This adventure is over 100 years in the making!
In the late 1800's and early 1900's Axel E. Blumensaadt left his home Odense, Denmark and went to Paris to attend culinary school. Coming from a somewhat bourgeois family, this was a real departure for the Blumensaadt sons, however the kitchen was where Axel wanted to be and where he could explore the endless culinary adventures that food offered.
He graduated and went on to cook at the Worlds Exposition in Paris, well known restaurants in Southern France, and a brief stint in the French Army Officers Club in Lyon. Later he was first chef at the then famous St.James hotel in Philadelphia and then in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
As he traveled he recorded his recipes in a ledger book in French and Danish. His detailed lists of ingredients and procedures are explicit but he did not leave any measurments.
Enter the granddaughter many years later, searching through an old sea trunk in the attic of her maternal grandparents garage in Pennsylvania. A dusty ledger book was just waiting to be discovered. Karen sat in the garage attic for hours trying to read the beautiful handwriting and decided that someday she would translate and publish this book.
That was in the 1960's and Karen carried the book almost around the world from Japan to France to Chicago where she worked for Le Creuset, the French cookware company, teaching cooking all across America. Her dream of publishing the book remained a life goal. She worked as a food stylist in Chicago, was the food editor for a Midwest magazine, and wrote a full food page for a regional newspaper, before opening her own Bistro in 2001. Eleven years later she has decided it is now or never and is spending 6 months in Provence where she and her husband have traveled for 14 years. Working with a french chef and an American photographer the book will be translated, tested and retested to determine measurements and ingredients available to the home cook.
You can be part of this adventure. Karen is accepting just a few classes each month and will share these wonderful recipes with her students. Read further about the house and the village.
Write today to reserve your five days in a culinary adventure that is 100 years in the making!
