Book Title: THE FRENCH KITCHEN
Character Name: Kat (Harris) Fontaine
What is your full name?
Kathryn Harris-Fontaine.
Profession?
pauses and shifts in her chair - Former spy, American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), during WWII.
How did you come to that? And was it dangerous? You must have had enemies in that line of work.
Yes—but in 1943 France, who really knew who they were? My brother, Gavin, was recruited by the OSS—the precursor to the CIA—from law school and he signed up in secret to serve as a spy in the field. I learned the OSS likes to recruit siblings when Gavin vanished in France and they also recruited me. I followed soon after, parachuting into Nazi-occupied Northern France. It was while hidden in a chateau kitchen that I was classically trained as a chef, as a ruse to help me survive while I tried to make contact with Gavin. But the big task became to keep the rest of my team alive.
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
It’s complicated. Gavin and I grew up in Boston and were causalities of a family that fractured when we were children. With our father gone, our mother remarried and wealthy (and demanding that we fall in line like good, social-climbing children), the avenues I’d wanted to explore weren’t available to young women in the 1940’s. (I’d always imagined something different. . . a career in the diplomatic over marriage.) The one bright spot? Gavin and I were still close. And as my last true family, I’d have done anything to keep him safe. Our story alternates between memories of when he vanished in France in 1943, and my life now—picking up the pieces in post-war Paris, 1952.
What was your greatest talent?
The early 1940s didn’t offer women the advantages I’d have liked; ‘unmarried’ isn’t a title we were supposed to have. But I was happy. I learned to work as an auto mechanic from my father. I would pleasure-run through the Common most days. And I went to college—a dream of mine!—to earn a degree in linguistics. I still read voraciously. And somehow, I notice everything. (My observations come quickly—bouncing from thought to rapid-fire thought is how I memorize a room.) Where could I possibly use all of that to do something important with my life?
Where do you live?
Paris. . . and it’s pure magic. The war may have wounded the city, but it couldn’t steal the spirit from the French people. From the intoxicating tastes, the cobblestone streets of Montmartre and storied sights along the Seine, to the breathtaking moments I’ve had here, I fall more in love with this city every day.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I’m a newly married ex-pat in Paris, a city still struggling to rebuild—the lack of resources, sky-high prices for basic goods, and political unrest of those who worked for the Reich during the war has cast a shadow. Still, it’s Paris. And though I’m struggling to untangle what happened in France all those years ago, I’m still trying to move forward. My husband, Gérard—who I knew in France during the war—is fabulously wealthy and to the social-climbers here, he’s quite the catch. But they don’t know him like I do. I have questions. Doubts. And yes, latent fears when I’m with him. Yet he’s encouraged me to join a cooking class taught by an enigmatic American by name of Julia Child. Maybe, just maybe, her spirited instruction will help me find something worth fighting for?
What keeps you awake at night?
eyes fight tears - My brother vanished during the war. Nearly a decade later, it’s gutting that I still don’t have answers.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Knowing Gérard was the only one who might be able to help me, I tracked him down in France after the war and posed an interesting plan for us to team up to find answers. But we both have our own agendas. And too much has happened. . . including that against my own judgment, I just might be falling in love with my husband. What in the world do I do if I love this man but can’t trust him?
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
with a tiny shake of the head - No comment.
What do you do for a living?
I was happy working in my late father’s auto refurbishment garage in Boston. But for my mother? I should have used the college education she and my stepfather paid for in order to meet a husband—not to live my life in pursuits that don’t suit a young woman of marriageable age. And as for my work these days? I can’t say much, but it does involve cooking. (Thanks to Julia Child.)
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I laugh at this because of how far I’ve come! I was so stifled when I was young, I rebelled and wanted nothing to do with the domestic life my mother tried to push on me. So to fall in love with what I saw as a domestic pursuit—cooking? - shakes head, lightly - That I did not expect. But all it took was meeting Julia Child in Paris, 1952 and I was hooked. Now, French cuisine has captured my heart. I cook every day, just for the joy of gathering around a table to talk and laugh and dine with those I love most. Isn’t that what matters? Life is about this: the beauty of the stories we live.
A Novel
As Paris rebuilds in the aftermath of World War II, Kat Fontaine never expected the skills she learned in a French chateau kitchen to be the key that unlocks the secrets swirling in her new post-war life.
Paris, 1952—Still haunted by the years she spent serving in the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII, ex-pat Kat Fontaine, now living in Paris, finds a simple cookery class led by indomitable chef Julia Child unearths the tangle of gut-wrenching memories of war. Determined to find her brother who went missing during the war and is presumed dead, Kat questions everything, especially her high-ranking society husband whose past is as murky as her own. But when the puzzle pieces start to come together—and her carefully crafted Paris world begins to fall apart—Kat must confront her own secrets against the mounting suspicions of the husband she thought she knew . . .
Rue, 1943—Deep in the heart of Nazi-controlled northern France, Manon Altier shifts between working for the enemy by day—as a French chef at the famous Chateau du Broutel, where names like Himmler, Rommel, and Goebbels frequent the guest list—and running with underground networks against the Vichy regime at night. Working undercover to filter critical information to agents within the burgeoning OSS presence in France, Manon digs deep into the glitz and glamour of a Nazi stronghold that has her teetering on the edge of being discovered at any turn. But when an intriguing stranger appears at the chateau claiming to work with the French Resistance, Manon must lean on her instincts to judge whether to run and hide or stand firm—even as a terrifying discovery tests her resolve to continue the fight.
From the heights of culinary cuisine in 1950s Paris society to the underbelly of a WWII spy network embedded deep within Nazi-controlled Vichy France—and the spy backstory of the world's most famous would-be French chef, Julia Child—The French Kitchen turns up the heat on the pasts of women whose worlds collide, and forces each to question what she thought she'd planned for a perfect future.
Romance Historical [Nelson, Thomas, Inc., On Sale: August 5, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781400345267 / eISBN: 9781400345274]
KRISTY CAMBRON is a vintage-inspired storyteller writing from the space where beauty, art, and history intersect. She's a Christy Award-winning author of historical fiction, including her bestselling novels, THE BUTTERFLY AND THE VIOLIN and THE PARIS DRESSMAKER, as well as nonfiction titles. She also served as Vice President and literary agent with Gardner Literary.Her work has been named to Cosmopolitan Best Historical Fiction Novels, Publishers Weekly Religion & Spirituality TOP 10, Library Journal’s Best Books, and she received a Christy Award for her novel THE PAINTED CASTLE. Her work has been featured at Once Upon a Book Club Box, Frolic, Book Club Girl, BookBub, Country Woman magazine, and (in)Courage.A self-proclaimed history nerd, Kristy loves to chase all things research, going behind the scenes at a Ringling Bros. Sarasota mansion, touring a former TB sanitarium, making bee friends at a working honey farm, or embarking on a back-roads jaunt across Ireland being a few. She holds a degree in art history/research writing and spent fifteen years in education and leadership development for a Fortune 100 corporation, partnering with such companies as the Disney Institute, IBM/Kenexa, and Gallup before stepping away to pursue her passion for storytelling.Kristy lives in Indiana with her husband and three basketball-loving sons, where she can probably be bribed with a peppermint mocha latte and a good read.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2026