Hey, it's Francis. With the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of how grateful I am for

the fans of the splendid table. You share your time with us and in return, you know, we try to

provide you with a friendly, curious, and helpful voice in the kitchen. We're a community, you know?

And I can't wait to share this year's Turkey Confidential with you. It's our annual event.

The tradition we're super proud of. And you can help us keep this tradition going strong for

years to come. Donate today in support of this public media podcast. Go to SplendidTable.org,

slash donate now. Give a little bit, give what you can, and thank you so much.

I'm Francis Lamb and this is the Splendid Table from APM.

Hey, I have to tell you, I'm walking on air a little bit. I just got to have a super nice,

super chill vacation with my family that ended with us, spending a long weekend with friends at

their beach house. And you know, one of these friends is actually a great chef. So it was literally

like, we're coming out of the water and he goes, hey, how about a lobster paella for dinner?

Anyway, incredible food aside. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was hearing him tell me

his stories from his travels in France. Like, you know, when he went to this legendary three-star

restaurant, our only ever dream of, and this other legendary restaurant doesn't exist anymore.

And, you know, I've got to tell you, I am a sucker for fancy French food.

What brings us to our episode today, which is about not fancy French food. We're talking about

French home cooking and baking, the everyday stuff, and specifically two of the great

staples of French home food. Chicken and cake. Alexander Kropazano joins us later in the show to

talk about the shockingly simple bacon that happens in Parisian homes. And first, man, this is the

other reason I walk you on air. We had a visit in the home of the one and only chocolate pan.

Hello chef, how are you? All right.

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