Susan Herrmann Loomis: On Rue Tatin in Normandy

Susan Herrmann Loomis with a Tarte Tatin, Her Signature Dessert

L’Heure de l’Apéritif at Susan’s Cooking School

“Apples are a huge part of the cooking here in Normandy,” says cookbook author Susan Herrmann Loomis on the phone from France during a Travel Fun interview with me.

And to most of us they’re such a big part of fall and Thanksgiving, so tune into the our chat below if you’d like to add a French twist to your holiday feasting. I met Susan briefly some twenty-five years (yes—a quarter of a century) in Paris at an American women’s function when I first moved to the French capital. At that time she was working as an assistant to Patricia Wells on The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, one of my all-time favorite books.

Susan Baking

For the past twenty years, Susan has been living in Normandy where she serendipitously landed on rue Tatin. She named her cooking school and also her bestselling book after that street and not surprisingly became an expert in the baking of tarte tatin, a quintessential French dessert which resembles an upside down apple pie/cake. Yum. Served with a dollop of crème fraîche, that’s a slice of Normandy at its best. Listen to Susan talk about this beautiful caramelized tarte, her books, blog, cooking classes (both in Normandy and Paris) and life in France in general in the podcast below. She also answers my question about how you can make your dining experience more French—not a bad idea for the most American holiday of them all.

Click on the play button below to listen to my interview with cookbook author Susan Herrmann Loomis.

Living Well: Normand Style

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