Creating a New "OLD" Kitchen - Part 1 - a Bit of Historic Background

As my regular readers know, we live in a Mediterranean style house, totally unlike a typical Cape Cod house (and yes, we do live on Cape Cod!) As a couple of francophile dreamers who have always fantasized about living in Provence or the French Pyrenees, we knew this house was for us the minute we walked into it for the first time.

We are just beginning to renovate/decorate the kitchen here, and we are making our already Mediterranean style room into an old-fashioned version of itself ...so I thought I'd give a little background history first.

Above are two photos I took before we bought the house, with the previous owner's furnishings.

Our previous house was an early American antique (300+ years old) which had reminded us of old French homes with low ceilings, antique fireplaces, wavy glass windows, etc. When we redid the kitchen in that house, we wanted it to look like a French country kitchen, even though we were starting with all new construction (including new ceiling) and new appliances. I painted just about every surface in that kitchen, to make it look rustic and antiquated.

Here are some photos of the kitchen in our old house:

An overall shot of our former kitchen showing painted walls, cabinetry and ceiling. The idea was that you felt you were in a dilapidated French farm building (specifically, a dépendence of a mas provençal), with the beamed ceiling broken away in areas, revealing the sky, and wild herbs growing on the roof above. The cabinets above the countertops were painted like windows looking outside to fruits, vegetables, olive branches, etc., and the lower cabinets were painted to look like animal pens, housing pigs, a lamb, chickens & rabbits (all edible, bien sûr!)

(Photo by Nan & Monty Abbott)

Smooth walls were transformed into faux bumpy stone ones with paint. I also added trompe l'oeil postcards, business cards from France and a French recipe, just for pure fun. People used to run their hands over this wood post to see if the items were real...and just to tease people, the Van Gogh postcard WAS real!

One corner with Italian majolica plates and an old Venetian floor lamp

 The breakfast nook with French wheat-back chairs and French linens

(Photo by Jay Elliott)

Another view of the breakfast nook with my husband, Jack Dickerson's painting, Il Contidino, a portrait of an Italian farmer at the end of the day, waiting to share wine and bread with a friend. The table, covered in an Italian tablecloth, was set with Italian and French items. The silverware is French; the plates were from a visit we made to San Gimignano in Deruta pottery country, Italy; and the glasses were some we picked up on a trip to Biot in the South of France, near where I used to live - so many happy memories!

Jack and I designed this dish rack in the breakfast nook, to hold some of our French, Italian & Portuguese plates. There's a Moroccan plate in there, too, from one of Jack's mother's voyages; a vintage carved wood German bread board; and an antique copper mold inherited from Jack's ancestors in Amsterdam.

These two photos (above & below) show the kitchen after years of use - rather worn out, but still charming.

The drawers above the animals all featured herbs. Note the chicken with a special plaque - "Poulets de Bresse". I also featured these fabulously delicious French chickens in my murals at PB Boulangerie Bistro. I wrote about them here.

The real door to the basement was painted to look like a door out to a French garden, with a pear tree and rows of lavender in full bloom.

Above the door was a Della Robbia plaque we had brought back from San Gimignano.

We hung real garlic to further trick the eye (what trompe l'oeil painting is all about.) I even had to nail the antique square nail into the door at a distinct angle, so that it would seem to be in the correct perspective!

The goose waddling around the corner of the door is a foie gras producing goose, famous in the Dordogne region of France. Again, this gourmet bird had a special place in my PB Boulangerie Bistro murals. I wrote about it here.

I took this photo as we were moving out. The shelves had been full of cookbooks. The grain sheaves depict wheat, barley, oats & rye. The quote, which continues around the top of the room, is from one of my favorite French cooks, Madame Lulu Peyraud, owner of Domaine Tempier vineyards in Provence. The quote is, "You know, my food is nothing but plain old cuisine de bonne femme [traditional housewife cooking]. What makes it different from restaurant cuisine or recipes in cookbooks, is that I am always cooking for someone I love." Jack painted the lettering.

