Happy Monday, wherever you are on the planet, dear readers.

Happy for many of you who are celebrating today the return of the Spring: in Egypt, the national holiday of “Sham Al Nassim”, (smelling the breeze), my mom’s favorite. She was always describing parks, beaches and streets overflowing with families picnicking, playing, singing. Muslim, Coptic, Jews, together in the same joy, welcoming the new season. (a special hi to my friend Colin)

Easter Monday, is major holiday in many countries, widely celebrated, especially in France where it is another opportunity to make “le pont” (the bridge), a very specific French concept to get 4 or 5 days off with one holiday. Vive la France.

Celebration is also in the kitchen, where bread, croissant, pizza, sandwiches are back after a week of Passover - have you made my recipe? Did you like it? Let me know please - lamb and ham are in the oven, cooking slowly, very slowly, there are chocolate eggs and bunnies and surely a lot of liver crisis.

I spent the weekend at SAM, preparing sweets for Rachel’s Easter party, in the delicious company of my dear friend and choreographer Thierry Thieû Niang who just ended a residency at the Language & Laughter Studio and at L’Alliance New York where he worked with 3 - 5 years old kids, in collaboration with visual artist Roxanne Revon, creating beautiful movements and fusion.

French Meringue is all about fusion between egg whites and sugar. There are three kinds of meringue: the French, the Italian and the Swiss. If there is still a lot of incertitude about the origin of this sweet appearing in the 17th century, I’m afraid that if the price of the eggs continue to raise, it will become soon a luxury. Maybe time to raise our own chickens.

Rachel is a big fan of my lemon tart and I can’t blame her, it’s the best one on Bergen Street. For the very first time, I made individual ones and according to the guests, it was a delight. A lemon curd, a crumble of pâte sucrée, a layer of soft meringue, a crunchy one, some zest of lime and flowers from the garden.

In the TV show, The Crown, Petit chou is the nickname given by Prince Philip to Queen Elizabeth. It’s more about cabbage than Chou, the base of many French pastrois- Chou à la crème, Religieuse, Eclair, Etui à la Chantilly and of course, Chouquette, a simple and yet delicious sweet, to be eaten with a tons of Chantilly.
Chou is also one the French language exception, with hibou, caillou, joujou, pou and genou. When it’s pluriel, you add an x and not a s.

If you want these sweets for your parties please feel free to reach out and place your orders.

And to stay on the tone of this Monday, two movies to watch tonight at home: Habemus Papam by Nanni Moretti (2011) staring Michel Piccoli or Conclave by Edward Berger (2024) staring Ralph Fiennes and the incredible Isabella Rosselini among others.

Enjoy this unique Monday!

Art This Week

This week, we have the pleasure to welcome Japanese artist Kenji Ide.

On Friday April 25, from 6 to 9pm, let’s meet at the opening reception of Enter Again, a group exhibition presented by Jack Simonds Studio.