BACKGROUND
Food is my preferred means to discover the world. Gastronomic pleasure aside, food is an eye-opening gateway to other cuisines, cultures, traditions, and, for that matter, different ingredients, seasons and growing methods.
I’ve eaten suaasat in Greenland, ceviche in Peru, meze in Cyprus, and pavlova in Australia (or was it New Zealand? ;-). I had Iskander kebab in Bursa, chupe de centolla in Punta Arenas, mantis prawn on a boat in Halong Bay, the freshest percebes in Galicia, and freshly-hunted white truffle in Alba. I learned about maple syrup production in my backyard in Quebec, how dates grow sticky sweet on trees in my Dubai garden, harvesting wild oysters on a beach in the Dutch Waddenzee, and catching crawfish in rice fields in Louisiana.
In 40+ years of exploring food in all its culinary diversity, I also grew increasingly aware of how precious biodiversity is, and how big the global need for sustainable eating.
As the editor and feature writer of Edible Houston (2015-2023) and Edible Indy (2020-2023), I got to work in a field I love best: local food, from field to paper.
As the author of the collaborative cookbook Houston Cooks (published by Figure1 Publishing in Fall 2019), I had the immense pleasure of getting to know some of Houston’s best chefs personally. Houston Cooks celebrates Houston’s incredible food scene by featuring the stories and recipes of this city’s fabulous chefs.
While living in Houston, I was a board member of Slow Food Houston and involved with organizing working weekends on a local organic farm as well as food-for-thought events, such as our food waste awareness dinner (a collaboration with 6 local chefs, each one preparing a course using items that would otherwise be wasted).
After 25 years living all over the world — in New Orleans, Egypt (Cairo), Malaysia (Miri), Dubai and Houston — I moved back to the Netherlands in 2022, with quality time spent in my “other home”, Mont Tremblant, Canada.
I moved into a “end of a dead end street” farm house with its own apple, fig, pear and plum trees. I now have a (dream come true) kitchen garden where I grow Three Sisters (combining purple runner beans, sugar corn and summer squash), tomatoes, cardoon, edible flowers and herbs galore.
Thank you for finding my blog. I hope you’ll come back for another story or recipe, or leave me a comment to share a thought and keep our food conversation going.
x Francine
BRIEF PORTFOLIO
I am a published food writer and magazine editor with a kitchen diploma from Le Cordon Bleu. And I love to develop recipes with a story. Every recipe, after all, is inspired by something, someone or somewhere.
MUCKRACK PROFILE HERE
SELECTED FEATURES:
Paper Suit Off, Apron On: vocational culinary program aimed to support destitute women to get back on their feet after incarceration.
Little House on the Shiner Prairie: sustainable family-run meat farm
Birds of a Heritage Feather: sustainable poultry farm raising heritage breed birds
Cropping Space: growing food in a dense urban environment.
Exploring the deliciousness of insects: are edible insects the protein-way forward?
INTERVIEWED IN HOUSTONIA:
““The biggest discussion in all this is ‘What is food waste?’ and ‘What do we consider food waste?’” says Francine Spiering, one of the event organizers [of Slow Food Houston’s food waste awareness dinner].
https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2016/12/9/slow-food-houston-dinner-raises-food-waste-awareness
INTERVIEWED IN THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE:
“With her new cookbook, “Houston Cooks,” Spiering rolls out the welcome mat. The book, and its 80 recipes, focuses on restaurants that are blazing creative paths and chefs who are honoring their own cultural traditions or blending their know-how into the city’s teeming gustatory fabric.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/food/article/New-book-shows-how-Houston-Cooks-14498798.php
CREDENTIALS
LinkedIn profile here.
MA in English Language & Literature (Utrecht University)
Post Doc Credits Art Marketing (University of New Orleans)
Kitchen Diploma (Le Cordon Bleu Paris)
WSET Level II Certificate
LIFE IN THE FOOD LANE 