Another quote on our woodwork, which has great memories and meaning for us, is this one by our friend, Patricia Wells: "What grows together, goes together." A prolific cookbook author, Patricia also teaches fun and informative French cooking classes in both Paris and Provence. We once took a week of Provençal cooking lessons from Patricia, and learned this quote during that week.

Notice my window valences, above, and then the very similar one, below, in Lulu's kitchen. Both are traditional, hand-block-printed cotton indiennes from Souleiado, in Provence. 

Above is an absolutely charming photo of Lulu Peyraud with her dear friend, Alice Waters, photographed in Lulu's kitchen. For more about Alice Waters, see my posts here and here. Our Lulu quote came from the book, Lulu's Provençal Table, by Richard Olney, with a forward by Alice Waters.

Another picture of Lulu in her kitchen, shows the wonderful Souleiado border fabric in color. This border fabric, called La Grosse Rose, is available online here. Old French farmhouses often have a fabric valence like this one, to keep smoke and ash from going into the room, in case of a strong wind.

A third quote in the old kitchen was from Julia Child: "Life itself is the proper binge." Since Patricia Wells, Alice Waters, Lulu Peyraud and Julia Child are all culinary heroines of mine, I may have to include quotes from all of them in our new kitchen. Click here to read my post about a cooking class I once took with Julia Child.

 The tiles used for backsplashes and stairway were ones we had purchased on our honeymoon in Portugal. The marble countertops were made of slabs that had been rescued from an old bank building in Boston.

Detail showing the gorgeous ochre marble, which Jack installed himself (very heavy!!)

I went out one day and came back to discover Jack installing leftover tiles on the stair risers - I just LOVE this! Our original island, which Jack also had built, was covered in these tiles, with the floral border all around. Unfortunately, that had to be sacrificed when we had the new kitchen built. The flooring was Portuguese cork - a lovely warm color and so soft to stand on.

The new island was covered in tumbled Botticino marble, which beautifully matched the marble countertops and our faux painted walls.

This old kitchen of ours was photographed numerous times for various magazine and newspaper articles. Here it is, as featured for Christmas, in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, December 2003:

Better Homes & Gardens Christmas '03  (I will upload a better PDF, soon, I promise!)

The PB Murals: Pascaline et ses confitures

The market scene of the murals includes a table run by Philippe's maman, the truly lovely Mme. Pascaline Rispoli. While she doesn't actually sell her wares at the marché in Lyon, she does make confitures (jams) at home in France, and for the restaurant, when she is visiting here on Cape Cod, so I gave her a prime spot in the market mural, just for fun. 

Pascaline's jam has been acclaimed by the director of France's Guide Michelin ... and Daniel Boulud has called it, "the best jam in the world."

Philippe emailed me this photo of Pascaline, which I used as inspiration for my mural portrait of her.

I had to accentuate her features and the shadows, so they could be seen from a distance. 

Above, the painting in process

The finished market scene of Pascaline and her creations (above)

While Philippe's parents live near Lyon, they do come to visit Cape Cod several times each year, and Pascaline makes many jars of her confiture, each time she's here, depending on what's in season. Locals know her jams and can't wait to get their hands on each new batch, before they disappear. If your supply runs out, you just have to wait until Pascaline's next visit, to taste her divine creations.

Some of Pascaline's fabulous jams, available for purchase at PB Boulangerie Bistro.

* * * * *

Recently, I had the great good fortune to make a batch strawberry jam with Pascaline, in the kitchen of PB Bistro. Besides being a lot of fun (comparing stories of motherhood and how we both weep when saying goodbye to our children for a long period of time), I learned a few new trucs or astuces (tips) I hadn't known before.

The strawberries were cleaned & hulled the night before, as Pascaline likes to let the fruit macerate in the sugar overnight. She says she likes to put in the minimum of sugar, so that the flavor of the fruit can shine through - which I wholeheartedly agree with. She adds a piece of butter to the pot, which keeps down the problem of the fruit boiling over. It works really well. I look forward to trying this at home, as I usually have such a fierce rolling boil, I cannot stop stirring for a second! 

