She cooked, therefore she blogged

CAMBRIDGE -- French food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier never imagined what chocolateandzucchini.com would lead to. The 4-year-old blog has just become a book. Where most authors write books and then establish a blog, it has worked the other way for Dusoulier.

The blogger was at Chez Henri last week to talk about "Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen" (Broadway Books). Raised in Paris, Dusoulier spent two years as a software engineer in the San Francisco area during the dot-com craze. She blogs in English, which the 27-year-old has been speaking since she was 10.

As a girl, Dusoulier spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her mother and her recipes reflect her mother's light, Provencal style, a way of eating that she had, in turn, picked up from her mother-in-law. When Dusoulier began her kitchen adventures, she noticed "there were some things that just came naturally." And when reading either the blog or the book, forget the cliche of rich, fussy French dishes. "If you have good butter," says the cook, "a little goes a long way and you don't need to put a whole stick in it."

After her software days, she returned to Paris and started blogging as a way to chronicle "the things I'm naturally interested in," she says. Then blogging became a spontaneous outlet for her cooking experiences. She tested recipes in an open-style kitchen and photographed the results by the light of the living room window in her Montmartre apartment. The photographs in the blog, and now in the book, are all hers and often show a whimsical side, such as the shot of the empty, chocolate-smeared plate and spoon that introduces the tarts section.

Dusoulier professes to have no favorite recipes. "I tend to be someone who likes variety," she says . Her live-in boyfriend, Maxence Bernard, prefers the yogurt cake because, says the author, "it's not over the top." The menu at Chez Henri began with broccoli and apple quiche; a lamb tagine with pears was served for the main course. Dinner ended with the chocolate and zucchini cake for which her blog and book are named.

There are American foods that Dusoulier still craves. "I need chunky, old-fashioned, peanut butter," she says, "I'm addicted to it and you can only find the creamy kind" at home. While in Boston she was also on the lookout for local specialties such as clam chowder and lobster rolls. Whatever non-perishables she can fit in her suitcase will end up in her pantry. "I think I was a squirrel in a former life," she says.