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May 2026 Newsletter
It’s a little difficult for me to leave Paris right now, especially since the weather has turned remarkably and unapologetically glorious, and the markets and food shops have been bursting with fresh strawberries, spears of white and green asparagus, sweet peas still in their pods, and bundles of fragrant wild garlic leaves, which are similar to ramps but botanically different. The upside is that I’m headed to the U.S. for a book tour to launch my latest book: The Great Book of Chocolate!
Get The Great Book of Chocolate!
Of all the books I’ve written, this was definitely one of the most fun to write, since who doesn’t love chocolate? (But don’t worry if you don’t. I have a section in the book on the new “non-cacao” chocolate substitutes.) I’ve always been fascinated by chocolate, ever since my days as a professional baker and pastry chef. I loved it so much that I ended up going to two different chocolate schools, one in Belgium and the other in France, as well as doing an internship at a swanky chocolate shop in Bruxelles, Belgium, which I wrote about in the book.
The Great Book of Chocolate is a guidebook to the wonderful world of chocolate. It explains how chocolate is made, where it comes from, and what to make with it, including over fifty of my favorite chocolate recipes, from sweet to savory. If you want to know what percentages on chocolate bars mean, which chocolates are best for baking, and where to get the best chocolates in Paris, which I’ve devoted an entire chapter to — pick up a copy at your local bookseller or online retailer.
This month I’ll be out and about on a book tour in the U.S. Due to global events, we were uncertain how international travel was going to play out, which was becoming a lot more challenging. While I wish I could go everywhere, here are the places that I’ll be:
If we can’t see each other, these independent bookstores are happy to send you a signed copy of the book, which I’ll personalize just for you: Kitchen Arts & Letters (order before May 2nd), Omnivore Books (order before May 11th), or Now Serving LA (order before May 14th).
If you’re in Paris at the end of the month, on May 30th, I’ll be doing a book signing at La Trésorerie Rive Gauche (48, rue de Grenelle, 7th) from 3pm to 4:30pm. Copies of The Great Book of Chocolate and My Paris Kitchen will be available for sale and signing…and there may be some chocolate treats to sample, too.
[Some Updates: The event at Dandelion chocolate in San Francisco is sold out but the Omnivore book signing and talk is open to all. The event at Now Serving in Los Angeles is also sold out, but you can come to my book event at Friends & Family bakery, which is open to all. For that, there’s a pre-order option to get a ticket for a book, if you want to ensure there will be one there for you.
There are just a few tickets left for the Rizzoli event with Taste Live in New York, but you can come to my events at Williams-Sonoma in New York and New Jersey here, which are open to all, but the stores request that you purchase a book, which you can pre-order from them at that link to ensure there’s a copy for you.]
Shout out to the very talented Ed Anderson for doing such a great job photographing The Great Book of Chocolate, the incredibly talented food styling team of George Dolese and Elisabet der Nederlanden, and book designer Betsy Stromberg, for making the book even more beautiful than I imagined. And if you come to my book event at Omnivore Books in San Francisco, I’ll be in conversation with Kate Leahy, who helped edit, recast, reorganize, and test the recipes in the book, and you can ask her what it’s really like to work with me… 😬 😂
In addition to all the French chocolate, one of the joys of living in Paris is that I get to see a lot of friends. I guess everyone bought their tickets months ago, wisely, and I had a kaleidoscope of visitors, which was fun, but required a bit of planning and dexterity, as well as a hearty appetite for eating out more than I normally do. In the future, people need to find a way to stagger their visits out.
One visitor was my friend Bryce, an Australian who lived in Paris and met his equally wonderful wife here, who was a Lido showgirl. Once I learned that those gals needed calories, doing two strenuous shows a night, she stopped by my place on the way to work to pick up leftovers from recipe testing, to feed and fuel the ravenous showgirls between shows.
They liked me so much that when I went to visit them backstage, they tried to dress me up as a showgirl, but I decided it was best to leave the dancing and prancing to those lovely ladies and stick with my day job.
Being our houseguest, when Bryce told me he picked up a chasson aux pommes, a flaky apple turnover, at our local bakery, I chastised him for not picking one up from Sain. I should be used to it by now, but I often say around here, “No one listens to me…” (usually to Romain) but this time, someone did. Bryce woke up the next morning and hoofed it over to Sain bakery, and swooned over it as much as I swooned over being backstage with a gaggle of showgirls.
The bakery does change the fruit according to the season; soon, they told me, they’re going to switch the filling to rhubarb, which is coming into season right now. And in the summer, they generally go with apricots, which are heavenly baked between the layers of caramelized puff pastry.
Trust me on that.
While I was busy packing and planning (and panicking a bit) to leave on my book tour, I started feeling a little overwhelmed by everything and the world began to spin. I chalked my dizziness up to nerves. I figured putting a few extra things on my plate was perhaps harder than I thought.
