La Pitchoune: Cooking in France (2022– ) User Reviews

Love it!

[mrsscotclifford · 8/10 · 29 November 2022]

I have been following this story for awhile. I saw the show and fell in love with not only the story but the people. It is inspiring to think of food in a different manner.

As a long time caterer and home cook I was intrigued by the thought of no recipes. I now understand what they mean is they give you building blocks and help you understand what things taste like together. Your flavor profile can be added on top of those building blocks. Mind blowing that it can be that simple yet it makes most of us freeze.

The scenes of France make me so excited that I booked my own French cooking adventure in 2024!

Distracted by unsupported "girls"

[mohe37 · 6/10 · 4 November 2022]

I just watched the first episode, but found several things to be distracting from the cooking and the learning experience. First, the early dialogue is a bit stilted and unnatural. Second the natural, free-range boobs that belong to Makenna are simply too distracting and unsightly. They need to be supported by a bra, or at least a camisole! You're teaching AND on television for Pete's sake! Plus, you're in France, where they invented support garments centuries ago.

Frankly I found the cooking just not interesting enough to want to return for more episodes. The best part was the French countryside scenery.

Slow burn (no pun intended) cooking show!

[aria1000 · 8/10 · 4 August 2023]

La Pitchoune: Cooking in France popped up in my feed when HBO and Discovery+ merged. I was intrigued by the title, so I gave it a go!

I should add that I'm not a fan of competition shows (which this is not), and over all not a fan of "reality" tv. The only "reality" tv I tend to watch is the kind that's inspiring, low to no drama, and relaxing. La Pitchoune falls into this category, with its beautiful location, premise and hosts. You can tell that the team at La Pitchoune is really trying to create something special and inspire folks in the same way they are inspired every day by their surroundings. Yes, the school is located in Julia Child's former home, but the show is not about Julia or her style of cooking. Facts and stories about Julia are peppered throughout the show, but it's not the focus. Instead, it tries to focus on the guests and the ethos behind the school.

One of the things I wish we had gotten more of was the backstory of the hosts. It took me a few episodes to connect with them, mainly because I wanted to get to know them a bit more. Nothing invasive, but a bit more about how they got started in cooking and why they landed in France. You get some bits and pieces over the episodes, but weaving the hosts' stories, their "why", into the episodes a bit more would have been nice.

Overall, I enjoyed the show and what kept me coming back for more were the hosts, the ethos of the school and well...France!

Loved the show!

[annebagan · 10/10 · 24 October 2022]

We have been anxiously waiting to see it and it did not disappoint! It immediately transported me back to the week in June 2022 when my 4 kids and I went to La Peetch and soaked up the history of that amazing home and the beauty of Provence. It was nice to see everyone (I admit I squealed when I saw Matilda!) and Makenna- you're not the only one with tears! My eyes were streaming! I'm homesick. I can't wait for the next episodes. (And as another reviewer stated, this is more a cooking philosophy to give people the courage to take chances in the kitchen. I may never make a soufflé, but I will make the fresh, heavenly veggie sides we made!). Thank you for the experience. Fun to relive!

Finally a cooking show for me!

[angelal-42677 · 10/10 · 24 October 2022]

I love this show. It's beautifully shot and the characters are interesting. There is no screaming or competition and no one is trying to sell me on why I should be thinner, prettier, or have more stuff.

I love the pacing and the way the show rolls out. Made me feel like I had a week vacation in France.

This is more of a cooking philosophy show than a cooking competition or even cooking education show. You will not be blown away by what the chefs can do, which is great for me. I'm never going to make a complicated Michelin Star meal, but this show made me want to find joy and connection in cooking.

I was inspired to cook twice in a day after watching an episode and I never cook. I always felt like a hopeless chef, but this show gave me hope. If you are looking for the most advanced dishes, you won't find it here. But if you want to feel more hopeful about life and the potential for beauty and beautiful moments as globalization comes to a screeching halt and capitalism falls apart bringing all our institutions with it, check it out.

