Food Blogger Spotlight: Clotilde Dusoulier

For this next edition of Food Blogger Spotlight, I’ve got a veteran who was there right around the time this whole food blog phenomenon began. Please say hello to Clotilde Dusoulier, who writes Chocolate and Zucchini. As a young French women who came over to the United States to work as a computer programmer in Silicon Valley, she began her food blog waaaaay back in September 2003. Do you remember hearing about blogs in 2003? I can. Sort of.

Being an early adopter of the medium, Clotilde is one of the lucky few who’s been able to successfully turn her web-writing journey into a solid career. She has written two books, Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris and Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen, and has written for the Saveur, NPR, the LA Times, and ELLE à Table, just to name a few. I’ve seen her sweet, smiling face pop up all over television, whenever a show is talking about food blogging or French culinary culture. She’s definitely a food blogging success story!

So please put your hands together for Clotilde, and as always, feel free to say hello in the comments.

We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.

I always keep hard cheese on hand (such as aged comté or parmesan) to grate over salads, pasta dishes, and vegetable gratins; at least one type of fresh herb (flat-leaf parsley, or cilantro, or chives, or basil) because they liven up any dish; and Dijon mustard (the stronger kind that we get in France) to add to stews, dressings, and sauces, and to use as a condiment with any type of meat — we go through jars of it at an alarming rate.

Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?

It would have to be the Larousse Gastronomique, because it has a great many recipes, in addition to information on ingredients and techniques. The difficulty would be to choose which one to keep, between the modern one that’s quite comprehensive and has lots of pictures, and the old leather-bound edition my grandmother gave me.

When you’re looking for new recipes (or creating one of your own), what is your number one priority? What makes you pick one recipe over another?

I am very much an ingredient-oriented cook, so I am chiefly looking for recipes using ingredients that are in season and available at the greenmarket, or whatever I have in my pantry that needs using up. Also I look for recipes that push me gently outside of my comfort zone: I love to try new things, it keeps me on my toes, but they have to feel like a realistic leap from what I already know.

Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?

For me, the most important thing about my blog is that it be spontaneous and sincere. I write about the things I’m interested in and excited about, about the things I cook and the things I love, and I don’t worry about much else because I myself respond best to that kind of writing. And the most important thing I get out of this is the joy of sharing thoughts and ideas, and having others respond with their own. These exchanges and the sense of community that they create are heartwarming, and endlessly inspiring.

Thanks so much for stopping in, Clotilde.

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Here are a few of my favorite posts from Chocolate and Zucchini:

• Le Poulet de Muriel (Muriel’s Chicken)
• The Sustainable Seafood Dilemma
• Muffins Banane Pécan (Banana Pecan Muffins)
• Matcha and Azuki (Green Tea and Red Bean) Cake Roll