Hi, I’m Connie Barney Chester
I’ve been living in France off and on since 1966, most recently spending ten years living in the heart of rural France. I lead small custom tours in France, and teach French cooking in the USA. My tours are often focused on culinary explorations of regional French cuisine, for individuals and small groups, but I also offer more generalized tours and other special-interest tours.
I’ve been offering tours of France for my company, Provence on Your Plate, since 1994, helping my clients capitalize on my years of experience of French food and culture. Whether based in charming Loire Valley cottages, delightful country auberges in Provence, or a stunning luxury hotel in Burgundy, I guide small groups through local food markets, visits to food artisans, and give client to learn from the masters in cooking classes. My culinary tours of the Périgord region, considered by the French to be the source of France’s finest food, are especially popular.
For eight years, I have been the moderator of Chef’s Holidays, a delightful culinary program open to the public, and held each winter at the outstanding Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. See me there in January 2012!
I was recipe consultant for Markets of Provence (Collins Publishers, 1996), and my cooking school was featured in Cooking in Paradise, Culinary Vacations Around the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2001). My short story “The Baker” appears in Traveler’s Tales Provence: True Stories (Travelers’ Tales Inc., 2003).
In France, I was the director of the cooking schools of Roger Vergé, celebrated chef/owner of Le Moulin de Mougins, near Cannes. I earned the Grand Diplôme at the Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris, and later served as the assistant director of the “La Varenne in Burgundy” program. I’ve worked side-by-side with three-star chefs, as a private chef in villas and country homes in Provence and Tuscany.
