This is not the story of one of those perfect mothers who, for some reason the rest of us will never understand, manages to put a homemade meal on the table every night, including home-baked rolls that she prepares without ever breaking one of her perfectly manicured nails. This is my story, the story of your average Super Mom. She wants the best for her kids and, through trial and error, has found a way to cook tasty and nutritious meals for her baby—without quitting her job, reducing her nightly sleep to two hours, or hiring round-the-clock staff. This book is the fruit of my kitchen adventures; it is my personal notebook, the essence of my baby-feeding years, the results of my trials, the shortcuts and tricks that I found to make cooking for my kids a fun and relatively easy way to share my passion for good food and healthy eating.
My story starts six months after my daughter Maya was born. Introducing my little angel to her first foods had suddenly crawled its way to the top of my priority list, so I happily made my way down the baby food aisle of my favorite supermarket to choose what was going to be Maya’s first experience with solid food. “Sweet peas” read one label. Great, I thought, I love sweet peas and I know how nutritious and fiber-rich they are. Yet, how strangely gray the purée looked. What was really in there? I took a closer look at the label. Water, starch, and just 22 percent sweet peas? And the labels went on like this—row after row, shelf after shelf, disappointment after disappointment. This is what we’re feeding our kids in France, the country whose gastronomy made the United Nations World Heritage List? I was stunned. Needless to say, I left the supermarket empty-handed, and a little bit troubled, since I knew that (a) I was never going to feed Maya those “sweet peas” from the baby food aisle, (b) I was supposed to start working in five days, and (c) I had little-to-no knowledge about how to cook baby food myself.
The other half of my brain told me everything was going to be fine! I love cooking. Baby food might require a slightly different set of skills from pulling together dinner for my husband and myself, not to mention consideration of food sensitivities and avoiding potential allergies, but I had the strongest tool of all—motivation. Sweet pea purée? I can make that! Beef stew for babies? Hmm . . . I guess I can cook some up. Baby-friendly fish casserole? Okay, I would have to research that one, but it couldn’t be impossible. I was determined to figure it all out when I got home, and even made a promise to Maya:
“Mom is going to cook yummy little dishes for you, and you’re going to learn to love all the wonderful fruits, veggies, and other foods that your dad and I do. You’re going to bite into life with curiosity and appetite; you’re going to be healthy and happy. I want you to be an adventurous eater, my child!”
Later that night, when my family was sleeping, I started to study the art of cooking for my baby. It wasn’t as complicated as I thought. Fears of food allergies, intolerances, choking, rashes, and the other scenarios I had drawn up in my head quickly vanished and I began to think up recipe ideas for Maya. We started with the basics: carrots, green beans, sweet peas, pumpkin, broccoli . . . and Maya loved them all! My husband and I like our meals well seasoned, so I started to add a little spice or some herbs to Maya’s food—a pinch of cumin in with the carrots, a few basil leaves in the green beans. She was thrilled with these new additions. And I was thrilled that I only needed to spend an hour or two on Sunday preparing Maya’s meals for the entire week. I simply popped them into the freezer until it was time to eat—and when Maya was hungry, her meals only took minutes to prepare.
Of course, not every recipe was an immediate success. I might have gone a bit overboard with that fennel and raisin risotto, or when I tried to do something interesting with smoked trout. (I will never forget Maya’s reaction—or the look on the pediatrician’s face when I told him, “Maya loves everything but smoked trout!”) But these first months of experimentation were a wonderful journey for both Maya and me, traveling through tastes and discoveries together.
Up until this point, my story resembles those of many other parents who cook. But mine was about to take another turn. It all started one day when I was visiting a friend with Maya. My friend told me that her son Hugo, eight months at the time, was really picky about food—especially green vegetables, which he pretty much refused to eat. She was curious to understand how Maya ate everything with such gusto. When I told her about my personal recipes, she asked if I would give her one of my dishes out of the freezer to test on her son. I dropped off some of my Green Bean and Sweet Pea Purée with Basil and she called back the same night, telling me that Hugo had eaten absolutely everything—and with a smile! This happened several times with different friends over the subsequent months. People wanted to know my secret. At one point I thought to myself, Why is there no alternative between jarred baby food (quick and practical but not necessarily tasty) and homemade baby food (tasty but sometimes time-consuming to make)? I went home that evening and told my husband that I wanted to quit my stable and well-paid job as a strategy consultant and start a baby food business. He told me I was crazy and gave me the thumbs up (which is one of the reasons I love him so much).
Eighteen months, thousands of work hours, hundreds of doubts, and just as many assurances later, Les Menus Bébé were available for sale at grocery stores across the Paris region. The rest is history.
What you hold in your hands is the result of several years’ work. Here are my most successful attempts to bring delectable, nutritious, and balanced food to my babies’ table—and now to yours. You’ll find all the recipes that Maya and Milo (my son, who arrived three years after Maya) loved the most, all the recipes so easy to make that even I couldn’t find an excuse not to whip them up—all the recipes that were selected for the Les Menus Bébé line. In this book, you’ll also find my “Yummy Tips” and organizational tricks for squeezing baby food cooking into your already busy schedule, ideas for how to help your baby love all kinds of tastes and textures, and ways you can help him or her become an adventurous, happy, and healthy eater.
So thank you for picking up this book. Thank you for deciding that what your baby eats is important. Thank you for believing that taste is one of the most important senses we have. Thank you for wanting to share your culinary traditions and nutritional convictions with your little one. Thank you for taking the time to help your baby learn to love all the yummy tastes of nature. Thank you, Super Parent! You’re doing a great job.
Love,