asking someone for help is a gift
[22:01]to them to participate in your dream. It just keep pushing forward and writing and being an author.
[22:07]It comes in so many forms that that could be keeping a beautiful journal for yourself.
[22:12]It doesn't have to be published by a publishing house. So that's what I'd say.
[22:17]Love it. And just to tempt me and everyone else who can pretend to be living the life of
[22:25]popping into Paris for a class. What classes are coming up? What can people take? What are some
[22:30]things happening? So what most days of the week are most popular class is croissants.
[22:36]So most days you can sneak into a croissant class. That's quite fun, I think. And I'd say what
[22:43]we always have going on are going to the French market. And I talk about that in a book. And it's
[22:47]that is such a special place. And that's where you really see Parisians and the sense of community.
[22:54]You know, the markets are the livelihood of this city. So that's that's a fun time.
[23:00]Because people love to go to the market with the chef and then come back and cook their meal.
[23:04]Amazing. Yeah. Well, I feel more chic and cultured just having had this conversation. So, you know,
[23:10]thanks for letting me sort of brush Zoom shoulders with you here. But next time you'll have to do
[23:16]it live from Paris. I would love to. That would be wonderful. Yes. Now we put that in the universe.
[23:23]Oh, no. I know. Another amount of fasting things. Why not? Seriously, what else should we put out
[23:29]there? Well, thank you, Jane. Thanks for the experience of reading your book and feeling like
[23:34]I really got to live it with you at the ups and the downs. And it was quite an escape
[23:40]and that's what the great books do, right? They just take you on a journey and get you out of your
[23:44]own life and into someone else's. It's like magic. So thank you. Well, you are welcome. Thank you.
[23:50]Thank you for reading it. And thank you for having me on the show. This has been this is so exciting.
[23:54]Of course, because I'm watching you on Instagram. So just the hair feels surreal. Thank you. Well,
[24:01]I'll post about it later. All right. Thank you, Jane. Have a great day. Thanks for being okay. Bye.
[24:09]Thanks for listening. Two moms don't have time to read books. If you love it, please leave
[24:13]a review and follow us on social at city Owens and at city readers.