Normally stuff like that passes, but it didn’t. A day later I was feeling especially off-kilter and decided to go to bed at 9pm to relax. But when I closed my eyes the world was spinning so hard, I felt like I was hallucinating, and even walking when I got out of bed was very difficult. My insides were beyond queasy, but I’ll spare you those details.
It was getting late, but Romain called SOS Médecins, an organization of doctors who make house calls 24/7, which are conventionnées, meaning the price is in line with what the French health care system lets them charge: €24. Although Romain said it might have been €25.
(I was in an altered state when the doctor left, but when I later looked it up, I found the current prices here, which are mostly reimbursed by the French health care system. You need to have a really sharp mind to understand all the complications of French administration, but the upside is that most native French people don’t fully understand them either, so you’re not alone. The other upside is that you don’t really need to.)
What I had was VPPB. Like most French terms, my vertige positionnel paroxystique bénin gets mercifully shortened to VPPB, which involved having a physiotherapist rearrange the crystals in my ears so they line up again. I don’t understand that either.
I thought VPPB may be one of those “only in France” things, like a bouffée délirante, which is described on Wikipedia as a “uniquely French psychiatric term” for teenagers who become delusional. I never heard of that one either. I had a particularly awkward adolescence, but that was a new one on me.
The kiné (therapist) put me on the table, held my head, and moved me and my head quickly from side to side, and up and down, to get things lined up again. Like the French health care system, I’m not sure how it works, but it does.
[Disclaimer: If you have a medical condition or similar symptoms, see a doctor or certified medical professional for advice and diagnosis. What you have may be different than what I had.]
In addition to having visitors (and getting over the shock that we have crystals moving around in our ears), I made some videos in my Paris kitchen and garden for the newsletter, which I’ll be posting here. It was fun talking to shopkeepers and friends who bake or have restaurants in Paris, learning more about chocolate (and vanilla), and how they bake with chocolate.
By the time you read this, I’ll be on a plane heading west. I’m looking forward to a slice of New York-style pepperoni pizza, an everything bagel with lox and cream cheese, a bacon, egg, and scallion pancake and a fermented red rice donut at Win Son, pastries at Hani’s and Elbow, a Mission burrito at Pancho Villa (although I can no longer eat a whole one, in one sitting - I’ve lost my SF cred!), chicken and bread salad (and a martini) at Zuni, and hopefully some fresh corn on the cob from one of the incredible greenmarkets that have been flourishing in the U.S., although I may be a little too early for that. Which means I might have to come back.
-David
Links I’m Liking
Nutella now contains…peanuts. (Food & Wine)
It was fun being a guest on Things Bakers Know, the King Arthur Baking podcast with Jessica Battilana. Listen in! (King Arthur Baking)
In spite of the off-kilter title they gave it, the Washington Post spoke to me, and and , about how to find a good restaurant in Paris. (Washington Post/article unlocked, but they’ll prompt you sign up for a free acct.)
Why (some) French people and politicians are creating a ruckus about a poulet rôti chain opening in their neighborhood. ()
Is it time to stop being afraid of MSG? (Serious Eats)
What happens when stops by your kitchen in Paris to make lunch with you…
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Things I Like
I may have bought this by accident, but when I opened the jar of Chuannan chili crisp I purchased a few months ago that was in my pantry, I was surprised to dig in and see it loaded up with crunchy roasted peanuts. I have a few chili crisps in my fridge, but this one was different. And now, it’s the one I reach for the most.
The company makes a few different types of chili crisps. The one in the smaller jar (on the right) has less oil and a higher concentration of peanuts than the one in the larger jar (above, left), which has soybeans as well as peanuts. My preference is the one on the right, which is packed with peanuts. With either one, you can tilt the jar and take a look at the inside of the jar, next to the label: If you see a lot of peanuts floating around in there, that’s likely the one I prefer, although if you like chili crisp, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with either.
You can find this brand on Amazon in the U.S., but I’d check Asian markets in your neighborhood or city to find it. I love poking around the shelves there, and I always find jars and packages of other intriguing things. Plus it’s nice to shop locally if you can.
Speaking of which, I was delighted to find that my favorite coffee shop in my neighborhood, Early Bird Coffee, carries White Mausu chili crisp with peanuts (made in Ireland), so patronizing local businesses has its rewards. Another brand of peanut chili crisp that I see is Guiz, which I haven’t tried.
There are recipes here and here if you want to try making chili crisp yourself, but I just read there’s a book about a present-day tradwife influencer who wakes up and finds herself back in the 1800s, and has to fend for herself. It’s dizzying (again!) to think of waking up tomorrow and having to press my own oil, plant my own chiles, and dig up my own peanuts for chili crisp, so I’m fine letting someone else do that for me.
