The special day for lovers is coming up, and if your thoughts are turning to romance, think of reserving at L’Auberge Chez François. Owner and chef François Haeringer, born in Alsace, founded the restaurant more than 50 years ago in downtown D.C., eventually moving it to Great Falls in the Virginia countryside. His son Jacques Haeringer, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, is the author of Two for Tonight, a cookbook with a definitely aphrodisiac slant--if you’d like to cook the Valentine’s dinner yourself. Or attend one of Jacques’ 11 a.m. cooking lessons, the “Seafood Lovers’ Valentine” on February 13 or the “Carnivore Lovers’ Valentine” on the 14th, each followed by a five-course, three-wine lunch.
He is a television personality as well as a chef and author. His Web site, ChefJacques.com, includes video demonstrations, archived recipes, a newsletter, and upcoming events at the rustic Alsatian inn.
“Engagement parties, weddings, and anniversaries are our raison d’être,” says Jacques. He sees a definite and intimate connection between food and love. “The pleasures of the table, fine food and wine, are an essential part of a passionate life.”
He explains just how you might bring this passionate state about in the comments he adds between his cookbook’s easy-to-follow recipes. Chapter titles include “Breakfast in Bed,” “Tête-à-Tête,” and “Love in the Afternoon.” Along with cooking tips on his culinary creations, he dispenses ample history and lore. Convinced that cooking for one’s love is an amorous act in itself, he tells that in ancient Rome cooking eggs--those erotic ovals of legend--for your lover was a sign of deep affection.
The Incas considered avocados a stimulant, he says, and one of his recipes, for the best of all possible worlds, combines them with eggs in Avocado Crème Brûlée.
Some of his recipes include a touch of those other amour-inducing eggs: fish eggs. He prefers caviar from the osetra sturgeon, but includes, for the poorer of purse but the hopeful of heart, salmon eggs as well.
His cooking tips are often tongue-in-cheek Gallic. Referring to the nervousness home cooks feel over a soufflé--can they get it to the table before it falls? will it rise high enough?--he divulges this mock-culinary secret: “Many chefs are now adding a little Viagra to their soufflés, for greater staying power and heightened presentation.”
Two for Tonight and an earlier book, The Chez François Cookbook, are available from local publisher Jeremy Kay of Bartleby Press. (Among his books: Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, a biography of the Heisman Trophy winner that provided the basis for the film “The Express.” Released last fall, it came out on DVD this past week.)
He is a television personality as well as a chef and author. His Web site, ChefJacques.com, includes video demonstrations, archived recipes, a newsletter, and upcoming events at the rustic Alsatian inn.
“Engagement parties, weddings, and anniversaries are our raison d’être,” says Jacques. He sees a definite and intimate connection between food and love. “The pleasures of the table, fine food and wine, are an essential part of a passionate life.”
He explains just how you might bring this passionate state about in the comments he adds between his cookbook’s easy-to-follow recipes. Chapter titles include “Breakfast in Bed,” “Tête-à-Tête,” and “Love in the Afternoon.” Along with cooking tips on his culinary creations, he dispenses ample history and lore. Convinced that cooking for one’s love is an amorous act in itself, he tells that in ancient Rome cooking eggs--those erotic ovals of legend--for your lover was a sign of deep affection.
The Incas considered avocados a stimulant, he says, and one of his recipes, for the best of all possible worlds, combines them with eggs in Avocado Crème Brûlée.
Some of his recipes include a touch of those other amour-inducing eggs: fish eggs. He prefers caviar from the osetra sturgeon, but includes, for the poorer of purse but the hopeful of heart, salmon eggs as well.
His cooking tips are often tongue-in-cheek Gallic. Referring to the nervousness home cooks feel over a soufflé--can they get it to the table before it falls? will it rise high enough?--he divulges this mock-culinary secret: “Many chefs are now adding a little Viagra to their soufflés, for greater staying power and heightened presentation.”
Two for Tonight and an earlier book, The Chez François Cookbook, are available from local publisher Jeremy Kay of Bartleby Press. (Among his books: Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, a biography of the Heisman Trophy winner that provided the basis for the film “The Express.” Released last fall, it came out on DVD this past week.)
