Monet-inspired book rich with culinary & gardening tips

MENTION the name Claude Monet, and most people think of the acclaimed French artist whom many consider the father of Impressionism. And, while it's true that Monet's work will be prominently featured in the blockbuster show "Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel and the New Painting," making its only U.S. stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art starting June 24, Monet himself said, "My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece."

A closer study finds the man as driven by his palate as his palette.

Monet - whose home in Giverny, northwest of Paris, is one of that region's most popular tourist attractions - was a gardener and a foodie. He worked the soil by hand himself, supervised gardeners and worked with his cooks to grow and create food bursting with flavor and color.

A world traveler, Monet returned again and again to Giverny, inspired by exotic foods in far-flung ports, or the seeds of a newly discovered fruit or vegetable stashed away in his pocket. His garden - a riot of flowers, vegetables and herbs - was planted as carefully as one of the artist's masterpieces.

"Long before there were lifestyle brands like Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart, there was Claude Monet," said Aileen Bordman, who, along with Bucks County master gardener and photographer Derek Fell, authored the new book Monet's Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden at Giverny (Gibbs & Smith).

"Monet's aesthetic was simply incredible."

Bordman, who lives in Montclair, N.J., may be the biggest Monet groupie on the planet. She independently wrote and produced the film "Monet's Palate," which features Meryl Streep (she also wrote the cookbook's forward) and chefs such as Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud and Anne Willan. It's in rotation on PBS.

"I'm on a mission to preserve Monet's aesthetic and the world of Giverny for future generations," Boardman said.

Her obsession came from her mother, Helen Rappel Bordman, who helped restore the gardens at Giverny and has been the American representative in residence each spring since 1980. "I've been going to his gardens and home for 35 years," she said. "My mother is 83 and is still going strong. She's in Giverny right now."

The book is rich with culinary and gardening tips, beautifully illustrated with garden photos by Fell and mouthwatering food shots by Steven Rothfeld, who also shot Frances Mayes' Bringing Tuscany Home.

Bordman developed 60 recipes linked to Monet's 2-acre kitchen garden, accompanied by detailed info on the veggies he cultivated to support the ultimate farm-to-table lifestyle. While many of the recipes speak directly to the Normandy table, others were inspired by Monet's globe-trotting, like the Yorkshire pudding recipe he favored from the Savoy Hotel, in London, or the tasty smoked-salmon and goat-cheese spread inspired by his discovery of Norwegian salmon on a visit to see his stepson in Oslo.

Fell is no stranger to the artistic garden. He lives in Pipersville, on 20-acre Cedaridge Farm, and has written more than 60 garden books, including tomes on the gardens of Monet, Renoir and Cezanne.

"Monet translated his painting techniques and use of color to his garden," Fell said. "He introduced a 'salting' effect, sprinkling very white flowers throughout the landscape, to his flower gardens in a way that made all of the other colors just pop." Fell is fast friends with the head gardener at Giverny - "he's an Englishman, like me" - and he owns the only known painting of Monet's vegetable garden by the American Impressionist Willard Metcalf, who visited Monet in Giverny.

Fell and Bordman pored over Monet's cookery journals, handwritten books filled with bits of recipes and notes about favorite dishes. They discovered Monet's passion for seafood, along with a note he wrote to his wife when he sent her two live lobsters from the Baudy Hotel, on the dramatic Normandy coast.

"He was very drawn to unusual vegetables and fruits, and loved to paint them in still lifes," said Fell, whose father was a classically trained chef for the Cunard Line cruise ships.

"[Monet's] kitchen garden was divided into plots for each family of vegetables: the cabbage family, which included hardy radishes, kale and turnips, in one area; legumes, such as peas and beans, in another; and tender vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplant, in another. This arrangement allowed for crop rotation, so that a plant family never occupied the same space two seasons in succession."

Although not everyone can have a 2-acre version of Monet's potager crowded with zucchini, radishes, pearl onions and mint, adopting his spirited approach to eating fresh is possible for anyone, noted Bordman.

"Monet was approachable - he was not an elitist about food," she said. "He was about connecting to the dirt, to eating fresh, seasonal food, fresh vegetables, whole foods. If I can inspire people to do that, to replace processed foods with fresh vegetables, it doesn't matter if the vegetables come from Walmart or a farmers market. It's a step in the right direction.

"Even if you can plant a few pots with herbs or vegetables, or get involved with a community garden, the rewards are great. I feel a little like Johnny Appleseed, spreading the word about how Monet was all about farm to table, long before there were celebrity chefs and the television Food Network."