La Pitchoune lives on with lively food and festivity

[johnsonkaren-19114 · 10/10 · 3 November 2022]

What a treat to see Julia Child's La Pitchoune revived and alive with its next generation of chefs and visitors.

I was delighted to see what Makenna and the La Peetch team had planned, plotted and pulled off with their Courageous Cooking School. The experience that the students are having seems both cathartic in experiencing the kitchen itself as well as freeing their culinary challenges with the lessons they learned from Kendall and Mekanna.

I hope Chris' history of the house and the Child's and Ross's home improvements continue as they really bring the whole house to life as if we were there with them.

Joy of Cooking, then and now.

[summit-38960 · 10/10 · 21 May 2023]

As neither TV nor apparel critic, it can honestly be said no immediate attention focused on body or apron wearing attributes over other content, especially when overwhelming authenticity shines in a first five minutes of any episode.

I was actually inspired by the relaxed approach taken to lessons while serious about elements of creative taste. One is sidelined from "Mastering the Art" vols.1& 2 (owned but never tried) due to commitment of time from shop to prep to cook to plate to clean up. After many dinners, it's no longer fun to cook what's delicious especially international dishes.

This show is about a fresh approach to French cooking/baking which draws attention to the reasons motivating a person to continue making that commitment to all the steps behind 'delicious'. The show approaches trying to change 'flavor profiles' from recipes to a new set of ingredients tested on site so more easily made at home. There isn't enough time for a lot of detail. The show can jump around from 'antique' print adds Julia used to buy a stove to making candy from flowers more flavorful.

To me, content fluidity and movement keeps me glued. You learn great tips: Consider texture of a soup: "The more stock the more soupy; the more wine-the more it evaporates making it stewy". Or : apricots bringing out taste of beef! The show illustrates New application of Food Pyramid offering even decades of cooking didnt yield.

Plus the regimen of structured recipes is likely not the audiences' MO; but La Pitchoune illustrates many other stimulating aspects contributing to why Julia herself gained such strong love of French cooking; given circumstances and tech of the time though could not be included in shows by Simone Beck or Julia at the time.

Julia's show holds subtle benefits of celebrating her and Simone's friends-just as meaningful but an opposite approach to food entertainment using tropical exoticism or remote obsession. If you want that, indeed turn on Anthony Bourdain who will always be amazing in his own genre. Fortunately these shows are not similar, and that's a recipe for boredom. ( pun intended).

The Owners and HBO as I see it, pursues an audience who finds joy from her tribute and learning about life in the French cooking cottage. The network uses the cooking classroom on location to transport the audience by immersion of cooking in a French countryside- including village artisans of wine and cheese; ingredients & products only found in France; then add in the dynamics of small classroom of enthusiastic students making "Mastering the Art" recipes with the twist of offering freedom from recipe structure and personally selected market ingredients for dishes accompanied by food adventures across the countryside.

On a lesser romantic note, the new owners are faced with numerous unseen goals : substantiate revenue for their new venture; to support HBO's objectives of an unconventional venue, in addition to preserving two families' stability whetr all is a transition: new country, home, business, farm and....living under the spotlight. The next best experience to living it is watching the journey. How attractive this adventure can be may depend on how exciting one finds experimenting with paths to joy found in cooking. From a book, recipe structure may be intimidating but you still want to make Coq au Vin. Watching folks cook from sheer desire, not competition, to feel excitement and passion instead of a militarised version most Chef shows illustrate, is definitely worthy of my time.

To sum up, imo, to enjoy this show requires an open mind to a different type of 'entertainment' ; multi- flavoured: parts tribute; parts reality teaching/cooking show; and part French country living interspersed with personal lives and business operations.

Now the two couples purchased another large piece of land in Grasse, 20 minutes from LP, along with mixed reviews, circumstances exist to delay or cancel the show already exists. If so, many of us will experience much less joy and freshness in our TV line up.

