Emily in France 🇫🇷 Announcing the Real Fishwives of Paris!
A brand-new food-focused podcast co-hosted by yours truly
I can explain.
Caroline Fazeli and I met during Covid, and we quickly bonded over our love of French food and wine. While we didn't meet in person right away (I actually lived in her apartment for a month without ever having given her so much as a bise!), we began collaborating almost immediately on a podcast delving deep into French regional gastronomy.
I’m incredibly proud of The Terroir Podcast. It was unapologetically nerdy, meticulously researched, and incredibly fun to make. But it was also sweeping in scope to the point of potentially being unwieldy. Episodes were long, and while they were filled with fun tidbits, they didn't tell a story in the same way as my food tours and journalism do.
We put the podcast on hiatus for a little while, always promising we’d come back to it. And now… we have. In a really big way.
Meet the Real Fishwives of Paris!
This new podcast flips the table on French food mythology, zeroing in on the delicious truth. Our mission: to take a hammer to the pretty pink myths surrounding French food and wine culture to see what gems lie beneath. Whether we’re debunking the supposed Napoleonic origins of the baguette or unveiling the urban birthplace of “Burgundian” specialty beef bourguignon, this new podcast is going to get at the heart of French food, wine, and culture. And it’s probably going to piss off a few people along the way.
The podcast launches September 16th. Until then, you can can follow us on YouTube and Instagram for teasers, behind the scenes, and a lot more photos of me doing things like this to cheese.
Can't wait to share the first episode with you all at the rentrée!
Cheese of the Week
Normanville is a bloomy-rinded cheese from Normandy with way more flavor than might appear at first glance. This cheese comes from the Pays d’Auge, whose best-known son is Camembert. But before the bloomy-rinded cheese took the country by storm in the 19th century, this area was known for a different cheese: pungent, washed-rind Livarot. Normanville kind of smells like a marriage between the two. It has a touch more umami funk than Camembert but is even more irresistibly creamy.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I’m Eating
As compared to its storied neighbors, Café les Deux Magots and Le Flore, Brasserie Lipp has flown a bit under the radar. But it’s haunted by its own high-ranking ghosts, appearing as Hemingway’s go-to for marinated herring with steamed potatoes and a pint in A Moveable Feast. And since it’s forever heaving with diners, I wanted to see if it was worth the hype. More on the blog.
Where I’m Going
1. To Diamande, one of my favorite pastry shops in Paris, which marries Algerian forms and French flavors.
2. To Caractère de Cochon, to try out Paris' most expensive jambon-beurre.
3. To Culture Rapide, where I’m giving a special reading in collaboration with Version Originale this Thursday.
What I’m Doing
TERRE/MER is a ceramics and culinary retreat I co-host in the Mediterranean seaside town of la Ciotat. This long weekend is governed by creativity and terroir, encompassing a 10-hour ceramics workshop, three locally-sourced meals a day (prepared with love by yours truly), hands-on cooking workshops, a cheese tasting (bien sûr), and more.
We'll be welcoming our next small group September 4-7. Book your spot now!
Dig deep into French cheese and wine pairings with my guided tasting in a historic underground aging cellar October 14, 2025, 5:30pm in collaboration with WICE. For just 45-euros, you’ll gain access to a five-cheese tasting paired with two French wines and guided by yours truly. Book your spot here!
What I'm Writing
1. Microplastics are present everywhere, from Antarctic snow to polar freshwater in the remote Kola peninsula to the leaves of plants. Thanks to a new study from Nankai University, we now have a concerning idea of how they get there. For Organic Authority.
2. From the archives: From bonbons to mousses to ice cream, here are the spots chocolate lovers shouldn’t miss in the French capital. For Bonjour Paris.
3. From the archives: Ever since absinthe was outlawed due to rumours it led to insanity, this simple drink has become the nation’s go-to apertif. For the BBC.
FAQs
With the goal of bringing you the content you crave, I'm soliciting your help. What questions can I answer for you? Drop them into the newsletter chat, and I’ll answer as many as I can!
What I'm Reading
1. This phenomenal exploration of “wild cheese” – the fourth installment in a series that had me dreaming of a cheese trek of my own. In Milk Trekker.
2. This clear-eyed exploration of why Americans need to stop pretending to be Canadians abroad. (Which includes an excellent tangent about the inappropriate decibel level of most American speaking voices.) In Faraway Places.
3. This ode to dining alone – one of my favorite pastimes. In the New York Times.
A bientôt !