ABOUT THIS COOK:

I helped restore Monet's Garden in Giverny, France, I love gardens, art, cooking and food. Beauty is a way of life for me. Nature is my favorite place to be. I cook from the garden and the farmer's markets. My all new edition of my best selling book: Monet's Passion ideas insights and inspiration from the painter's gardens is coming out in March-just sent it to the printer this week. Like Monet, gardening, food, painting, beauty and friends and family are essential to happiness.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  a rat in West Africa

• What do you cook when home alone?
  soups, salads, omelettes

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  my stove

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  2-8