French

European import brings a taste of home to Cape kitchens.

By Laura Johnston ~ Southeast Missourian

Whether it's dinner for 10 or just for two, Marine Raudin can create an authentic French meal with all the flair and flavor you'd find in a four-star restaurant. All you have to do is provide the guests and table settings.

Raudin takes care of the rest -- except for the wine, which she lets the hosts select. The French native has been learning about American culture while living in Cape Girardeau and is teaching residents here a little more about French cuisine and customs in the process.

While her husband, Nicolas, has been providing technical assistance for the construction of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, Marine has been offering advice about the kitchen.

She started a catering business, preparing everything from four-course meals to simple buffets, and even offers private cooking lessons. She wants people to enjoy their meals. Americans don't savor their food and prefer to take shortcuts, she says.

What she wants them to experience is "like going to a restaurant," she said. "They just enjoy themselves and don't have to do any cleaning."

Raudin brings most of her own cookware and all the ingredients to her catering jobs. All the recipes she uses are foods she'd cook for her own family back in France: tarts, quiches, salads, crepes.

Some are more sophisticated while others are things "a lady would serve when she's having her friends over for a meal," she said.

For most meals, she prepares several courses and more complex dishes like salmon tartare, pork loin or duck fillets with a Valley D'Auge sauce made from fresh cream and cider and served with apples like you'd find in the Normandy region, au gratin potatoes with garlic, a salad and chocolate mousse.

'Cooked to survive'

She is an experienced cook but isn't a professional chef. She "cooked to survive" while living in Egypt, where vegetables were fresh but good meats were more difficult to come by. Fish came directly from the Nile; chickens were selected alive and then butchered; beef was chosen at the market and then sliced into manageable cuts in her own kitchen.

Life in America is very different, and Raudin is enjoying it, although she can't always find the fresh ingredients she wants or the preferred French brands.

She knew little about Missouri except what she learned by reading "Tom Sawyer" as a child. A visit to the Internet helped introduce her to Cape Girardeau, which reminds her of the French countryside.

"I like having the trees and gardens and not having the pollution and smoke," she said.

Once people discovered that the French couple was living in Cape Girardeau, they began to ask them about their homeland, French culture -- and, of course, food.

"People here are friendly and like France and French cooking and culture. They seem to know a lot about France," she said.

After some initial introductions, Raudin began getting calls about catering meals or cooking lessons.

Her first dinner party was for guests of Stan and Debbie Crader. The meal was delicious, both the Craders said, and as each course came to the table, Nicolas helped explain how the dish was prepared. "We even talked about the French culture and the china the food would be served on," Stan Crader said.

Debbie Crader had given Raudin some parameters for the meal because of dietary restrictions among her guests. "It can either be a surprise or you can go over the menu," she said. The meal was typical of what would be served in the Normandy region of the country.

"Everything was fresh and she made it all from scratch," Debbie Crader said. The Raudins tried to make sure all their ingredients for the meal were authentically French, from the chocolate in the mousse to the Bleu cheese in the salad.

Cuisine as art

With a background in art history, Raudin knows that cooking is as much a mixture of ingredients as it is a work of beauty. "It is art and chemistry all in it," she said.

Lessons in art and chemistry are part of cooking, particularly when she's teaching in the kitchen. She tries to keep the meals she caters balanced with meat or fish and vegetables, but cooking can be tricky.

"You have to be careful when you're cooking for large groups because of the ingredients mixing. You don't want the vegetables to get spongy or have too much water," she said.

Most of the dishes she prepares at the host's home. She brings everything in a plastic tub -- from her favorite sauce pan to her vegetable steamer. "I try not to look in the refrigerator," she said.

No peeking in the cabinets either. But American kitchens are somewhat different than their French counterparts. Most American homes have huge kitchens, and most come with icemakers and small television sets, both things you wouldn't find in a French kitchen, Raudin said.

She has a small galley kitchen in the apartment where she and Nicolas live with their 11-month-old daughter, Charlotte.

"If you have a small kitchen, you can still do a great meal," she said. "You need a place to work, that is essential. If it's too big, then you run from this part to that and it's like a sport."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126