Around the Table with Catie Brand

On Parisian speciality butchers, creating her own village, and raising a food lover

Happy Wednesday! I (Meredith) am so excited to introduce you to one of my very best friends since those horribly awkward middle school years, Catie Brand. I don’t think any of the games of MASH we scribbled in our notebooks could have predicted that we’d both be living abroad. Yet here we are, some 20 years later, raising bilingual children and taking trips to places like Mallorca and Sardinia with our handsome European husbands (the 13-year-old versions of us would read this and say, “yeah, right!”). This post is a timely one, because Catie and her family are coming to Sevilla this weekend to visit! We’re going to take them out for churros on Saturday, but I’ll be honest with you—ever since I read through Catie’s responses to our questions, I’ve been dreaming of biting into a buttery croissant.

A little bit about Catie

Catie never thought she’d leave New York City. She grew up in Connecticut, went to school in Boston, and then moved to New York as soon as possible after graduation. But then a big 30th birthday girl’s trip to the UK and France changed everything. She met her husband, Pilou, on her first night in Paris. They stayed in touch after she left and took turns visiting one another, and eventually, Catie and her dog, Kip, made the move to Paris. She and Pilou got married in 2021 and welcomed their daughter, Lily, two years ago.

Catie’s daughter, Lily (2), helping in the kitchen.

Cooking & food:

What do you typically eat for breakfast?
I love breakfast, and I definitely upped my breakfast game a bit in France since I have access to the best baguettes and butter! I’ll have just that (it’s called a tartine), or I’ll add some scrambled eggs.

What’s the one kitchen utensil or tool you can’t live without?
My toaster. It still cracks me up that French toasters are super long to accommodate at least ¾ of a baguette.

What did your kid’s school serve for lunch today, or what did you pack them?
I don’t have to pack lunch since the crèche serves lunch (which is amazing). She had beet salad, chickpeas in tagine, couscous, camembert, and pears.

What’s the most surprising thing about grocery shopping in Paris?
There’s a lot of pride in good quality and locally sourced foods. Not only can you go to a butcher for meat, but you can go to a particular butcher just for pork. Or a special shop that only sells smoked salmon. And whenever you do, it will be the best pork or smoked salmon you’ve had in your life.

What’s a food you’ve come to love that you’d never tried before moving to ?
Raw anything. I would eat sushi in the US but that’s about it. In France, I’ve had raw scallops, raw shrimp, all kinds of carpaccios—it’s so fresh and a whole different taste. And I’ve never gotten sick.

What’s your go-to meal when you don’t have time to cook?
I keep frozen marinated chicken and vegetables from Picard in the freezer. Picard is basically a store that’s equivalent to the Trader Joe’s frozen food section. It’s pretty good, too! They filmed a scene of Sylvie shopping there in “Emily in Paris.”

What’s one “kitchen hack” you’ve learned since becoming a mom?
Whatever we eat, Lily eats. That’s not really a hack, but it makes my life easier.

What’s one food that you miss from the U.S. that you can’t find or recreate?
Annie’s Mac & Cheese. I also can’t get ground turkey here, which is annoying because that was a favorite healthy swap of mine in the U.S.

What’s your favorite place to go out to eat in Paris?
Everywhere! Lily’s been to multiple Michelin-star restaurants, which is very French of her. A go-to spot near us is ChoCho, which is owned by a Top Chef alum.

Family & community:

What’s a local food custom or tradition that you’ve adopted into your own routine?
Sauces! The French are big on sauces, so over the past few years I’ve gone from having no idea how to make a basic bernaise or hollandaise to now regularly experimenting and making my own sauces to go with dishes!

What’s your go-to meal or dish for hosting friends and family?
One Skillet Crispy Chicken Thighs with creamy lemon garlic orzo. Super tasty and adaptable. It also makes me feel like my largest Le Creuset isn’t going to waste! I also make a really good lasagna, which is especially delicious when you get the ingredients from a proper Italian grocery. I’ve become a big believer that lasagna isn’t lasagna without the meat sauce and bechamel.

What’s the best food-related memory your family has made since moving to France?
It isn’t just one memory, but I love generally seeing my daughter grow up loving food. She will say “mmmm-mmm!!” and “encore!” when she tries interesting things, and she loves going to the boulangerie in the morning when we go out to walk the dog so that she can have a fresh croissant while we walk home.

How have you built a village where you are?
All of our family is really far away, which makes it difficult to feel like we have a village, but we have an amazing nanny who’s been with us since Lily was 3 months old. I’m grateful that she speaks English and French. Without her, I don’t know how I would have gone back to work or survived. We also have a cleaner who comes and has been with us since before I was pregnant, and she’s like family now, too. Our neighbors are lovely and all have young girls, so Lily has a fun crew of friends that can play in the courtyard or nearby playground together when it’s warm outside.

Just for fun:

What are you loving reading to/ listening to / watching right now?
I listen to the Giggly Squad podcast every week—it’s the only podcast I listen to. And I am fully in on “Real Housewives.” I am a RHONY and RHOBH fan, and both are great seasons so far. It is wild that all the ladies on RHOBH are single now!

Where else can we find you on the internet?
The lamest part about me is I am most active/have the most followers on Linkedin—I’m not super big on social media, and I use Instagram mostly to see my friends’ kiddos.

If you could only eat one cuisine or food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I could easily eat various types of pasta for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy. My favorite food growing up was tortellini with peas and crispy bacon and some kind of cream sauce, and it is still such a yummy comfort meal.