Apple Pie, Red Wine Strawberries: Chen Tzuliang Demonstrates French Country Cooking

Nord pas de Calais, located in northern France near Belgium, is France’s third-largest food-producing region. Its cauliflower is famous throughout the country and is so sweet it can be eaten raw; locally, every household prefers to make it into a thick soup to enjoy warm. What’s more, the strawberries grown here are red all the way to the core, and simmered with Burgundy red wine, a simple red wine strawberry jam is ready to serve.

Chen Tzuliang, a Taiwanese who settled here 6 years ago, has long run the blog "CARNETS DE CUISINE French Country Kitchen," introducing French country farming and cooking. Unlike the stereotype of traditional French cuisine as refined and elaborate, Chen Tzuliang learned cooking from her mother-in-law and gained deep insight into the daily life of French people, coming to deeply appreciate the spirit of simplicity and respect for the original flavors of ingredients in French country cooking.

Travel Channel Demonstrates in Person, Premiering on TLC on February 1

Before she truly settled in Nord pas de Calais, Chen Tzuliang had returned to Taiwan to run a coffee shop, where the signature dishes were in French country style. This style of cooking was very popular with customers who came to taste it. After returning to France, besides actively sharing French country cooking through her blog, she had always hoped to make a program that would present the most grassroots, authentic face of French cuisine to the people of Taiwan.

Fortunately, Huang Bifen of Meilihua International Co., Ltd., whom she had met while making lifestyle programs, heard about Chen Tzuliang’s idea and the year before last finally overcame difficulties with funding and staffing, taking a team to Nord pas de Calais in France to film on location. The program "C’est La Popotte (http://www.cestlapopotte.com/)" will air on TLC on February 1 at 7 p.m.

The first season of "C’est La Popotte" focuses on northern France, including Alsace, Normandy, Burgundy and Paris, with Chen Tzuliang introducing and personally demonstrating French country cooking. Chen Tzuliang said earnestly, "Unlike the impression of traditional French cuisine as noble and refined, pursuing Michelin stars, the diversity and purity of French country cooking makes me very satisfied."

Chen Tzuliang said, "Actually, cooking doesn’t require highly advanced skills. As long as you can get good ingredients, truly treat their original flavors with care, and not overcook, anyone can make very good food. This is what the people and the land here have inspired in me over these years of living in the French countryside."