Faux feelings

[guessqtie · 2/10 · 28 October 2022]

If you have an insatiable nostalgia or obsession for France, French cooking, and of course Julia Child, this show will definitely be well received. You won't actually care about semantics; there will be no impetus for critique. If you take a (very tiny) step back, however, you'll easily be disappointed. It appears that many of those who rated the show 10/10 are either motivated by a prior personal experience in France, with French cooking / identifying as a "foodie", etc.

I have personally made many Julia Child recipes and I find her to be endearing to watch; I often pull up even her original cooking show from the '60s. This is what motivated me to watch the episode. What I saw, however, was a reality show about an expensive destination cooking experience. I found it to be a well-made advertisement. For example, I was expecting there to be more details on food, ingredients, etc. I wanted to learn from the show, but can't say I did. That was disappointing. Perhaps because I've already watched Julia herself (even still, I'm far from a chef). There were a few cooking tidbits here and there (which weren't personally enlightening), and I couldn't get past all of the "testimonials" from the guests about how much their lives have been changed from this experience and how grateful they are to the owner. It comes off as insincere to me. Not to say their emotions cannot be real, but the repeated on-camera accolades to the host is off-putting (as if they are real guests and not customers paying nearly $10K). In other words, and in summary, I got the impression that the "guests" were carefully curated to play in this 43 minute Instagram-esq add for the cooking school.

Last but not least, I was left with several questions. How was this show picked up by HBO? Are the owners just simply riding off the Julia Child name? Do they have a personal connection to France? Why does the owner, who says she went to Le Cordon Bleu, come off so green in the kitchen? Did she go to Le Cordon Bleu just to have a résumé for starting the school?

*Addendum: after finding a couple articles on the owner in Vogue / Boston magazine, most of these questions can be answered. Look her up.

I'm absolutely obsessed with this cooking show

[dcbpxhv · 10/10 · 28 December 2022]

I found this show by accident when I was home sick with COVID and surfing for something interesting to watch after watching nearly every movie on my premium channels and desperate for something to distract me while I died at home in bed. After watching Julie and Julia I was hooked on everything Julia Childs so when I saw this cooking show was based in France in Julia's former home I was absolutely in love. Not only was this show delightful to watch but inspired me to pursue a new passion, starting a cooking farm to table based business. Seeing women pursue their dreams and finding not only success but doing what they love all at the same time gave me hope that I too can succeed. This cooking school is now on my bucket list and hoping they will be picked up for many more seasons so I can live vicariously through the show until I can make it to La Peetch.

What was HBO thinking? What a bore.

[pons-pivotale · 2/10 · 31 October 2022]

This show is awful. There's very little cooking involved, close to no detail about ingredients or techniques, and the scenes shot outside Julia Child's house reduce the French countryside to a series of cliched, hackneyed images.

The show is really just an extended advertisement for the business run by the 4 proprietors- most of whom seem quite unlikeable. An "historian" whose scenes and commentary clearly belie a lack of historical education, his wife who strives for deep and meaningful perspective - but comes off completely shallow and flat, a handyman who seems not to care that the chicken coop may not protect the chickens from predators, and then the one person with actual cooking experience, who is frankly the only character who does not make me want to run screaming from the room.

Unbelievable to me that these 4 actually find suckers willing to pay such an exorbitant fee for such underwhelming instruction. And even more unbelievable that network executives gave this show the green light.

Save your time and sanity and skip this one.

Cozy watch that doesn't require anything from you

[kaselyhes · 10/10 · 7 November 2022]

I cannot explain to you how much this show has enhanced my Sunday morning coffee. It's wonderful to put this on, and feel a sense of belonging. No competition. No yelling. Just people showing others that the kitchen belongs to everyone. I think the other reviews that are less than stellar are confused as to what this show is really about. It's not about cooking lessons, it's not about the guests, or even the hosts themselves. It's about relaxing. It's about the endearing way we humans bond over a table of food. We've done it for centuries and we will continue to do it. It's about inspiring each other and coming together to accomplish goals we never thought possible.

So grab a morning beverage, sit down with a cozy blanket and some nice socks. Answer and email or two. And just bask in the calming atmosphere.

