Why Americans Crave Southern French Cooking Now

THE THING IS, all the clichés you’ve heard about the south of France are true.” So begins “Le Sud” (April 23, Chronicle), the new cookbook from Rebekah Peppler, an American based in Paris. She goes on to rhapsodize about the region’s light, its open-air markets, its olive trees, lavender and sunflowers. Then, casually: “And the food? It’s not overrated.”

Peppler is certainly not the first expat to fall for southern French cooking—and not the only one publishing a cookbook on the region this spring, either. As much as the south of France is a real place, it’s also a story we tell ourselves, over and over again, about what it means to eat and to live well. But why are we so hungry for the food of the south of France right now?