Tel: 609 497 0121 auberginesetc@gmail.com
Princeton, New Jersey
biography
How I became a cooking instructor and tv cook ...
When I was at Bristol University in the UK, it was the 80s, I'd opted for self-catering, and had brought my fondue set along with my typewriter. Crank's Cookbook was Don Quixote's neighbor on my bookshelf, and I dipped into the great Delia Smith as often as I consulted the Petit Robert. After graduating with a degree in French and Spanish, (special mention in dinner parties,) I naturally headed cross-Channel for liberté, égalité et pâté.
I moved to America as a "trailing spouse" in 1999 – it wasn't my idea, you understand. I was planning to enjoy a lifetime of cooking, eating and drinking in my beloved France. 
Lyon, my first port of call, was, as it still is today, a haven for the serious gastronaut. Having joined an international group whose offices were situated city-center, I enjoyed many a marvelous wine-soaked lunch with my American colleagues. They took the notion of long French lunch hours very seriously (unlike their French counterparts who ate sandwiches at their desks). Through their eyes, and, more to the point, stomachs, I realized how lucky the French were to have such quality at their fingertips, and how partaking of a wonderful meal, whether it be a simple collation of coarse country pâté,washed down with a local vin de table, or an elaborate feast delivered from shimmering platters by charming young waiters in tuxedos, was an alluring way of life to all those who visit France and fall under the spell of their gastronomic heritage.
Lyonnais restaurants offer a broad spectrum of eating experiences, with the bouchons, les Mères lyonnaises, the Michelin-starred establishments, the guingettes nestled on the banks of the river Saône, serving fried whitebait, and the myriad ethnic eating-places in my old neighborhood on the “pentes”. 
I sampled something of everything, and was a devoted customer of the Croix-Rouse open market selling regional delights such as St Marcellin cheese, Cervelle de Canut (literally translated as Silk-Weaver’s Brain, but referring to a tasty mixture of creamy cheese, chives and garlic), Rosette de Lyon and, of course, seasonal fruit and vegetables, not to mention, horse and goat meat. I have tremendous taste memories of my glorious 6 years there.
In 1993, I moved to Maisons-Laffitte, 
some 20 minutes by train from the center of Paris. Favorite pastimes there included choosing seasonal produce in the bustling Maisons-Laffitte market, discussing how best to prepare magret de canard with the butcher, sampling artisanal cheeses in the fromagerie, and then grabbing the pinard chez Nicholas. I also took 2 years of Provencal cooking classes with Dani, a petite, chic brunette from the south, wife of the Principal of the International Lycee in St-Germain-en-Laye. She introduced me to using ingredients such as anchovies, eggplants, squid and game. Alas, I took it all for granted.
It was clear, when I arrived in Princeton, (you know, home of "House" and another famous university) that you can take the girl out of France, but you cannot take France out of the girl. Eventually, I stopped marveling at the longevity of lettuce or expecting my coffee to be served in a small white cup that stayed put. I would disdain beer and brownies and take Côtes du Rhône and crème brûlée to the block party on Labor Day. Soon, I was handing out menus to my neighbors, encouraging them to order Coq au Vin. It worked. I designed French cooking classes, and demonstrated how to make profiteroles and quenelles. Before long, even strangers were paying for my instruction – I branched out to Italian, and that apparent oxymoron, British Cuisine.
Rather than see my move to New Jersey as an end to a luscious culinary experience,I chose to turn my passion and 
know-how into a business. To this end, in the summer of 2005, I was a paying apprentice for a week in Orvieto, a beautiful walled city in Italy’s Umbria, working alongside a leading restaurateur, who taught me a host of Italian dishes and techniques (and set me right on my knife skills!). This fired my curiosity and desire to extend my repertoire beyond French and British cuisine: a pasta-making class at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York gave me the basis to develop delicious fresh pasta recipes, and I never miss an opportunity to engage in inquisitive food conversations in local food stores or restaurants.
My reputation as a gourmet home cook has spread, and one day I was introduced to a producer at Princeton Community TV, a local cable channel. She assessed the curls and the accent, and proclaimed me photogenic. "You cook, I'll film" she said, and left me to rehearse my real calling: cooking while talking to a camera.
"Simply Scrumptious" first aired in 2003, and I showed the community how to make a Princeton Hotpot and a Tarte Tatin. In subsequent shows, I dared to call vegetables by their real names (courgettes, swedes, tom-ah-toes), extolled the virtues of saving butter wrappers, and gave the viewers a step-by-step guide to preparing Scotch Eggs while wearing surgical gloves left over from Hallowe'en candy corn hands. Now I own a cooking business, "Aubergines, etc" and continue to produce and present "Simply Scrumptious", which airs weekly, and will soon be broadcast online!
It's twenty-odd years since I traversed the Channel to become a gourmand: these days, across the Atlantic, I fulfill the American dream as an entrepreneur. "Delia" is the stained and tattered matriarch of an extended family of cookbooks, heaped atop sagging kitchen shelves. The newest born is the Aubergines Etc. Complete Cookery Course. My fondue pot still lurks dustily behind trendy juicer, Microplane and wok, and plans are underway to extend my modest 1950s kitchen to a high-performance modern kitchen in which to live, cook, teach and explore my passion for food.
Chateau of
Maisons-Lafffitte
making
gnocchi in
Orvieto
Open-air market in Lyon
The walled city of Orvieto
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Tel: 609 497 0121 auberginesetc@gmail.com Copyright Liz Yvon, all rights reserved