Interview With Amanda from 'Chez Le Rêve Français.'

In today's blog entry, I have had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow blogger, Amanda Wren-Grimwood (46). Myself and Amanda go back a long way, we grew up in the same market town of Fareham, on the south coast of England, attending the same schools together.

Like most school friends, we lost contact, after exams in 1987; a long time ago; discovering one another again through the medium of facebook.

Amanda is an accomplished cook, blogger and writer, as you will see from our interview. I myself enjoy cooking and find Amanda's website Chez Le Reve Francais a joy to read, as I'm sure you will. Now living in France, Amanda kindly agreed to take part in an interview, that I know will be of interest to my readers. As a fellow Expat, who took the decision to leave the UK, she is well aware of the obstacles we all face while forging a new life in Europe.

I always enjoy talking to other bloggers, who understand what it is like to dedicate time, writing about subjects close to their heart; you can see the passion in their words! Amanda has always been supportive of me, through my blogging endeavours, both of us documenting important aspects of our life, for the enjoyment of others.  I have learned a lot about cooking through  ​Chez Le Reve Francais, as I know you will too!

Amanda has included links to her three favourite recipes in our interview, please click on the title of each one, to take you to her website, where you will find further deatails. 

Thank you Amanda for taking the time to share your thoughts with the readers of 'Spanish Views;' I wish you good luck for the future, in all you do!

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Chez Le Reve Francais

What made you decide to start blogging?

I’ve always been mad about food and my first thought of the day is always what we are going to be eating for dinner. My dad was an intuitive cook, throwing things together and I used to hunt and fish with him so I’ve been brought up with it. I’ve always made recipes up, not always successfully, but my passion has not waned. I was always posting pictures of food on Facebook and people suggested I should start a blog. It started as a family cookbook to document all my dishes and now I have to be a web designer, photographer and social media expert. It’s a huge learning curve but it fulfils my creative need and gives me an excuse to cook!

How long have you been blogging for?

I started my blog in July 2015 after reading a few books about it. I was under no illusion that I would suddenly become rich and famous and that has never been my aim. I never realised how sociable blogging is and I’ve connected with some lovely people. I’ve now had several recipes featured in a cookbook and have a regular magazine feature coming up but I won’t be retiring to Monte Carlo!

Tell me a bit about your life in France. What made you decide to relocate?

After 18 years in banking I was made redundant, which was life changing as my husband was made redundant from local government soon after. We always thought we were in safe jobs so we made the decision to sell up and do something completely different, leave the rat race and lead a simpler life. We have been running gites for the last 7 years and living here for 3 and this means that we have the winter off and the rest of the time we have guests in the farmhouse and pool. It’s loads of hard work but we meet lovely people and I have enough time to follow my passions.
 
Do you miss the UK at all? If so, what aspects do you miss the most?

We live in beautiful farmland and it is exceptionally quiet which is wonderful but means that shops and restaurants are not easily accessible. Although I love to cook you can’t just ring up the takeaway for a quick delivery when the day has been manic. The nearest we have is a pizza van on a Monday in the village. I can’t deny that I miss an English pub; not that I used to spend much time in them, it’s more the assumption that you can pop in at most times of the day and eat, drink and socialise which you can’t here on a rainy day. I can get most food items that I miss by mail order and things like mango chutney I make. I don’t miss the traffic and bustle at all or the rudeness. Oh yes, I do miss fast internet!
 
Amanda, you blog about food and are obviously an accomplished chef in your own right. What is your favourite dish? What do you enjoy cooking most? What makes food, your passion?

I am just a home cook but I’m not afraid to try to make anything. My blog recipes are of the food we are eating and, as my family are not dessert lovers, there are lots of main dishes. They love spicy or well flavoured food and my passion comes from feeding people and their reaction so I’m always looking for new flavours and ideas. I love to cook Asian dishes, especially after going to cook with Reza Mahammad for the day a couple of years ago. I have three masala dabbas so you will see regular Asian dishes on the blog and on my table. My favourite recipes from the blog are:
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Seared Scallops on Peas with Chorizo

​Roasted Asparagus Tart

​Nutty Chocolate Tiffin

Do you like French cuisine?

I love French food but actually quite a few restaurants can be disappointing in the countryside as they mainly cater for the lunchtime worker trade. People have very simple food tastes, eating vegetables predominantly with small portions of meat or fish at lunchtime followed by bread and cold meats and cheese in the evening. We have been to some amazing restaurants on the coast and I try and emulate some of the dishes but I still give the brains, tripe and pig head a wide berth in the supermarket!

Of course I remember you, Amanda from School. How do you look back at those days, with fondness or dread?

My initial thought is that I did love my school days, but only from the point of learning. I hated sports lessons, especially rounders and gymnastics and ironically I am more active now than I ever was at school. I wasn’t clever but I worked hard and wanted to do well and loved Maths, Art and English Literature, although I didn’t get a degree in English until 2014. Like many people I was bullied, mainly by girls in the years above who used to kick and punch me on the way home.

Can you explain to readers, of my blog, ‘Spanish Views’, a little bit about your blog, ‘Chez Le Rêve Français.’

It started really as a chronicle of things that were going on in our lives and the frustrations we had doing things in France as well as the things we achieved with the odd recipe thrown in but now I focus on recipes, reviews of places I’ve eaten and places we have visited. All of the recipes have to be adapted to ingredients that I can get here, for example, I can’t buy cream like I can in the UK so have to find alternatives. I love to recreate French classics without all the fuss and add my own twist to things.
 
Finally, to anyone thinking about moving abroad, what advice would you give them!

Do your research on healthcare and other paperwork that you will be faced with and make friends with people quickly; you will need lots of support! Find out about the area too and what happens during the year. It sounds daft but we are so rural that at Christmas very few restaurants and bars are open.
If you have done all that and still have doubts do it anyway! Living away from your home country gives you a fresh outlook, new friends and a chance to learn new things. When people used to say to me that I was brave, I wasn’t. I just never wanted to get to the end of my life and say ‘Why didn’t I try that?’

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