Today, I would like to share a secret that could be a game changer in your cooking: the culinary essences made in Grasse, the French Riviera town known as the world's capital of perfume.
Culinary essences are concentrated aromatic extracts used by chefs and seasoned cooks to intensify flavors in their cuisine. You can use them in many different recipes, old and new. Take our crème brûlée, for example. We chose to flavor it with lavender essence, but this recipe also works beautifully with other aromas, like apricot, coconut, or passion fruit.
We carry 17 different culinary essences from Grasse for you to sample, each opening up a delightful sensory world. Let your inspiration guide you and remember a few drops go a long way...
Marianne Prébet
Founder & Gourmand-in-Chief
Just in: more French favorites
Among the French favorites recently added to our shelves you will find Brets La Craquante and honey & mustard potato chips from Britanny, Nina's Paris loose leaf tea in pretty tins, Maffren fruit and pastry-shaped marzipan, Léonard Parli mini calissons, Comptoir du Cacao Dubai chocolate, and scrumptious Maison Colibri madeleines with chcolate shells.
If there is a French treat you would like to find on our website, please share your craving with us.
Suggestions for your French agenda
There is plenty of exciting French cultural events all around America. Enjoy your picks!
Chicago's Art Institute presents Matisse's Jazz: Rythms in Color. Through June 1.
The Cleveland Museum of Art presents Manet & Morisot. Through July 5.
The Denver Art Museum presents The 19th Century in European and American Art.
In New York, the MoMA presents the Marcel Duchamp exhibition. Through August 22.
L'Alliance New York presents its new film series, The Films of Sophie Letourneur. Through May 26.
In Washington, DC the National Gallery of Art presents Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris. Through August 30.
In Washington, DC Marc Chagall's magistral Orphée mosaic in on view in the sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art.
Try out our recipe for lavender crème brûlée
A fragrant dessert to get you started on culinary essences
Ingredients (serves 4)
240 ml (1 cup) heavy liquid cream
¼ tsp lavender essence
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cassonade
ice cubes
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 90ºC (195ºF).
Bring cream and lavender extract to a boil then let cool at room temperature.
Beat egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence. Add cream and mix well.
Pour mixture in 4 ramekins and set aside for 20 minutes.
Put ramekins in oven for 1 hour. Remove and let cool at room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Turn on oven's grill setting.
Sprinkle cassonade on top of cream in ramekins. Arrange ramekins in a oven tray filled with water and ice cubes. Grill 1 to 2 minutes. (It's even better if you have a crème brûlée torch, of course.)
Serve with lavender flowers on top of crème brûlée.