Clotilde Dusoulier

Sep 24, 2007 by Candace Lombardi

Credit: Clotilde Dusoulier

LONDON–As anyone who reads the “Chocolate & Zucchini” blog knows, Clotilde Dusoulier is no snob when it comes to food.

It turns out, she feels the same way about language. English suits her just fine when it comes to blogging, even though French is her native tongue. Dusoulier has gone from writing software for marketing tools in Silicon Valley to blogging and photographing the inspiring food markets of Paris and the dishes she creates from her finds. I caught up with Dusoulier at a London cafe between book tour appearances to discuss food, blogging and the dot-com experience that brought her to a new way of life.

Q: What gave you the idea to start a blog about Paris and food?
Dusoulier: Initially, I started it as sort of an online food journal to keep track of my cooking and also to share my recipes and ideas with other cooks because I had been cooking with growing passion for a few years. After a while just cooking wasn’t enough…I had so many things that I wanted to say and share that I needed to channel this energy and these ideas and turn them into something else. The blog was a good format to do that.

Q: Where did you get the idea for the name “Chocolate & Zucchini”?
Dusoulier: I chose that name because it illustrates the two aspects of my cooking, the two sides of my cooking personality, so to speak.

Q: Which are?
Dusoulier: I’m very drawn to anything with fresh produce, organic ingredients and healthy eating, but also to sweets and baking and chocolate. So chocolate and zucchini were a good illustration of the kind of topics that I was going to talk about.

Q: You started this blog in September 2003. How long did you blog before it really started to pick up and you could do it full time?
Dusoulier: The readership grew gradually. It took about two years for me to feel confident enough to quit my day job and do this full time, which coincided with my signing a book deal. That was two years ago.

Q: How did the book deal come about–who found you?
Dusoulier: I found them. I took an agent and worked on a book proposal. Then we shopped it around and found several publishers and chose the one that had the most interest in us.

Q: You’re Parisian by birth yet choose to write in English. Why?

continue reading on CNET….