LOVE this Show and the Cooking Philosophy

[jrmizes · 10/10 · 19 November 2022]

I was lucky enough to spend a week at La Peetch recently with three very close friends. Watching these episodes brings back all of the wonderful experiences and reminds me of the positive, encouraging, learn-by-doing and thoughtful cooking approach that is the center of the cooking school's philosophy. Makenna's and Kendall's approach is to make creative cooking accessible, to encourage confidence in one's intuitions, and to be bold enough to try new things. Their approach (learn-by-doing) is gentle and positive, and is so much more effective, for me, than the "watch me" approach. You can "see" all of this when watching the episodes. Kendall is an amazing Executive Chef and Makenna's vision for this different approach to a cooking school is both brave and bold. Brava to you, Makenna and Kendall (and Chris and Ross)! The show is sweet, gentle and beautiful.

It all starts with love....

[thegrindmind · 10/10 · 31 October 2022]

From the first few moments of the initial episode, you realize you aren't in for any ordinary "food television ride". THIS....this is something different and spectacularly unique entirely. In all the most beautiful of ways! Nothing cookie cutter about this culinary adventure and that starts, in part, because of the love and passion that Kendall, Makenna, Chris, Ross (and even Matilda and her four legged friends) bring to the journey. They all exude love and passion for helping others tap into what most of us love most about food.....laughter, love, endless flavors, the budding confidence to explore and entertain ours and others senses along the way. To be able to do this in the confines of such an extraordinary and history rich environment, all while taking us along for the journey, is a blessing to the eyes and vicariously, to our stomachs! The "bonus" takeaway, lives in the practicality of their approach to "no recipe" cooking. It's something any of us can embrace and utilize to stretch ourselves outside of our comfort zones and create a little magic of our own! Two remarkable episodes in and find myself craving it to be Sunday again already so I can see where the next chapter in this fun and captivating journey will take us! Kudos to the Magnolia Network and HBO Max for bringing this beautiful story to life and allowing us, the viewing public, to indulge in the joy being spread as a result!

So creative and inspiring

[heatherashamara · 10/10 · 24 October 2022]

I love this show; the trailer honestly made me cry and the first episode was such a joy to experience. Watching the skill, care and play of Makenna, Chris, Kendall, and Ross working together in the kitchen without recipes made my heart sing and opened my brain to new possibilities. I am so looking forward to future episodes, and to learning a whole new way of exploring and finding deep joy in cooking courageously. And getting to peek into Julia Child's kitchen and know that it has been brought back to life in such an authentic, loving, and powerful way brings everything full circle. This is a show to learn not just about cooking, but about living fully and courageously from the heart.

Boring...

[the-family-lewis · 1/10 · 24 October 2022]

Not even sure what to say about this show... It wasn't a travelogue... It wasn't a cooking show... It wasn't even interesting... It's a show about 4 people, one who never wears a bra, who are famous because they bought Julia Childs house in France and how they overcharge people ($8000 a person) to go to France and learn how to "not" or "un" cook... The worst part is that the proprietors come off as being pretentious and unrelatable... Also, when I turned on the show and it was called "cooking in France", I would have thought that I would have watched people cooking, but to nope, jut people talking...

Not only was it mind numbingly annoying to watch, it was also unbelievably boring... I recommend skipping this abomination and rewatching"Parts Unknown" with Anthony Bourdain where you'll actual learn something...

P. S. After watching this, the $2000 a head cooking class in Italy, put on by our local purveyor of Italian goods (located in the PNW), sounds like one helluva deal...

Do you love cooking, France, friends??

[laineyjri · 10/10 · 24 October 2022]

Then, you will love this! What's not to love about cooking in southern France, enjoy your child's kitchen, with friends or family? This show epitomizes the experience at La Pitchoune, and I've been there, so I know! It is one of the best experiences of my life, and I have traveled all over the world. If you like cooking how could you not enjoy Julia Childs's kitchen? Getting to know the people who built this world on the show is amazing. And it is realistic. These people are passionate about all things cooking but creating an environment where anyone can cook. Watch the show! Travel to the south of France! Your life will be changed!

