Cassoulet Confessions

Food, France, Family and the Stew That Saved My Soul

De: Sylvie Bigar

Narrado por: Suzanne Toren

Cassoulet Confessions is an enthralling memoir by award-winning food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar that reveals how a simple journalistic assignment sparked a culinary obsession and transcended into a quest for identity. Set in the stunning southern French countryside, this honest and poignant memoir conveys hunger for authentic food and a universal hunger for home.

In Cassoulet Confessions, Sylvie travels across the Atlantic from her home in New York to the origin of cassoulet—the Occitanie region of Southern France. There she immerses herself in all things cassoulet: the quintessential historic meat and bean stew. From her first spoonful, she is transported back to her dramatic childhood in Geneva, Switzerland, and finds herself journeying through an unexpected rabbit hole of memories.

Not only does she discover the deeper meanings of her ancestral French cuisine, but she is ultimately transformed by having to face her unsettling, complex family history.

Sylvie's simple but poetic prose immerses us in her story: we smell the simmering aromas of French kitchens, empathize with her family dilemmas, and experience her internal struggle to understand and ultimately accept herself.

©2022 Sylvie Bigar (P)2024 Tantor

Thoroughly enjoyable

Wonderful story with great, soothing narration. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it made me HUNGRY!

At the crossroads of food writing and autobiography.

This book is an exquisite tapestry, blending the robust history of cassoulet with the author’s deeply personal reflections. With every chapter, she stirs memory into heritage, love into tradition, and flavor into storytelling. Rarely does food writing feel this intimate, this evocative.

A hungry woman's identity quest

Even though I had no idea what cassoulet was, I gladly plunged into this delicious stew and the personal story the author weaved. This memoir reminded me of Eat Pray Love about French cuisine. As a foodie, Cassoulet Confessions made me hungry, but also teary as I read through the dramatic family history and the universal female identity quest. 

Food Memoir set between France, Geneva & New York

This is an unexpected food memoir that takes the reader from Carcassonne—where the author encounters colourful characters that teach her the secrets of Cassoulet, to her mother's childhood during occupied France, in WWII.

Bigar diggs deep into the complexities of her family dynamics that lead to discovering her food language.

The style is cinematic, with humour and reverence for history. A fine read along the lines of Elizabeth David and Luke Barr.