Author profile: Trish Deseine
To celebrate the addition to ckbk of several cookbooks by Irish-French author Trish Deseine, and with an eye on the impending St Patrick’s Day celebrations, we spoke to Trish about her Irish roots, her love of the regional cooking of France, and some of the dishes which have meant the most to her over the years.
As St Patrick’s Day approaches and Ireland’s patron saint is celebrated with parades, dancing, a feast and a tipple, I’m drawn to an Irish talent who deserves a spotlight of her own.
Belfast-born cookbook author Trish Deseine has lived in France for 35 years and has been hailed in her adopted country as the ‘Irish woman who taught the French how to cook’. Her accessible, refreshing style and her passion for regional French cooking has been a highly successful formula. Three more of her cookbooks have been launched on ckbk in recent weeks and you’d be a chump not to take a closer look.
Having grown up in the countryside of County Antrim, Trish has found echoes of home in the French approach to great eating. In Normandy, she says, ‘you can embrace salted butter, rich cream, fresh cheeses, be unapologetic about potatoes and hearty meats’, all of which are very much reminiscent of Ireland. On St Patrick’s Day, she will be celebrating with her family over a slow roast lamb shoulder and mash and for dessert there will be a sweet and intensely rich Guinness chocolate cake. To complete the meal there will, of course, be Irish coffee. You might be surprised to see that Trish’s recipe for mash is inspired by the legendary chef Joël Robuchon—steaming hot potatoes to which cold butter is added in copious amounts (a 2:1 ratio of potatoes to butter). However, rest assured that while she keeps an eye on what top chefs are up to, she stays focused on what is practical for the home cook. ‘I made a conscious decision when I started writing cookbooks not to make it into a science or an education. I wanted to stay on a level with the readers of my books, who mostly didn’t go to culinary school’.
Trish’s French-Irish cooking style has evolved over time, absorbing different regional influences as she fell in love with French cooking, first while living in Paris, then in the Languedoc region of south-west France, and finally in the beautiful Le Perche region of Normandy which is where she resides today. Since 2000 she has written 25 cookbooks and won multiple awards. The majority of her books, including Caramel, were originally written in French and for the French market, using what she calls a “Bridget Jones Franglais” style. These books won her acclaim and were widely translated. She went on to also write books in English, including Trish’s French Kitchen and Nobody Does it Better. Her recipes are all about depth of flavour, using the best quality ingredients you can afford with minimum fuss, and they offer a brilliant way into French cookery. They also display her Irish upbringing in their generosity and rustic regionality. From roasted pheasant with caramelised apples to a traditional coq au vin, a duck and cep shepherd’s pie to hazelnut, Mont d’Or and cured ham quiche, zesty lemon tart to a mousse-y chocolate fondant, these dishes are great for entertaining and family eating and full of flavour.
Talking with Trish, the French-est of Irish cooks, it’s clear that her recipes reflect decades of living in France, swapping ideas with girlfriends, visiting the local market through the seasons, and coming together with family both for daily meals and for special occasions. So, what French classic would she return to time and time again? ‘It would have to be Poulet Vallée D’Auge with its cream, wine, and shallots’ which is named after the lush green region of Normandy famous for its cream, cheese and apples. Created in a pre-nouvelle cuisine era, when generous cream was embraced and celebrated, this crowd-pleasing chicken dish could be seen as deeply unfashionable. But she cares little for fashion these days, ‘the beauty of being 60 is that I don’t give a damn!’ She also swears by a chocolate cake with a daring drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt. This recipe comes from inventive chef Iñaki Aizpitarte at Le Chateaubriand in Paris. It shouldn’t work but, surprisingly, it does and creates a talking point at the dining table. If you need a change from Guinness with chocolate, then this could be an alternative way to go with your St Patrick’s feast.
Down-to-earth Trish is very clear that it’s okay to take a laid-back, assemblage approach in the kitchen and is the first to admit that many of her dishes are incredibly simple. It could be a meaty black pudding with deux pommes ( a messy, thrown together affair in a pan with apples, potatoes and spiced black pudding served with French mustard), a frisee aux lardons (crisp salad with perfectly poached egg, crispy bacon mopped up with fresh baguette), or a fresh omelette with cherry tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms, her books offer plenty of assemblage opportunities. Ideas for making meals out of crusts and leftovers include the famous croque monsieur (which becomes a croque madame once topped with a fried egg), a raclette baguette (which rolls off the tongue nicely, too!) and then there’s leftover croissants with gruyère and mustard. If you don’t mind French nibbles with your Irish tipple this year, then a garlicy tapenade or anchoïade will bring some Provençal magic to the party.
The thick glossy, Irish stew is ever popular on St Patrick’s Day and for Trish, these hearty dishes are worth the time and effort—slow-cooked, deeply-flavoured stews and casseroles. For a French alternative to an Irish stew (made with lamb), there’s Burgundy’s boeuf bourguignon where cubes of beef are braised until meltingly tender in red wine, along with lardons, mushrooms, and onions. Unlike the Irish stew which cooks down in a rich meat stock, Burgundians use what they have in abundance: robust red wine. Similarly, the slow braised boeuf carottes is unctuous, sweet and also brings that French-Irish heartiness. If you can get hold of fresh snails (pre-purged) at the market or tinned in the supermarket and you fancy going off piste, then escargots à la bordelaise , a slow braised red wine snail stew, is another rustic alternative. A lighter French dish well worth mastering is the soufflé au fromage. As an Irish woman in France, Trish isn’t scared of saying it as it is: ‘people think a soufflé is mythically difficult but it’s actually fairly easy as long as you don’t open the oven.’ She recommends making a generous one to share at the table, which is how the French like to eat it informally. This was a favourite for many of Trish’s French friends growing up, a far cry for anyone in the UK and Ireland brought up on sausages and mash.
When it comes to dessert, what does Trish think should be in everyone’s repertoire? ‘It has to be a tarte tatin with a crème anglaise’. Then, once you have the knack for crème anglaise, you can also make Îles Flottantes (floating islands of meringue) which are easy and deliciously retro, or whip up an ice cream using crème anglaise as the base, such as Trish’s divine salted butter caramel ice-cream. Her favourite tatin remains the banana and dried mango tatin—the intense flavour and texture pairing beautifully with cooked bananas— and is also a great way to master caramel. A tarte aux framboises with crumbly shortcrust, rich crème patissière and beautifully arranged raspberries is also another classic and the pathway to infinite tart opportunities featuring apples, walnuts, dark chocolate and more. Of course, for St Patrick’s Day, the popular choice is Guinness and chocolate, and Trish’s easy Guinness brownies could be the answer for anyone short on time, needing a celebratory sweet.
Trish is a fantastic Irish cook who brings to life the joy of French cookery with ease—her recipes offer the perfect way to mix it up this St Patrick’s Day.
Trish Deseine’s most popular recipes
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