April in Paris

And then we open for the 2025 season!

Dear Friends,

March was so windy in Maine that our driveway is still littered with dead boughs and broken branches. The ground is muddy and the sky is grey and I feel like spring flowers will never come. But my partner, the eternal optimist, thinks we live in an enchanted forest.

She is currently obsessed with a pair of Barred Owls (Marlene and Merlin are their names) that have returned to our wooded yard. The hen spends most of her time in the hollow of our old oak tree. She is so ensconced in that tree cavity that we can just see the tips of her brown and white feathers flapping as she repositions herself. She has been incubating her eggs for awhile and we assume the nest now contains nestlings.

All seemed well until a bunch of crows started hanging out in nearby trees. Since crows are natural enemies of owls, Val has been worried and on the lookout to see if the black birds are getting too close to the nest. “I know Marlene is in the tree protecting those baby owls and Merlin…Listen! Can you hear him hooting? She grabs the binoculars on the windowsill. “Oh my God! He just dropped a mouse into the hollow! Such a good papa!”

I am particularly grateful for Merlin’s hunting expertise since we usually find a field mouse or two hiding in our hallway this time of year. I also am bewitched by the haunting calls of the wild. Some people think the hooting sounds like: “Who cooks for you?” I have to admit, I have been thinking a lot about that question.

Normally, we begin cooking classes at Jillyanna’s in April, but in a few weeks we are going to Paris— that is, if I can drag Val away from the windowsill. We planned this trip in 2024, before the stock market was crashing, before Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Canada issued travel advisories or warnings for citizens traveling to the US. Canadians, in particular, who usually summer in Maine, have been cancelling their reservations at local inns and restaurants and this is damaging for Maine’s economy, but it is also sad for our longstanding bond with our good neighbors.

Mark Twain, one of my favorite writers said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” We agree with Twain and we think it’s time to see America from a distance.

My dream is to picnic in the Jardins des Tuileries. I imagine we will take along with us the best baguettes, fromage or foie gras, chocolate macarons and wine. I also hope to take a few classic French cooking classes, celebrate my birthday at an extraordinary restaurant, shop at the outdoor markets, improve my French language skills, revisit the Louvre, the Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Giverny and, most of all, make some new friends.

As always, I will share stories about this trip, offer recipes and teach you some new skills during our new Parisian Bistro Cooking Class. It’s been so cold here that I finally decided to make a rich French Onion Soup, enhanced with Corvoisier and topped with imported gruyere to get us in the mood for Paris. It turned out so well that I may just put that on the French Bistro menu in the fall.

We will also offer a Grilled Pizza and Seafood Supper, a homemade hands-on pasta class, a Hanukkah Prelude Party along with Wood-fired Neapolitan Pizza workshops and Detroit Pizza Intensives. Most classes or dinners run for three hours. Pizza Workshops/Intensives are semi-private (classes are limited to 4 people). We do encourage you to book your workshops and Neapolitan wood-fired pizza parties at Jillyanna’s as soon as possible. Just call us at 207-967-4960 and we will make every effort to accommodate your needs.

The calendar and description for all of these classes, workshops, and dinners is going up on our website at the end of this week. Please keep your eye on our website: www.jillyannas.com where you will find all descriptions and pricing. I am sorry for the delay, but new tariffs and rising food costs have given us pause and will affect our pricing. If you signed up earlier this year, the price increases will not affect you. Please know that I am trying to keep costs down as much as possible while continuing to offer you the finest food made with the best local and imported ingredients.

Val and I, Oliver and the owls, wish you a happy spring. Cooking together by a roaring fire and dining outside is especially fun and beautiful in the late spring, summer and fall and we will be so glad to see you. A bientot, mes amis!

Jill