Wednesday, June 2, 2004

On Food: Wells makes the simple divine in 'Provence Cookbook'

By HSIAO-CHING CHOU
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOOD WRITER

Patricia Wells lives a dream life, splitting her time between an apartment in Paris and a farmhouse in the village of Vaison-la-Romaine in Provence. She is the restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune and the author of nine books on French food and cooking. She teaches weeklong cooking classes out of her farmhouse, Chanteduc -- the song of the owl.

"I am busy," Wells acknowledges. "But I decompress with marketing and cooking. My ideal day is to wake up, take my shopping cart to a market, discover lots of great new things, come back and cook until I fall down. That's my idea of decompression. Total happiness."

Wells is on a U.S. book tour for her latest, "The Provence Cookbook" (Harper Collins, 338 pages, $29.95). She will be in Seattle Sunday through Tuesday for various events.

"The Provence Cookbook" is the culmination of the 20 years Wells and her husband, Walter, have spent discovering what culinary riches Vaison and the surrounding region have to offer, and learning their role in the scheme of a corner in northern Provence.

The recipes in this book are inspired by the olives, cheeses, truffles, wines, fresh produce -- anything that a local cook might use in a simple meal. They also draw from the cooking of some of Wells' beloved restaurants, the addresses for which she includes in the book.

"I don't think it's fair not to share my winemakers, cheese shops, bakers, markets, etc., that make me so happy day to day," says Wells, who also is known for her "Food Lover's Guide To Paris."

The food in the new book, as a result, is inviting and uncomplicated. Yet, because of the ingredients and how they're combined, the recipes possess a level of sophistication. The salad of broccoli, avocado, pistachios and pistachio oil is an example. Creamy zucchini and fresh lemon verbena soup is another.

"I feel that France has taught me an enormous reverence and respect for raw ingredients, and it has taught me to do the least possible with it so an asparagus tastes as much like an asparagus might when it is put on the plate."

Wells explains in the introduction that she has taken on a simpler approach to cooking and eating over the years.

"I think that as we all become more proficient and informed, we move toward simplicity in our lives, in our food, in our wine, in our lifestyle. We become more secure and know more and more of what and whom we are; we're more confident."

She cites as an example a dish she once had from chef Guy Savoy in Paris: "It was a single fat stalk of asparagus with a little rectangle cut out in the center. The center was filled with a perfect rectangle of foie gras. That, I thought, was total confidence. It was, of course, awesome and delicious."

BROCCOLI, AVOCADO AND PISTACHIOS WITH PISTACHIO OIL
SERVES FOUR

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup pistachio oil, pine nut oil, almond oil, or extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt
• 8 ounces broccoli florets (about 2 cups)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/4 cup salted pistachios, coarsely chopped
• Fleur de sel (or salt) to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

ROASTED CHICKEN STUFFED WITH RICE AND FIGS
SERVES FOUR TO SIX