Meet the woman behind the top cooking classes in Paris
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Meet Jane Bertch, a Chicagoan who has called Paris home since 2005. She started her life here as a banker, but made the unusual pivot to running a cooking class (which is now the hugely popular La Cuisine Paris). And now, she has written a memoir about it all: The French Ingredient.
She joined me in the studio to talk about the book, how to make a croissant, and even how to make a croissant class (plus a whole lot more).
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Follow La Cuisine on Instagram and follow Jane herself here.
- Book a cooking class at La Cuisine in Paris
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And follow the La Cuisine newsletter
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And of course, find the book: The French Ingredient
The music in this episode is from Pres Maxson, his take on the classic Sous le ciel de Paris.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody, Oliver G here from the Eiffel Tower. Today, we're going to be talking with Jane |
| 0:05.2 | Birch, who will perhaps be a familiar name to Francophiles and people who love Paris. She is the |
| 0:13.2 | woman behind La Cuisine Paris. Yes. And she's already here in the studio with me. Can you hear her? |
| 0:19.8 | Hello, Jane. Hello, I'm sorry. It's very rare I do with the intro with the guest sitting in front of me, but you're here. We may as well own it. Today we're going to be talking about you, your book, and your cooking classes and also how Paris has changed over 25 years. Are you ready? I'm ready to go. Let's hear some intro music. A huge shout out to the Patreon supporters, the substack supporters and everybody who books |
| 0:41.8 | our walking tours. |
| 0:43.3 | More on that at the end of the episode. |
| 0:44.8 | But first, some music from Press Maxon. Jane Birch, how you doing? |
| 0:59.7 | I'm good. I'm so excited to be here. |
| 1:01.7 | I'm excited to have you here. |
| 1:03.1 | We've, um, you know, let's, I'm just saying, let's put my chair down. |
| 1:07.5 | I say, uh, we bump into each other so much in Paris. |
| 1:10.7 | You're one of my main bump into, is you know? Yes, that's intentional. I've, we bump into each other so much in Paris. You're one of my main |
| 1:11.4 | bump into is, you know? Yes, that's intentional. I've been stalking you. Yeah, you're always at the front of my place. No, but we live pretty close in the 12th Narendes. Was that giving too much away about our lives? No, I love it, and it's the best neighborhood in the world. Let's start there. Why do you say that? It is, it feels like Paris |
| 1:29.1 | to me. There's parts of it that are unchanged. Interesting. Although, funny you say that because |
| 1:35.0 | it's also changing dramatically and quickly. Yeah, yeah it is. It's becoming the cool place. |
| 1:40.3 | It is. I mean, we've got this mashup of like a very popular area. You have the market, |
| 1:47.0 | which everybody's at. And then now we've got these fancy coffee shops just on the backside. |
| 1:51.7 | Yeah. I'm here for it. Totally. I'm wondering if the greater public out there in listener land realizes |
| 2:00.0 | how cool the 12th is? |
| 2:01.2 | I don't think they do. Is it good that we talk about it? I'm happy to share. Yeah, me too. You know, Paris is for everyone. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And then, but on top of that, you work in the Marais. Yes, I do. I sort of work in the Marry, too. I spend a lot of time in the Maréé. I know you do. |
| 1:57.3 | Yeah, we just cross past all the time. |
| 1:58.9 | And eventually I bump into work in the Mary too. I spend a lot of time in the Marry. Yeah, we just cross |
... |
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