Lerendez-vousnj.com
Title
Le Rendez-vous Bistro
Description
We met, a little more than ten years ago, over a meal. Someone we both know suggested that a particular, hard-working French chef might appreciate getting to know a French-speaking American woman who could show him that there was life outside his kitchen. So she went to his restaurant and he made her dinner. On their second date, he said to her, "You know, being a chef's wife isn't easy." She thought he was crazy.
We are from very different worlds. One of us grew up in suburban New Jersey; the other in Nice. One spent years studying literature and a foreign language. One apprenticed in a celebrated kitchen in Provence. One went to France to teach English and the other came to the United States to realize a dream of owning his own restaurant.
Yet we both grew up in homes where mealtime was fairly sacred. Although one of us was raised on Yankee pot roast and the other on roti du porc, the pleasures of the table were important. It didn't much matter whether we ate simply or lavishly. What mattered were things like talking about your day at dinner, finding comfort in a favorite dish and celebrating special occasions when several generations would gather in the same dining room.
