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Executive Times |
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2005 Book Reviews |
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French Women
Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano |
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Rating:
••• (Recommended) |
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Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Grande Veuve Clicquot CEO
Mireille Guiliano shares
her life story and personal dietary habits and recipes on the pages of her
new book, French
Women Don’t Get Fat. As the maker of the fine La Grande Dame and other champagnes,
and one who eats more than 300 restaurant meals a year, her credibility about
fine food and drink while maintaining weight stands up to scrutiny. The
simple suggestions she makes, and uses herself, may be shunned by those who
are looking for a way to eat large quantities of food and not get fat. Guiliano’s approach to fresh foods, in season, quality
over quantity, and the occasional avoidance and soup only diet, make sense,
and are likely to work for those who can settle for a single piece of Belgian
chocolate as a sweet. Most Americans have become accustomed to losing the
challenge, “Bet you can’t eat just one!” Here’s an excerpt, from the beginning
of Chapter 9, “Bread and Chocolate,” pp. 181-188: I recently saw a short
play in The
play was satirizing a French obsession (chocolate), but also the therapeutic
establishment, which perhaps one couldn’t get away with in French women eat chocolate (about
twelve pounds a year on average). They also eat bread (we fought a revolution
over it!), another item on our watch list of offenders. But: French women don ‘t get fat. In fact, here’s another form of the
French Paradox: Pretending such pleasures don’t exist, or trying to eliminate
them from your diet for an extended time, will probably lead to weight gain.
The only long-term effect of deprivation is the yo-yo—down today, but up
again before you know it. It’s utterly pointless, especially because both bread
and chocolate are good for you. If we are going to eat bread and
chocolate (and we are) and not get fat (and we are not), we need to use our
heads, as Dr. Miracle advised. Maximize the rewards of pleasure while
minimizing the costs. In fact, he insisted little pleasures (menus plaisirs) were the key to success, and according to
his prescription, I absolutely needed to have my chocolate, but in little
doses (par petites doses). I also had to cultivate my appreciation for
what I was having. In short, he taught me the French way of enjoying those
foods that can be friend or foe depending on how we treat them. The keys are
sensory awareness, portion sense, quality, and an eye to the big picture of
overall wellness (bien-être). I’ve already confessed that je raffole de chocolat, which
basically means I am a chocoholic. I’m convinced I inherited that gene from
my mother. She had an amazing repertoire of chocolate desserts, as well as a
passion for straight consumption. It made her the easiest person in the
world to shop for. Bringing back chocolate from If the magnitude of the chocolatier’s habit doesn’t sound impressive to you, your
relation to chocolate must be examined. For the man from Chocolate came to Europe via the For the Aztecs and Totecs,
chocolate was not only an elixir, but a symbol of value. Their system of
commerce was based on the cocoa standard, and the chocolate produced was
consumed by noblemen and merchants (all men, 0f course) at
banquets. It was still very bitter and peppery, but it was mixed with vanilla,
honey, and flowers and served cold and foamy, usually at the end of a meal
along with the tubes for smoking tobacco. Apart from its energizing powers
(these blends were highly caffeinated, no doubt), it
was believed to be an aphrodisiac. The emperor Montezuma is known to have
consumed huge quantities, of various colors in golden cups, before paying a
visit to his harem! Europeans first tried chocolate
following the fourth voyage of Columbus in 1502, but the Spanish appear to
have been unimpressed until 1528, when Cortez brought back not only cocoa
beans, but a recipe and tools for making chocolate. It became a Spanish
sensation. After that, the direction 0f global conquest was
reversed, at least gastronomically. In its pure dark form, chocolate has
indeed been shown to be “heart smart,” with more antioxidants than black tea
or red wine, as well as lots of magnesium, iron, and potassium (all vital to
women’s health). It can also ease anxiety and depression, as it contains
serotonin and theobromine, which act on brain
receptors and have a beneficial influence on mood. As it is also high in fat,
however, it is better enjoyed after lighter meals than after fat-laden
holiday feasts, or by itself as a pick-me-up. One of the most dispiriting
developments of the twentieth century was the mass production of chocolate.
It created an inferior product loaded with bad fats, and as a result, many
Americans have never in their lives tasted the real thing. But relief has
appeared with the rise of new artisanal chocolatiers, passionate guardians of traditional methods
that were perfected in the eighteenth century. It is to these chocolate makers,
now popping up across Quality chocolate is labor-intensive
and complex. It requires careful orchard selection, cultivation, and then harvest
of the precious fruit. Next comes fermentation and
two rounds of drying, followed by roasting and a few more delicate procedures
before one obtains the cocoa mass. The proof of adequate attention and skill
will be in the pudding, literally. From that mass, three products are
extracted: liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. These are the materials
from which the artisan works, making chocolate slabs, ganache
(a mixture of chocolate with either butter, crème fraiche,
or a milk product), praline (a mixture of sugar and ground almonds or
hazelnuts with chocolate), or chocolate filled with fruit or liquor. Toto, I
don’t think we’re in In tasting chocolate, sweetness,
saltiness, acidity, and bitterness are key savors. Acidity is what you
should feel inside your cheeks, and it’s essential to the diffusion of aromas
and length of taste in the mouth. Bitterness is felt at the tip of the
tongue. It signals a chocolate with little sugar, and it’s a good quality as
long as it does not cancel out any other sensation. Texture is also vitally
important to character: smoothness, the crunch 0f the shell. The
artisan’s ability to play with the yin and yang of chocolate—sweet-salty,
sweet-bitter, acid-bitter, hard-soft, crispy-luscious, cold-warm—explains why
the experience of one master’s work can differ meaningfully from the
experience of another’s work. For French women, the
real thing remains dark chocolate, bittersweet or, even better,
extra-bittersweet, which is the purest, with the highest percentage of cocoa
solids—the stuff that makes chocolate taste chocolatey.
Although you rarely meet someone who “doesn’t like chocolate,” what the
average American consumes, a chocolate connoisseur would never touch: milk
chocolate, white chocolate, or any 0f the various packaged forms
sold in supermarkets and drugstores. This is, quite simply, junk food, loaded
with sugar, very low in cocoa content, and more often than not artificially
colored and preserved (real chocolate, like fresh-ground coffee, has a very
short life of full flavor). Admittedly, we French get
carried away with chocolate: we have chocolate museums and clubs. We have
magazines dedicated to chocolate, a université
dii chocolat, and salons
du chocolat (fairs).
There are tastings and competitions for the best
chocolate soufflé, the finest chocolate macaroon. Some Parisians will cross
the The value of good
chocolate holds steady. Many French women say, “Je
déprime doncje chocolate”
(“When I’m down, I chocolate,” meaning, I splurge on the dark stuff).
When you come to recognize the potential for taste pleasure and psychic
relief, you will understand that it’s worth the investment. Fortunately,
with good chocolate you don’t need—and should not want—pounds of it for
pleasure. A couple of choice pieces a day won’t disable your budget or your
weight-maintenance program. For those not near the chocolate boutiques flow
appearing in most American cities, it is possible to order high quality
online, such as dark, rich, delicious Valrhona. And of course, using a little “food of
the gods” can elevate the simplest dessert to a sacrament. Here are four of my favorite family
recipes embracing chocolate. For her recipes after this chapter and
others, read French Women
Don’t Get Fat. If you like Belgian chocolate, I recommend Piron
in Evanston, Illinois, from which I purchase vast quantities of chocolate
each year. Steve Hopkins,
April 23, 2005 |
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Women Don’t Get Fat @ amazon.com |
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ã 2005 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the May 2005
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/French
Women Don't Get Fat.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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