Bold Fork Books specializes in “Cookbooks, food writing, and more.” Jane Bertch’s entertaining and engaging memoir falls into the “so much more than simply food” category.

Installment #9 in my series on the region’s independent bookshops.

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One store on my list of 30 independent bookshops to visit in 2026 quickly rose to the top of my foodie wife’s list: Mt. Pleasant’s Bold Fork Books. Candice had singled out the DC region’s only culinary bookshop from the beginning, and we made it a priority during the late April Independent Bookstore Crawl.

The shop was filled with other crawlers in April, so while we purchased two books we made plans to return as Candice had a special request that would take more time than the busy day allowed.

You may have noticed the binders of Gourmet magazine in the background of the photo above. Candice has Gourmets that go back to the 1960s, but she was missing 17 issues. We returned last week when Candice could have a longer conversation with the staff. They are now in the process of working through their collection to see what holes they can help plug.

That willingness to work with culinary-inclined customers is at the heart of what makes Bold Fork Books so special.

Cookbooks are the main ingredient at Bold Fork. However, the food writer Lisa Ruland notes that for her a cookbook is not just a block of recipes.

“Cookbooks are also memoir, travelogue, escapism, bedtime reading, teacher, friend, and a continual source of inspiration. (I get excited about fall cookbook season the way others may get excited about a Rolling Stones reunion tour.)”

And in answer to the question why anyone would want a cookbook when recipes are available on line, Bold Fork Books owner Clementine Thomas had this response:

“So actually, there’s a cookbook store in L.A. called Now Serving. I was reading an interview by one of the owners. And he said that going online to find a recipe is like when you have a song stuck in your head and you really just need to hear that song. But turning to a cookbook is like listening to the album beginning to end.

I think that cookbooks give us context, and there’s also so much beautiful storytelling that’s being done via cookbooks. I think people really respond to that, especially now. Having a trusted voice in the kitchen is all the more important when we’re all cooking from home a lot more.”

But one will find more than just cookbooks at Bold Fork Books. Which is how I came across a memoir about an American in the banking industry who was brazen enough to open a French cooking school. In Paris.

The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir (2025) by Jane Bertch is a story of reinvention, resilience, and resolve. At the age of seventeen Bertch and her mother travel from their home in Chicago to Paris on a graduation trip, where Jane’s high school French is met with derision and scorn. She vows never to return. Yet ten years later she finds herself back in Paris after a stint in London working for an American bank. She has been transferred and thrown into the deep water of the French financial world. Then as Jane realizes that she can make it in French banking she leaves in 2009 to open—of all things—a cooking school in Paris! Non! This just cannot be done. Except The French Ingredient—through delightful storytelling, astute observational skills, and a willingness to share doubts and failures—shows that not only can it be done, but our author/entrepreneur can thrive in the process.

There are wonderful tales and very real trials along the way. Real estate challenges. Volcanoes that deposit an ash cloud over Europe. Terrorists attacks. French bureaucracy. Pastry chefs who only think in precise, linear fashion. Pandemics. Through it all, Bertch keeps putting one foot in front of the other. She found people who believed in her. She learned that asking for help is not a weakness, but a strategy.

And through it all Bertch passes along tips and words of wisdom of how to deal with French etiquette, French ways, and just overall French psychology. My friend Janet Hulstrand—who has been featured here and here on MORE TO COME—interviewed Bertch for a recent edition of Bonjour Paris. She asked Bertch about the most important thing—or perhaps the most difficult thing—for Americans to understand about the French, and the French way of life. The author’s response reflects much about the lessons she conveys in this memoir.

“Oh, this is a big question [replied Bertch]. I think the most important thing—and also the most difficult—is learning to be comfortable with time. Time and relationships are completely intertwined in France, and they rely on each other. Time in all senses is important here. The time you take and dedicate to yourself and to others. The relationships that eventually develop through that investment. And then the time you use to cherish and build on what you’ve created. Whether it be a cup of coffee savoured alone, or a long stroll with a friend—the French understand that none of this can be rushed. 

And then, the “non.” But here’s what I’ve learned after 20-plus years: the French “non” is almost never the end of the conversation. It’s the beginning. It’s an invitation to come back with a better argument, to show that you’re serious, to demonstrate that you’ve thought things through. But it can feel like a constraint. 

I actually think there’s something deeply creative about constraint, and Paris is a city built on it. The rules, the formality, the “non”—these aren’t obstacles. They’re the structure within which something beautiful can emerge.”

This is, in its own way, a deeply creative work. The French Ingredient, like Bold Fork Books, is a little gem to be treasured and savored.

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo of cheese by Jez Timms on Unsplash. Photos of book displays at Bold Fork Books by Sam Vasfi. Photo of Bold Fork Books staff by Candice Brown. Photo of Jane Bertch by Katie Donnelly Photography.