B00CACT6TM EBOK (30 page)

He shifted, accusingly, and she glanced up. Her gaze flicked over him, his size, his leathers, his hard stare. Her face closed entirely, and she looked back at him just as aggressively, until he half expected her to pull out Mace if he walked too close to her table.

Fuck her, he thought, so bitterly and insanely wounded, anyone would think he had just discovered his virgin bride in the arms of another man on their wedding night. He strode out of the
salon
, and did
not
bump into anything or break it, but probably mostly because people and even things just seemed to shrink out of his way.

It was a pure wonder he didn’t have an accident as he headed off into the Paris streets again. People kept shrinking out of his way there, too.

* * * *

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With my many, many thanks to Laurent Jeannin, head pastry chef at the Michelin three-star restaurant at Le Bristol in Paris, and Pastry Chef of the Year (2011). This book would not have been half so vivid without his patience and generosity in welcoming me into his kitchens, in answering all my questions, and in sharing so many stories of what it means to be a chef pâtissier.

Laura Florand was born in Georgia, but the travel bug bit her early. After a Fulbright year in Tahiti, a semester in Spain, and backpacking everywhere from New Zealand to Greece, she ended up living in Paris, where she met and married her own handsome Frenchman. She is now a lecturer at Duke University and very dedicated to her research into French chocolate. For some behind the scenes glimpses of that research, please visit her website and blog at
http://lauraflorand.com
. You can also join the conversation on
Facebook
or
email Laura
.

Copyright 2013, Laura Florand

Cover by Sébastien Florand

ISBN-13: 978-0-9885065-1-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at
[email protected]

The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.