This book, which Ann Berest likes to give to her loved ones.

“American Alice Toklas was Gertrude Stein’s companion. They lived across two streets in Fleuris, Paris, where they ran a salon, a meeting place for the cosmopolitan artistic elite. Fascinated by French artists, Alice Toclas tried to understand French culture through the kitchen. Each of the recipes in her book is with an artist she met, and there are eggs from the artist Francis Picabia, as well as favorite dishes of Picasso, Pierre Balmain or the Princesse de Rohan.

It’s a period of fiction that fascinates me and that I work on a lot, particularly through my work on my great-grandfather Francis Picadia. Focusing on Gertrude Stein, I discovered the existence of Alice Toklas and this lesbian couple who lived very freely. In France and at a time that was not so free, I find The cookbook By Alice Toklas it’s fun because she learns a lot about art and art history, but not in a heavy way , who is going to delve into it, will do so with joy. So it’s a happy gift.”