While she uses a chaudron en cuivre (copper jam pot) at home, in France - as I do in my own kitchen - Pascaline uses these professional chefs' pots (below) in the restaurant kitchen. They have the same open surface area, which aids in the fruit reducing and gelling, and the bottoms of these are insulated. 

Two types of jam she will make today - one plain strawberry, and one strawberry/blueberry

 My new friend, Pascaline, stirring the pot

 The fruit darkens as it cooks

Ladling the jam into sterilized jars

The finished product! Pascaline immediately turns her jars upside down - another truc I hadn't known about. She says this helps keep a better seal. She turns them right side up after they have cooled.

Best yet - tasting the finished product on a fresh croissant from PB Boulangerie!

I have told Pascaline about the Concord grape jam I make here in the Autumn, and we plan to make it together when she's here next Fall. This is an American specialty she's not familiar with, so I can't wait to surprise her taste buds with some - freshly picked and made on Cape Cod.

The PB Murals: The Countryside Wall

The corner showing the market wall and the countryside wall, above the boulangerie

The final wall in my series of murals at PB Boulangerie Bistro, in Wellfleet, MA, is all about the countryside surrounding Lyon and some very important players in the gastronomic life of the city.

 It's fair to say that wine is at least as important as food, in this region of France. While Lyon lies between Beaujolais, Burgundy and the Rhône-Alpes (and is technically situated in the Rhône-Alpes region), Beaujolais is the prevalent wine in the area, so I painted vineyards of Gamay grapes, the primary grape used in the production of this wine. Here, workers are picking the grapes to go into the season's vintage.

The gamay grape is deep purple at it's ripest. I painted my grapes a little brighter so they would show up from a distance.

The rooster is one of the most common symbols of France, but it also means good luck for a chef to have a rooster in his restaurant.
The signs point to the two big wine making regions around Lyon.

Joseph Rispoli, father of Chef Philippe, along with eleven of his buddies - all of whom are movers and shakers in the world of French food and wine - got together and bought a vineyard in Régnié, which has just begun to produce wine. The vigneron (winemaker) is Patrick Péchard, one of the twelve gourmet pals. The bottle pictured on the barrel is their wine, a Beaujolais-Villages called Cuvée Croix Penet. (I am writing a separate post about this group and their wine - coming soon.)

 

The goose who has wandered up to Joseph is a foie gras producing goose. Not only is foie gras adored all over France, but it is a staple of Chef Philippe's menu at PB Bistro. I personally can't get enough of his Seared Foie Gras with Tarte Tatin and Candied Nuts, deglazed with Sherry Vinegar. It is sweet, salty, savory, nutty, crunchy, smooth... rich and earthy, piquant and unexpected - every bite a delight for the senses! (I'll have to order it again soon, so I can take a picture to share - how's that for an excuse?!)

The pigs are so important for the vast array of charcuterie that comes from France, especially Lyon. From pâtés to sausages to hams, charcuterie in all its forms can be found on every restaurant and home table. Chef Philippe makes his own charcuterie at PB Bistro.

 The best beef in France comes from the cattle raised in and around Charolles, in the Bourgogne region, near Lyon.

A fun video of Charolais cattle being shown off at an annual festival - French pride in their animals is clearly evident!

Dotting the hillsides behind the cows are sheep and goats. Cheeses from this region come from the milk of all three animals. Some cheeses are made with a mixture of two.

Rolling hillsides with charming red-roofed towns dot the landscape. The red roofs originated with the Romans, who created terra cotta here. Almost every town has its own little antique church. Often, unexpected treasures of art, such as murals, can be discovered within their walls.

The Romans occupied this area as long ago as 43BC and Roman ruins are still plentiful in the countryside around Lyon. Here, I have painted the remains of an aqueduct, built by the Romans to carry water from local rivers to the towns, as well as to vineyards and fields for irrigation. And yes, the Gallo-Romans planted vines for wine here, all those centuries ago. Fragments of pottery found in an ancient vineyard near Gevrey-Chambertin date it to the 1st century BC.