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Meet Sylvie Bigar, Author of Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France and the Stew that saved my Soul

August 29, 2022 By Morgan

It was just about two years ago that I had the opportunity to meet Sylvie Bigar, the author of Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France and the Stew that saved my Soul published by Hardie Grant.

Cassoulet Confessions Cover release 2022

Together, we shared a love of food, travel, and pottery. This September, we’re launching a new take on our cassole form. It’s a nod to the vessel that Sylvie’s cassoulet master uses in the Occitanie region of Southern France. 

We’ve tried the recipes included in the book and you will love them! On September 13th, you can purchase Sylvie’s new book and the cassole. Both the book and the cassole will be available in the Gallery and online. 

Read more about Sylvie’s story below: 

When food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar accepted an apparently anodyne assignment on cassoulet, France’s ancestral bean and meat stew, she could not have known that she was about to jump into a rabbit hole that would lead her miles away from her upper-crust childhood in Switzerland, and force her to reckon with her identity and her own dramatic family history.

Today more than ever, we recognize the magical power of taste. From Proust’s madeleine to the cozy sense of comfort yielded by a sip of chicken soup, we let emotions transport us back in time, but even orange blossoms can taste bittersweet and Sylvie’s first cassoulet bite somehow carries her to the gilded mansion of the dysfunctional childhood she’s spent decades trying to forget.

sylvie bigar making cassole in clay coyote limited edition cassoleCassoulet Confessions, a poignant gourmand memoir, traces Sylvie’s journey through the stunning French countryside near Carcassonne, as she learns the deeper meaning of authentic cassoulet from her culinary guru. As the book vacillates between generational family drama and Sylvie’s gastronomic training, the reader is engulfed in the simmering smells of the French kitchen, then suddenly thrown in the front seat of the family car, her schizophrenic sister at the wheel.

This manuscript is a sensual experience extolling the pain of hunger for home and authentic, sumptuous food along the dramatic backdrop of Sylvie’s Jewish family. Her poetic and deceptively simple prose offers an immersive experience, both delicious and terrifying at the same time.

A literary feast, you will want to place this book on your shelves right next to the beloved Language of Baklava by Diana Abu Jaber, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones & Butter and the works of Ruth Reichl.

Award-winning food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and is based in New York City. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Food & Wine, Forbes.com, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Food Arts, Departures, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, National Geographic Traveler, Gotham, Hamptons, Time Out New York, Air Canada, Passport Magazine, Narratives, Southampton Press, and New York Resident, for which she has also served as food editor. In French, Sylvie has contributed to Le Figaro Magazine, Histoire magazine, Le Temps and FrenchMorning.com.

In 2020, Her uncle died with the French Resistance, and she had to visit the spot for the Washington Post won a New York Press Club Journalism Award in the Travel Writing for a newspaper category. In 2018, Departures magazine’s Hunting Gooseneck Barnacles on Vancouver Island won the bronze award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for Best Culinary Travel. Back in 2016, French Cassoulet, an Obsession boils over for the Washington Post won a gold Travelers’ Tales Solas Award for Best Travel Writing in the food and travel category.

Sylvie co-authored Chef Daniel Boulud’s definitive cookbook, Daniel: My French Cuisine (Grand Central, 2013) as well as Living Art: Style Your Home with Flowers with floral artist and designer Olivier Giugni (Atria, 2010). Her New York Times essay about Aimé Césaire, “Beneath Martinique’s Beauty, guided by a Poet” was published in Footsteps, a curated collection of the New York Times’ travel column.

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Filed Under: Events, Foodie News, On the Horizon, Our Story, Potter's Life, Recipes Tagged With: Art of Cooking, beans, cassole, Cassoulet, cassoulet confessions, cookbook, cooking with clay, duck, french cassoulet, french cuisine, french food, Mediterranean Diet, stew, sylvie bigar

Makers of MN Podcast: CLAY COYOTE (SEASON 4 EPISODE 29)

July 29, 2022 By Morgan

Stephanie Hansen of Stephanie’s Dish

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Stephanie Hansen of Stephanie’s Dish and Makers of MN Podcast to talk about:

  • How we started out (pump house days!)
  • Why Flameware is so cool, err hot
  • Our making process
  • How we develop new pots including the Pizza Stone and our new collaboration with Sylvie Bigar to make a cassole that goes with her new memoir coming out this September.
  • The Cooking with Clay Trends
  • Nickel-Free Cookware movement
  • The Minnesota Pottery Festival
  • And so much more!

