9. Blog: Chocolate and Zucchini

What inspires you to write a food blog?

When I started Chocolate & Zucchini five years ago, I had been cooking with growing passion for a few years, and I had reached a point where I needed an outlet to express my thoughts on the subject and share them with more people than just my friends and family. I had discovered food blogs a few months before, and I thought the format was exactly what I needed -- a casual, open journal in which I could document my daily food adventures. It has certainly exceeded my expectations, leading me to quit my job, become a full-time food writer, and publish two books.

What sort of posting really gets your readers excited (good or bad)?

The hottest chefs and coolest cafés of Paris

An insider's guide to where Parisian bloggers eat and where they get the best deals

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I don't really think of blogging that way: I just write about what gets me excited, and hope to get that enthusiasm across to my readers.

Which cookbook can you not do without and which chef is your hero/heroine?

I use many cookbooks for inspiration, but in the end it's the reference books, such as the Larousse Gastronomique, that I turn to most often. As for heroines, I'd have to name my mother and my grandmother, not chefs but excellent home cooks, who have each in her own way built the foundations of my cooking.

Share a seasonal recipe with us... and a tip for a local restaurant?

For summer: my mother's strawberry tart. My favourite winter salad is one made with grated carrots and beets, and my latest restaurant crush is for Chamarré Montmartre, where the chef serves a sparkling French-Mauritian cuisine. The lunch menu is a particularly good deal.

Tell us something about food from your part of the world?

Well, Paris, let's see. Where do I begin? A distinguishing feature of the Paris food scene is that it offers a unique mix of tradition and modernity - shops and restaurants that have been around for centuries sit side by side with contemporary businesses launched around novel ideas. There is something comforting and exciting about this - the old and the new coexist, and complement each other.

What would you eat for your last supper?

Beef tartare with hand-cut fries, then 36-month-old comté cheese with fresh baguette from my neighborhood bakery, followed by a slice of my mother's strawberry tart. And after that, coffee and a piece of dark chocolate.

Which other food blogs do you read regularly?

I'm very interested in Japanese cuisine, so I enjoy reading bento blogs, such as Maki's Just Bento or Lunch in a Box.

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