Smushed tomatoes

[fuzzyduds · 1/10 · 25 October 2022]

Kendall is the chef, yet Makenna is clearly the boss. Makenna seems pretentious and doesn't know how to cook. Just because you own Julia Childs home, it doesn't make you Julia Childs! The show actually is an insult to Julia's legacy. The guests were more interesting than the four friends. Chris, the historian, has no real purpose in the show. And Kendall's boyfriend fixes things, wow so gripping! The first episode should be the last. There's no redeeming reason to spend time watching this. Use it as a promo for your non cooking, cooking school. It's disappointing to find such a low quality, boring show on Magnolia.

An hour-long pleasant concentrated dose of inspiration vacation

[countchoclia · 9/10 · 13 December 2022]

I look forward to Sunday nights when I can sit and watch people who love food, who aren't fussy or pretentious, who wear really cool beautiful dresses and cool aprons, in a beautiful setting, cooking delicious food. Because of COVID, I can't fly on a plane and go to France, so this is a way to immerse myself in a world where it's summer, the food is delicious, and the flowers are blooming. There is no competition, it's just collaborative and friendly.

After watching the show, I feel more free to experiment and stretch outside my comfort zone. I have never felt bound by recipes, so that recipe-free thing is not new to me. What is new for me, is seeing the techniques for how to do it better, without having to eat as many failed experiments getting there.

A few things I have learned on the show have been game changers. Watching Kendall make an omelette was like, "oh! It's that easy?" and the next day, I made a fantastic omelette by just doing what she did, the way she narrated.

I am fifty, and I see these two couples as kids struggling to make it. It's clear they must have had help getting there, some kind of backing or support -- I imagine from their parents or something, but these days, I imagine hardly anyone their age can make it on their own. I say good for them.

There are times when I can see that Makenna, a working mom of a young child, is struggling. Anyone with children knows what that's like. How many meals have I made, pushing through, because we have to eat, and either achieved a kind of catharsis where things are better after we ate, or gotten furious and stormed out after calling everyone a bunch of jive turkeys? Being a mom to a young child is a hard beautiful part of life, even if you're in France, working in Julia Child's house. I love that she cries when people leave. It's clear that she loves her guests and her family.

Yes, this show is not about reality for most of us, but I am not digging reality in the United States, right now. It's great to just escape and look at beauty, to get inspired, and to learn.

I love their gorgeous dresses! I love that they're not skinny preachy fitness nuts. I want to sit out on a flower-covered veranda overlooking mountains and charming towns, too. If I can't, it's lovely to watch others do it.

New favorite show!!!

[eva224 · 10/10 · 6 December 2022]

Please do more seasons! This is an amazing show! It highlights exactly how cooking should be! Fun, real, authentic, and joyful. I love this show so much!

I never watched Julia Child and I never really cooked all that much until I started watching this show. This show made me want to cook. To try new things while cooking!

The hosts of the house in France are so laid back and welcoming about the whole experience. This show highlights people who go to Bramafan and live at the cottage for a week. They shop at local markets, cook with whatever they buy, and eat what they cook. It's so simple, yet so genius!

So much fun!

[gutshaw · 10/10 · 25 October 2022]

This was a walk down memory lane for us! We had the absolute joy of staying at La Peetch for a week in late September 2018 - just before Magnolia joined Makenna and Chris.

While we didn't have the wonderful experience of Courageous Cooking (at least in a formal sense), the ability to cook in Julia's kitchen for us was so special.

This show brings back great memories of the cheese shop, the shopping in various small markets and, above all, La Peetch. It is an incredible place and we dream of returning.

The show is informative and we look forward to watching every episode. Congrats to all of you!

It's a Bouillabaisse of Life cooking show !!

[rpmags · 10/10 · 25 October 2022]

The Serendipity of La Pitchoune Cooking in France is unmistakable !