Listen (or read the transcript) here! 

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Filed Under: Events, Foodie News, On the Horizon, Our Story, Potter's Life, Recipes, The Gallery, The Studio Tagged With: cassole, Cassoulet, cooking with clay, flameware, our story, podcast, Stephanie's Dish, sylvie bigar

Recipe Revisited: Eton Mess

June 14, 2022 By Morgan

This is a true summer party pleaser! We first shared a version of this recipe with you back in 2016.

Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting, normally a mixture of strawberries or other berries, meringue, and whipped cream that dates back to the 1890s at Eton College.

We were introduced to it on a vacation in Wales, a group of friends rented a castle carriage house through the National Trust Rental program. Think really crazy airBNBs in historic, royal-like experiences.

Anyways, one bite of this dish and I’m back in the Welsh seaside on holiday with some of my favorite people.

Eton Mess

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped to stiff peaks
  • 1 cup berries (we used raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries for a red, white, and blue theme)
  • 1 cup hard meringues, crushed (we buy ours at Trader Joe’s, but they’re also available on Amazon)

Directions:

  • Mix all together and serve.
a vertically framed photograph shows an overhead view of a clay coyote mixing bowl with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries in it. the strawberries have been sliced. the mixing bowl is glazed in joes blue. the mixing bowl is sitting on a wooden table.
Berries
Meringues
a vertically framed photograph shows a fairly close view of two bowls. One bowl has crushed meringues in it. the bowl is glazed black with little bits of brown. behind and to the right is a clay coyote mixing bowl glazed in joes blue. the mixing bowl has cut up strawberries, blue berries and raspberries in it. there is also a metal wire whisk in the bowl. both of the bowls are resting on a wooden table.
Crushed Meringues
Whipped Cream
Mix Up
Serve

Pottery Featured in this Recipe: 

  • Mixing Bowl with Whisk
  • Salad Bowl, Shallow 
  • Soup Bowl 

 

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Filed Under: Foodie News, On the Horizon, Our Story, Potter's Life, Recipes Tagged With: cooking with clay, desserts, eton mess, no cooking, party dishes, recipe revisited, red white blue, summer

Summer Fun: Things to do in Hutchinson this Summer

May 31, 2022 By Morgan

Are you ready for fun in the sun all summer? We are!

Mark your calendars for some of these fun activities around Hutchinson. 

  • June 13-19: Hutchinson Water Carnival Kick off the summer with our local, hometown celebration. Enjoy the boat parade, music in the park, community day, a medallion hunt, and fireworks!
  • July 15-16: RiverSong Music Festival Enjoy a great line-up of local and national musicians. Get your tickets now.
  • July 30-31: Minnesota Pottery Festival Thirty-five potters from across the USA, free to attend, kids’ activities, demonstrations, and so much more!
  • August 13: MN Garlic Festival Held at the Fairgrounds, look for the Clay Coyote booth and see Morgan’s cooking demonstration at 11:30am on the main stage.
  • August 18-21: McLeod County Fair Free admission in 2022, look for the Clay Coyote on the Legacy Stage
  • September 16-17: Art in the Park & Taste of Hutchinson Enjoy the craft festival, book fair,

​

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Filed Under: Events, On the Horizon, Potter's Life Tagged With: events, family friendly, local events, MN Pottery Festival, much in hutch, music in the park, summer 2022, water carnival

{VIDEO} WCCO-CBS Grilling Tips to Get Fired Up This Summer!

May 21, 2022 By Morgan

Did you catch us on WCCO? Watch here for grilling tips!

Read about more tips online (and get the chart referenced) here.

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Filed Under: Foodie News, On the Horizon, Our Story, Potter's Life, The Gallery Tagged With: Cooking In Clay, cooking with clay, flameware, WCCO

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