Bringing France to Highlands

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: April 2024

By her own telling Highlands Falls’ resident Julie Murphy has been a “wineo and Francophile” since a 2015 birthday trip to France. Inevitably, she fell head over heels in love with the country.

And so it happened that 10 days after returning to the US, she was back in France. Charged with purpose, she enrolled in a French language immersion school in Sancerre and spent the next year trying out her newfound language skills on area winemakers. In due course, she gained a profound understanding of and passion for wine, and French cuisine.

In 2016, back in the US after a year in France, she was wooed into the wine industry – working for a wine importer. After a while, she launched a communications consulting company. In her spare time, she co-led wine trips to France.

Chef Katherine Frelon

In the years since, during regular trips back to France, Murphy continued to cultivate relationships in the wine and culinary world. Including, and most importantly connecting with Chef Katherine Frelon. Frelon, who owns a bakery in Flavigny (the locale of the movie Chocolat) also offers cooking classes in Burgundy’s wine region.

In 2023 Murphy was at last able to satisfy a long-time desire and with like-minded friends booked a week-long culinary course at Frelon’s luxury farmhouse in the tiny village of Marigny Le Cahouet – halfway between Dijon and Chablis.

Gathering many of their ingredients from their local markets, the classic Burgundy cooking Murphy learned at Frelon’s La Ferme de la Lochere was seasonality at its best.  It was an experience she wanted to replicate.

Thus, an idea was spawned – to host a dinner in Highlands where others could catch the same exquisite flavors she had experienced.

On an unseasonably warm evening in February, in Murphy’s home high in the hills, atop the Highlands Plateau, 18 guests clustered in the dining room as Frelon prepared a procession of courses to evoke the fond memories of meals prepared at her farmhouse.

Fittingly, the menu was designed to showcase the timeless cuisine of Burgundy, with dishes created to reflect the classic French desire to preserve the full flavors of each food.

As guests arrived, and the sun began its descent, champagne Daniel Dumont was poured in companion with light-as-air gougere (tiny cheese puffs), along with fried ricotta cakes topped with a yogurt and mint jelly. While Murphy introduced her companions to Frelon and talked about the wine pairings, plates of sauteed scallops arranged on a bed of asparagus with a green pea coulis were served. Duck breast with Cointreau and orange elicited songs of praise, and the dauphinoise potatoes with fresh spinach were exquisitely homey. The final course, a black forest gateau. was a belt-stretching delight, described by guest and Laurel Magazine publisher Marjorie Deal as “visually gorgeous and a perfect end to the evening.”

The wine list, both an oenophile’s dream, and the perfect complement to the menu, featured a selection from the wineries of Murphy’s friends and smaller wine producers.

Reflecting on the evening, Murphy observed that, “My aim was to bring a bit of the personal, intimate experience I had in France with Katherine and these wine producers to my home in Highlands – and to share it with my guests. It was such a pleasure to pair Katherine’s authentic French cooking with the Dumont, Seguinot and Plou wines. Over those few hours, sitting around the table, eating, and drinking, they got to feel just a smidge of what keeps me going back for more. Mission accomplished.”

Epilog: Katherine Frelon has agreed to return to Highlands for another dinner during Highlands Food & Wine – November 7-10, 2024. Stay tuned for details.

For more information visit 7yearsoffrench.com and katherinefrelon.com.

All recipes served at dinner – and much more – are available in Frelon’s cookbook, Shop, Cook, Eat.