My name is Gwen, I live in California! By adoption… Although my father gave me the taste of cheese and yellow wine and my mother the taste of couscous and mint tea, I do have Alsatian blood in my veins. My paternal great-grandmother from Hoenheim was Carol Sieffritt. Isn’t that Alsatian?
And even if I were not in a position to claim this filiation, I would still be Alsatian. Because I am above all heartfelt! I arrived in California at the age of 15, following my family who had come to settle in a country that was then unknown to me. And since then, this homeland, which was totally foreign to me, with its funny “eim” patellins and their unpronounceable sounds has become mine. It was here that I grew up, found my professional development as a freelance journalist and writer-designer, and gave birth to my wonderful children, Oscar and Salome. It is also here that I have forged bonds of friendship, made wonderful encounters, those that shake up the established order and divert trajectories.
In particular, I met the talented chefs of the famous association Les Etoiles d’Alsace, Patrick Fulgraff, Emile Jung, Fernand Mischler, Olivier Nasti, Michel Husser, Hubert Maetz, Sylvie Grucker, Marc Haeberlin Babette Lefèvre, Marco and Laurent Arbeit, Nadia Benaï and I forget some… Legendary pastry chefs too, Christine Ferber, Pierre Zimmermann, Christophe Meyer, Pierre Naegel, Thierry Mulhaupt, Christophe Felder, Michel Gross, Jean-Pierre Oppé, Laurent Kieny and I forget some there too… All these Alsatians whom I had the great honour of interviewing, notably for the magazine Les Saisons d’Alsace (and to meet for some who have become friends), have given me even more the taste of this unique region, rich in talented and creative characters who carry the flavours of the land high and sublimate the products to perfection!
These meetings have also helped to nurture and grow my other lifelong passion, that of cooking. An increasingly devouring passion, which over time has become imperative for me to satisfy outside the four corners of my kitchen. I dreamt of dressing myself in professional clothes to peel, hulled, peeled, husked, husked, minced, chopped, blended, trimmed, blanched, browned, confided, seized, browned, fried, sieved… all day long!