We’re nearly into the holiday season and to mark the occasion here is a cake from Alsace, kouglof, which according to one legend is shaped like a turban of the Magi. Not to imply, however, that this is a Christmas cake. It is consumed year-round, for breakfast or at tea time, according to Andrée Hentz, who kindly contributed the recipe. The mother of a friend, she says her family has been in Alsace, on the northwest edge of France, for hundreds of years. They live in a village west of Strasbourg. And they have been making kouglof all that time.
Kouglof / Kouglof cake from Alsace
There are versions of this cake in Austria and Bavaria as well. So how did it get to France? For one thing, says Madame Hentz, after the Thirty Years War (back in the 1600s, but of course you remembered that), a third of the population of Alsace had been wiped out and their villages burned to the ground. Once the war ended and the region reverted to France, it was repopulated, and the new arrivals brought their culinary traditions with them. So when Catholic Austrians arrived, for example, they said of the Alsatians, “Let them eat cake.” (Just kidding.) According to another story, Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian princess who married the future Louis XVI of France, liked kouglof so much that she introduced it to the French court. Whichever is true, you will enjoy yourself royally if you attempt this cake, which admittedly takes a bit longer to make than most recipes on this site — but has the advantage of being copious enough to last for breakfast all week long.
Does North African cooking count as French cuisine? I had dinner a couple nights ago with friends who insist that it does. ‘After all,’ said Jack, ‘when the French are asked to name their favorite food, the dish that comes up most often is couscous.’ And indeed, the influences back and forth between France and its former colonies are so strong that North African cuisine can be found virtually around every corner here. This Moroccan carrot salad — fresh, flavorful and oh so spicy — will transport you to a hot and exotic land.
Let’s demystify mayonnaise — one of France’s most versatile and elegant sauces. It is reputedly so difficult to make that only culinary experts should attempt it. Guess what The Everyday French Chef has to say to that? Poppycock. If you have the ingredients on hand, you can whip up a bowlful in less than five minutes. And the results are spectacular. Once you’ve tried it, you may find yourself singing, ‘Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby, nothin’ like the real thing…’ 
I first tasted this dish in the home of Valérie Lapierre, a superlative cook. She and another friend, an artist, had concocted a fabulous meal but refused to say what the main course would be. And then they arrived bearing dinner plates, each with its own small stuffed pumpkin. The pumpkins’ caps were lifted. An amazing aroma escaped. Spoons were dipped in. Out came succulent baked pumpkin and a filling of mushrooms, onions and cheese. It was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted, and quintessentially French.
This is a cold-weather dish most commonly encountered in the Alpine ski resorts of eastern France: potatoes, onions, bacon and flavorful reblochon cheese baked together to make a mouth-watering one-dish meal. But tartiflette has become so popular that restaurants from Burgundy to the Pyrenees now serve it. The name derives from a word for potatoes, tartifla, that is used in Italy and Provence — but, oddly, not in Savoie…
This is an apple tart for taking the chill off a cold autumnal evening. It comes from Normandy, where the salty wind off the sea can whip right through the warmest clothes. Normandy, France’s dairy land, where the fresh cream is as sublime as it comes. Normandy, where apple trees dot the countryside, and the apple tart is as French as, well, apple pie is American.
