Northern Westchester has certainly attracted more than it's fair number of talented and artistic residents. Patch met with Katonah-local Linda Dannenberg, to learn more about her writing and publishing career, which has focused on French style and cuisine. 

Author of 11 books, Dannenberg has also written articles for the New York Times and Travel & Leisure magazine.

Dannenberg's latest project, The French Country Diary 2011, an elegant, illustrated engagement calendar, is available locally for purchase at Fine Lines in Katonah and Borders Book Store in Mt. Kisco. Dannenberg will be signing copies at the Borders store on Saturday, December 4at 2 p.m. Might be the perfect gift to pick up for the Francophile in your family this holiday season!

Bedford-Katonah Patch: Travel writer, cookbook author and collaborator, French design book author, engagement calendar author, and now publisher.  Which of these hats do you enjoy wearing the most? 

Dannenberg: Each of these career paths brings me so much pleasure and satisfaction that it's hard to compare and rank them.

I loved the travel writing -- being sent to exotic locations to produce beautiful stories for big-budget, well-paying magazines was like a gift from the gods. Those days, and those big-budget magazines, are pretty much gone...but the memories linger on.

The cookbooks brought me into the kitchens of wonderful chefs, where I watched, often with amazement, and always with admiration, the creation of fabulous meals. The generosity of the chefs in sharing their recipes, and their stories, really touched my heart.  

The design books gave me entree to gorgeous private homes, and led to a whole network of contacts and at least three deep friendships. I have to say, though, that becoming a publisher, creating a book totally on my own terms and learning a whole new side of the publishing business, is the most exciting thing I've done in years. I was able to implement new ideas into an iconic product I had worked on for years.

And what a thrill to release the French Country Diary 2011 into the global marketplace (it sells in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, in addition to the United States) and watch the sales take off!

Bedford-Katonah Patch: Tell us about your latest project—the French Country Engagement Calendar.  It's not exactly "new", though is it? 

Dannenberg: The French Country Diary has been my favorite annual project for 22 years. Traveling in France every year—finding new regions, restaurants, villages and markets to share with the diary's thousands of passionate fans—has been almost too much fun to be called work!

What is new this year is that, after the 2010 edition, when the previous publisher decided not to continue on with the French Country Diary, I decided to produce it myself and take on the job of publisher. To do that, I formed Arts & Style Publishing— I couldn't let it disappear into oblivion. So Katonah has a new publishing company, and the French Country Diary celebrates its 23rd year, but its first under my aegis.

Bedford-Katonah Patch: What was it like to work with Alain Ducasse, a three-Michelin star chef, on his Flavors of France cookbook? 

Dannenberg: It was truly an unforgettable experience and privilege! I was very intimidated at first—I'm collaborating with one of the world's top chefs! And I wanted to get everything exactly right. There was so much precise information to take in. Mr. Ducasse was really kind and generous with his time, and his unique expertise.

During the project I spent six weeks in France, observing—and eating, naturellement—in the kitchens of the three-star Louis XV in Monaco; the romantic Bastide de Moustiers, Ducasse's exquisite country auberge in the Hautes-Alpes region of Provence; and in the three-star Restaurant Alain Ducasse in Paris. 

Bedford-Katonah Patch: How did your love affair with France begin? 

Dannenberg: Probably with a postcard from Paris that my parents sent home to me when I was five years old, left behind, alas, to attend kindergarten. The postcard revealed to me the existence of a magical city, made more magical when my parents returned with beautiful, elegantly dressed French dolls for me.

I began to teach myself French when I was ten, was a French and Italian languages major at Connecticut College, and then spent a year in Paris after graduation working in a high-fashion fabric house. I was hooked!

Bedford-Katonah Patch: Is there a favorite area within France for you? 

Dannenberg: Beyond Paris, which has a place in my heart like nowhere else I've ever been, I love Provence for its warmth, its style, its food, and its joie de vivre. It's the region of France, apart from Paris, where I've spent the most time over the years.

But I am also seduced by Brittany, a totally different landscape and mood, with a spectacular, ever-changing coastline, beguiling stone houses, lively, colorful port towns, bracing, salty air, and incredible seafood. But there's a certain somberness to Brittany, with its capricious, sometimes violent weather, and its haunting sense of the past, a legacy of the region's ancient Druid history. Mystical, mysterious things happen in Brittany, and it draws me back.

Bedford-Katonah Patch: What first drew you and your husband, Steve, to the hamlet of Katonah?  And what keeps you here, rather than France, now that your son, Ben, is grown?

Dannenberg: When Ben was still two, and we were living in the city, we would drive around Westchester and Connecticut visiting different towns and communities with the idea of moving north.

We just fell in love with Katonah, and the clincher was visiting the picture-perfect Katonah Elementary School; I could just imagine Ben going to school in those classrooms, and playing on that wonderful playground. His friends from KES are friends for life, and the nurturing teachers and the education he received there was everything that we had hoped for, and more.

To me, the best of all possible worlds is living in Katonah and spending three months of the year in France.

Bedford-Katonah Patch: You obviously love good food.  What local restaurants do you frequent in Northern Westchester? 

Dannenberg: Our local faves are Peppino's for cozy Italian in Katonah; Haiku in Cross River for Asian treats, the Flying Pig in Mt. Kisco, even though we still miss Leslie Sutter, the former chef.

And for wonderful French food in the county we must abandon Northern Westchester for southern climes (sorry!) and go to enchanting Buffet de la Gare in Hastings-on-Hudson, where Brittany-born chef Gwenael Goulet creates fabulous bistro fare that for us is definitely worth the trip. 

Bedford-Katonah Patch: Would you mind sharing one of your Paris Bistro Cooking recipes with Patch readers? 

Dannenberg: I'd love to! One of my favorites in the book is an appetizer from Michel Rostang's Bistro d'à Côté in the 17th arrondissement—a warm potato and goat-cheese 'cake' served over a bed of mixed wild or baby greens called "Galette de Pommes de Terre au Chèvre en Salade."  Here's the recipe, which serves six:

1 pound small russet potatoes, unpeeled

1 1/2 pounds fresh goat cheese (chèvre)

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

14 tablespoons (3/4 cup plus two tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups mesclun salad—mixed wild or baby greens (arugula,curly endive, red-leaf lettuce, dandelion, mâche,lamb's lettuce or other blends)

1/2 cup black oil-cured olives, pitted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium pot, boil the potatoes in enough water to cover until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain, then peel and slice thin. Set aside.

Mash the goat cheese with the thyme and season generously with salt and pepper. Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in each of six 4-inch ramekins or small gratin pans and swirl to cover bottom. Using half of the cheese mixture, gently press a small circle of the mixture into the bottom of each ramekin. Top with the potato slices, cover with the remaining cheese mixture, and drizzle each serving with one tablespoon of olive oil.

Bake in the center of the oven until the cheese is lightly golden, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool to lukewarm.

To serve, toss the greens with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive ail and season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide the greens among six plates. Carefully remove each potato-and-goat-cheese cake from the ramekins, place over the greens, scatter chopped olives on top and serve.

Dannenberg's Paris Bistro Cooking book is available locally for purchase at Fountainhead Wines in Bedford Hills.