For me, Marjan, cooking begins with curiosity. I devour cookbooks, and a new combination of flavours can keep me thinking all evening. My love of food began in a tearoom, grew while I worked in the fresh-produce department of a food wholesaler, and developed further through cooking courses. I simply cannot help myself.

Cooking with what the day brings

Am I a chef? Not at all. I do not work from fixed recipes. I cook by feel and let the seasons guide what goes on the table.

Every day I walk over to our vegetable garden and tomato greenhouse. I see what is ripe and build a meal around it. What I cannot find there, I buy from farmers and producers in the Berry. To learn more about the region's produce, Berry Province introduces some local specialities.

Sometimes a kitchen experiment begins in our own garden. Last year I bought a steam juicer because we had so many beautiful red apples. I wanted to make apple juice. The result surprised me: the colour of the apples gave the juice a lovely pink hue. It tasted even better knowing the fruit had grown in our garden.

That is how you can literally taste the region where you are staying.

Around the table at La Joyeuse

At La Joyeuse we eat together at one long table. On Wednesdays I cook Italian food; on Fridays I cook French food. The dishes change with the season and with whatever is available.

Perhaps that is what I enjoy most about cooking for our guests: not knowing exactly what I will serve in the afternoon, then discovering together what comes out of the kitchen that evening.

The kitchen at La Joyeuse is not a restaurant kitchen. It is the kitchen of our home, where I love putting something on the table that simply feels right. Read more about breakfast and our shared table on the page about dining at La Joyeuse.

I would like to take you into that kitchen more often on this blog: sharing recipes, produce from the Berry, vegetables from our garden and the stories behind the food we serve. If you would like to follow along, come back for the next story.

Would you like to join us at the table? Explore our rooms and plan your stay.