Makenna and friends invite us to share their lives & love of cooking in Provence while opening the doors to Julia and Paul Child's home and kitchen as an innovative cooking school. Makenna's one of a kind "cookery" philosophy is open & modern while incorporating the tried ancient tried and trues of gathering around the fire honoring the seasons and rituals of food among old friends and new .

Including the audience on marketing outings, preparations for the guests and touring the grounds with stories of Julia & Paul helped to make the viewer feel part of the adventure !

Julia and Paul would be Very proud .... Merci Beaucoup for this Deliciousness of Senses !!

I Really Wanted to Like This Show

[Briarbruin · 5/10 · 18 January 2023]

I have really mixed feelings about this show.

The idea of attending a cooking school in Julia Child's Provence home sounds amazing, and the scenery and surroundings are beautiful. That is where the connection to Julia Child (and it's "Child", people, not "Childs".) starts - and stops.

The cooking school advertises itself as a no-recipe cooking school- other than being shown some very basic kitchen techniques and knife skills, the students are encouraged to be creative and combine ingredients in a free-form way.

I like to make up new recipes and dishes and I am here to tell you NOT EVERYTHING goes well together, including various combinations of herbs and spices. I have learned by trial and error in my home kitchen, as opposed to the privilege of coughing up $8000 (yes, that's correct, $8000) to do the same thing in Provence. (Although the location is gorgeous and more visually appealing than my generic Midwestern suburb!)

Julia Child is referenced and mentioned multiple times, but it seems almost disrespectful to her memory that a cooking school located in her Provence home (and getting a lot of publicity from that connection) makes a point of rejecting and refusing to teach even one her most basic, approachable recipes. If her legacy is to be ignored, why bother mentioning Julia Child at all, other than to give the cooking school and location some cachet?

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade - the participants look like they are having a wonderful time, but if I had already forked over $8000 for the experience I would make darn sure I was having a wonderful time as well.

Fun and authentic

[roberthammer-19235 · 10/10 · 1 November 2022]

I thought the show did a fabulous job of presenting a fun and authentic view of cooking and living in the south of France. If you enjoy France, cooking, being around a table with friends laughing and eating, then you will enjoy this beautifully filmed show that walks through the steps from sourcing the food in the local markets, preparing it and then enjoying it with delicious wines. I lived in France on and off several times and I was amazed at the way they were able to capture what makes the region unique (and sometimes very challenging!). While understated, their knowledge of the food, the region, and language is very impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two shows and look forward to the third.

Ugh

[mrssean61705 · 2/10 · 10 November 2022]

Another white woman with her white husband and her white friends and their white privilege pretending to know how to cook. How positively boring an unoriginal.

It reminds me of Lost Kitchen. A woman bankrolled by outside means with wealthy white friends who paid $300 a meal to keep her afloat during covid. How are we supposed to relate to that? Julia Childs deserves better. I cringe that this is where her legacy has landed. I would think she'd want people from all walks of life learning how SHE cooked. She may have been American but the people learning her trade should have been people from all over.

From Julia to a Braver Me

[alisonkenthome · 10/10 · 11 November 2022]

Julia Childs life work centered around introducing a 'new' way of cooking to Americans, which is, in a full circle moment, what La Pitchoune continues to do, ultimately honoring her legacy in the truest sense. Makenna and Kendall purpose to lead (in continuity with other leading Chefs such as Roy Choi's latest 'Intuitive Cooking' Masterclass) a 'new' way of cooking not just recipe free, but intuitively and in deep connection with the humans and the land/ingredients that surround you.

I appreciate that this is not just another 'follow the recipe' or reality show. It's a show about the deep connections we all have together with food. It's a show about empowering one another to believe in our experiences with taste. AND, yes, it's a show about the intoxicating beauty of Provence that Julia, Makenna and so many of us have fallen madly in love with. I'll gladly take a trip back through my screen here anytime.

I'm inspired to be braver here in this space. To grab market ingredients that bring me joy. To mix them and use them in creative ways. To fail and fail again until I succeed. To flip that pan with boldness. To gather, to travel, to eat and drink - and to do so surrounded by the beautiful souls I treasure most.