Spices are magical. A pinch of chili pepper, a dash of ginger, a bit of curry and some peppercorns are enough to flavour the humblest of dishes …

Summer the perfect time to trim our bikini body. Bye-bye sad diets, hello organic, healthy, eye-pleasing and eco-friendly cuisine. Test these simply sublime recipes. Try and use organic fruits and vegetables.

Next time you serve tea, impress your neophyte guests by explaining that the quality of tea depends on knowing which leaves to pluck, how and when to do it. Tea is harvested all year round, but different seasons bring different flavours.

Dustbins are overflowing with one third of our food, of which only 20% are unfit to eat.And not only is this not economical, but it is also inefficient and environmentally damaging. Climate change prevention starts in your plate. Celebrity chefs decided to spread the word. They call themselves Zero Food Waste Warriors.

All teas can be flavoured with flowers, fruit, spices, chocolate or smoke like Lapsang Souchong.You can make your own by adding cardamom or vanilla pods, dried apple peels, rose petals, citrus peels, etc. to teas you find a little bland. This will boost them with extra aroma and added health benefits.

No energy in the midst of the heat wave? You might be dehydrated. To counter the hazardous impacts of the summer sun, forget about cholesterol express meals. Temperature-reducing water-laden fruit and vegetables are your best when the sun is hitting hard. Here are a few cooling foods that you should definitely add to your diet to beat the heat

According to a French proverb, saint Anatole’s day (July 3rd) is happy jamming day. Bring out your best jam pan, preferably wide rimmed and, according to specialists, made of copper. Why? Because cooking fruit releases pectin from the cells and copper encourages the molecules to coalesce, joining together to form a web that holds all of the fruit juices together.

To start with, we are going to tell you a Chinese top-secret well-kept for centuries: there are only six tea varieties and they all come from the same plant.Depending on how they are processed, the leaves will become white tea, green tea, black tea, yellow tea, blue-green tea (Oolong or Wulong) or dark tea (Pu’erh). This is only known since the 19th century, thanks to Robert Fortune, spy extraordinaire and tea thief at the service of Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria.

Gluten-free cakes don’t usually have a gourmet reputation. And yet, these lovely pastries can be as scrumptious as regular wheat-based ones. You just need to know how to use gluten-free flour.

Feeling sluggish and foggy-brained? Forget your beloved coffee and grab a cup of matcha. This absolute marvel will perk you up in a jiffy.

How many sailors, how many captains have blessed le saucisson du marin? Served with the aperitif, it’s a sure hit. But this magnificient saucisson is also a swanky accompaniment to most savoury dishes. So let your hair down and dare new food pairings.

Your Valentine will just melt away with a chocolate pudding. Send your Valentine to seventh heaven with this seductive mousse. Spice up your love life at any age

Most countries welcomed the rice pudding with open arms and made it their own speciality by adding different spices, raisins, almonds, pistachios and other nuts, fruit, caramel, rosewater, chocolate, etc. May be because it is easy to make, homely and not terribly expensive. The secret to make it unforgettable is the quality of the ingredients you use.

These delightful members of the cucurbit clan pack more than just a festive punch. They scare away diseases with their powerful immune boosting antioxidants, protect your eyes, enhance your immune system, aid in cancer prevention andlook after your beauty. For Halloween, find a terrific recipe : the Roasted Hokkaido pumpkin with couscous and haloumi cheese

Raymond is dying for a brandade de morue! The problem is finding salt cod. Not exactly the most appealing of fish, stiff as a board, smellier than old socks and at the antipodes of convenience food. The long soaking it needs, before you can cook it, spoils any spur of the moment culinary creative impulses.But don’t despair, for there is a shortcut to the long and tedious desalting process. Try Stephan’s secret recipe.

Fruit and vegetables do wonders for a glowing skin and radiant health, but not the pesky pesticides that go with them. These non-gratae don’t do us any good, not even in tiny doses. Studies show that the problem, even more so than the amount itself, is the pesticide exposure frequency. Over time, even in minute quantities, they are detrimental to our health and beauty.When possible, buy organic; if not, wash and peel all peelable nonorganic candidates. As for the others – such as salads, red fruit or grapes – they have to be thoroughly washed with the usual favourites, famed fighters of all undesirables: Soda bicarb aka baking soda, white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide.

From The Bible to The Kama Sutra, and The Perfumed Garden, the concept of boosting sex appeal with plants went viral. Various studies today confirm that a number of them actually work, in different ways, to arouse you.A small amount of chili, ginger, curry and a few pepper corns are enough to flavour the humblest dishes and transform them into an explosion of savours, totally turning your taste buds upside down.

Getting into the arms of Morpheus, no matter how much you relish it, is not as easy as it used to be. Gone are the days when it happened naturally, without even thinking about it. Forget about counting sheep. Ditto for drinking hot cocoa or chamomile and sniffing lavender. They all fail miserably to send you to snooze city. You keep tossing and turning and when you finally fall asleep, it’s time to get up and you feel wasted.The good news is that a divine dark red liquid could change this…

For Halloween, get Raymond to scoop one out, and while he supervises the carving of the Jack-O-Lantern, concoct a devilishly divine velouté. And for starters, toast the seeds.

According to psychologists, those post-vacation strike savagely and indiscriminately. So how can you prevent post-trip doldrums from turning into a real bout of depression? Delegate some of the chores to Raymond, keep fit, start planning your next holiday and prepare some of the scrumptious sunny dishes you ate while you were away...

In our previous newsletter, we promised refreshing recipes to stave off the heat of the sultry dog days of summer. So, its bye-bye ragouts and risotto and hello ice-coolness of fresh fruit and vegetables, BBQ fish and meat, healthy smoothies and sugar free sorbets. Not only are they cooling but they will also give you a glowing skin and a fabulous figure.  Dare savoury granitas such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, melon with ginger or cucumber to totally amaze your guests.

« Caterpillar becomes butterfly and pig becomes sausage, it’s nature’s law. » François Cavanna

Next time Stephan serves saucisson du marin – dry-cured neck of pork similar to coppa or capocollo* – appetizers, don’t wolf them down voraciously, take a minute to look one straight in the eye. What you are staring at is a treasure of humanity.

The remains of yesterday's roast ham will be today’s hit if, like Jamaican mamas, you upgrade them to a succulent spicy surprise.

According to the Peruvian historian Javier Pulgar Vidal, cebiche comes from viche – tender –, i.e. fresh and tender fish in the Chibcha language. Another theory of his, is that the words siwichi and sikbaǧ – Arabic like sibich – are neologisms created during the Spanish conquest of the Inca empire.

Cooking is so totally hype, but with fascinating, flawless and frugal cuisine you’ll reach the apex of hype.

This is when it becomes “Art”.