A place to learn about food… in France.
The 18th century walls of the Kitchen-at-Camont. Here, in the Kitchen-at-Camont, these stone walls have been listening to cooks muttering about salt and duck fat and smoky bacon for nearly three centuries. There is nothing really new under this Gascon sun when it comes to cooking. And I like it that way. I want to keep it that way. So, I teach these old ways, not just about cooking but about food. My canal-side home, the Kitchen-at-Camont, is a place to discover the old cooking... Read More
Julia, Julie, Michael and me. My un-review.
Food Guru Michael Pollan throws out some thought provoking words, a lot of the them, in his NY Times article dedicated to Julia & Julie, food TV and… why Americans in love with food don’t really cook. Meryl Streep, Julia Child and fellow food bloggers aside, I couldn’t help but get caught on a few words that struck me so personally and timely that I had to jump ahead of the movie review (which doesn’t come out until September here anyway, dubbed... Read More
Piment d’Espelette- Potager Pinup #1
Piment d’Espelette The first hot pepper from thepotager announces Summerin theKitchen at Camont. 3 easy things to make with Piment d’Espelette Tomato chili jam- sweet, hot and great with anything. Pâté de Campagne- Basque style with a pinch of dried piment. Kate’s grown-up hot chocolate- just add a sliver of pepper & a slug of armagnac. Read More
First Honey Love
A pale blue beehive sits under the a William pear tree, a memorial to the May evening when a wild swarm arrived and asked to stay here at Camont, then surrounded by dozens of acacia trees in snowy bloom. “Bien sur!” I responded (that means “right on!” in French) and so Marc and I moved the virgin hive under the swarm on the branch, a small pear dangling like an earring. After a glass of rosé wine and watching a few Google-driven You Tubes, especially... Read More
it’s a long process. one step at a time.shelling peas.planting beans.harvesting ideas.making changes. day to day life in the Kitchen at Camont is like shelling those French peas.one day at a time.one thought.one action. This day, this very hot windy summer day in Gascony, we are planting a new garden of ideas for you. Here at the French Kitchen, the Kitchen at Camont, we are drinking iced l’O Rosey- rose syrup over crushed ice while writing new programs for fall,... Read More
charcuterie news
Summer + pigs = too much fun.Some people are wondering what I am doing. Too much.Some people know that when it gets quiet here, I am busy making magic happen.This summer the magic is happening with the help of a gang from Portland OR and Philly PA.Call it summer school, call it Camp France. I am the Camp director, Bacon is the mascot.The souvenirs will be stuffed into sausage casings, cured in salt and processed in a water bath. The larder is filling. The centuries old kitchen... Read More
Kate Hill’s Gascon Kitchen
Place
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video. Located just four hours southwest of Paris in the fertile Garonne river valley, the Kitchen-at-Camont is uniquely French. Built of stone, brick, and river rock, the 18th-century farmhouse, rustic outbuildings and gardens are perched on a sleepy canal, in Gascony, one of the most diverse agricultural regions in France. Here, orchards, vineyards, market gardens, and rolling fields of grain and sunflowers connect historic... Read More
French Facts
Where is Gascony? “It is not down in any map; true places never are” –Herman Melville The invisible ancient duchy of Gascony, long gone from any maps, is located in the southwest of France, and still lends its name to this very true place, a distinct gastronomic region bordered by the Garonne River to the north and the Pyrenees to the South. The Kitchen-at-Camont is located on the site of an 18th century farm in the township of Ste. Colombe-en-Bruilhois, near Agen... Read More
Our Teachers
Learn from butchers, bakers, and Armagnac makers. Live France. Meet the people who turn dirt into food. My friends and neighbors, your teachers and mentors: Jacques, Yvette, Bridgitte, Denis, Patricia and Guillaume. When I arrived in Gascony over 20 years ago, I barely spoke enough French to get by. Shopping at farmers markets became an exercise in point and shoot French. “That rabbit, s’il vous plait. Now, how do I cook it?” #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1... Read More
