Chef Keith Snow of Janson Media’s new cooking show, Harvest Eating with Keith Snow recently returned from a wonderful trip to Dijon, France for the 4-14 Festival of Music Food and Fun held on July 11th & 12th. Created “because Americans don’t realize that the French can play music and the French don’t know Americans can cook,” the festival serves as a friendly mingling of French and American cultures. Chef Snow was among ten American chefs invited to set up shop around the famed market of Dijon and prepare his seasonal specialties. Appropriately positioned between July 4th and France’s day of Independence July 14th (Bastille Day), the event allows food and music lovers to enjoy some of the best musicians and chefs each region has to offer. Luckily Chef Snow created a behind the scenes video for those of us that missed this colorful event to enjoy.

Harvest Eating with Keith Snow (13 x 30′) a new lifestyle series about local, seasonal and organic foods is now available to international Television, VOD, DVD/Video, Non-Theatrical, and New Media markets, exclusively through Janson Media. The series will premiere on U.S. Public Television stations nationwide in the Fall, and is presented by KCTS-TV of Seattle, Washington. Keith’s audience will expand when he debuts a new cookbook, aptly titled Harvest Eating. Trailers and episodes of the series are available for screening at the Janson Media Screening Room at www.janson.tv.

The Janson Media DVD Jacques Pepin’s Summertime Celebration was recommended in a recent review by Video Librarian. Just in time for the start of the summer season, Jacques Pepin creates a unique fusion feast honoring the respective American and French national holidays, Independence Day and Bastille Day. From the American sponge cake soaked in a French Chocolate Gourmand to Poach salmon in Mousseline Sauce, there’s plenty of unique ideas here to inspire any aspiring chef.

It’s summertime, and the living is easy…unless you’re in the kitchen with Jacques Pepin the day before his Independence Day party, preparing a freedom feast. Summertime, another program in the Jacques Pepin’s Celebration series (see review of Jacques Pepin’s Thanksgiving Celebration in VL-5/05), finds Jacques and his daughter Claudine cooking up a wonderful fusion of American and French cuisine in honor of both America’s July 4th holiday and France’s Bastille Day. Poached salmon with mousseline sauce, a rillettes of rabbit pate, a beautiful grilled shoulder of veal lathered in lemon-herb butter, a corn-potato quasi-au gratin, and for dessert, a sponge cake loaded with summer berries and smothered in brandy and a decadent chocolate mousse that, frankly, wouldn’t have left my kitchen (guests be damned!). As in the earlier title, Pepin and his daughter share not only charming banter, but cooking tips and techniques as well…this tribute to a pair of cultural celebrations from a French culinary wizard living in Connecticut is mouthwateringly international. Recommended. – Video Librarian

Video Librarian is the video review magazine for public, school, academic, and special libraries, as well as video fans who are interested in a wider variety of titles than what’s found in the average video store. Written by staff, librarians, teachers, and film critics, Video Librarian offers over 225 critical reviews per issue, alerting readers to upcoming new releases of special-interest, documentary, and video movie titles.