Despite a shared love of black pudding and stews, Irish and French cuisines don't seem to have an awful lot in common.

However, Trish Deseine, Irish born and bred, has made the leap. Falling in love with French food as a schoolgirl, Deseine then fell for a Frenchman and, after 20 years of living across the Channel, is now teaching the locals how to cook their native grub.

Wresting the French food writing tradition from the intellectual to the personal, she says nothing beats a good home-cooked French meal.

"The onslaught of other cuisines on the world's tastebuds may have deflated France's culinary grandeur at restaurant level, but French current-of-life cooking, the stuff you and I do every day, remains supreme.

"The superlative daily meal is still set firmly, again and again, on a French table."

Deseine, whose book Nobody Does It Better... Why French Cooking Is Still The Best In The World is published by Kyle Cathie (£25), says the French at home in their own kitchen cook from scratch - everything from traditional staples to lavish meals.

For a taste of France at home, try one of her easy recipes in your own kitchen - frisee aux lardons and poulet Vallee d'Auge. The latter, she says, no matter how untrendy, is a particular favourite.

"This is the type of rich, pre-nouvelle cuisine dish that gives French cooking a bad name but that everyone secretly adores: cream, wine, chicken and mushrooms must be the most has-been but heavenly combo in all of French cuisine."

WHAT DO I NEED?Serves six2tbsp olive oil75g butter2 onions, finely chopped6 chicken pieces (breasts, thighs or legs, or a mix of pieces)a small glass of calvados (optional)500ml dry cider500g button mushrooms, finely sliced500ml double cream or creme fraichesalt and freshly ground black pepperWHAT SHOULD I DO?In a heavy-based saucepan with a lid, heat the olive oil with half the butter. Add the chopped onion and the chicken pieces, browning them all over.

Pour in the calvados, if using, stir well, rubbing at the hardening cooking juices stuck on the pan to deglaze.

If you like, ignite the alcohol to flambe the dish - and be careful you don't inadvertantly flambe your eyebrows if you are working on a gas flame. If that all sounds too scary, or if you don't have any calvados, leaving out this step won't spoil the dish.

Add the cider, again scratching around the bottom of the pan to get all the flavoursome caramelised bits, and bring to a slow simmer.

In a separate pan, heat the rest of the butter and fry the mushrooms until they render their juice.

Add them to the chicken, season very lightly and cook together for around 30 minutes. Deseine doesn't pour all the mushroom juices in because she finds it makes the sauce too runny, but their taste is good.

Add the cream and cook for a further 10 minutes or so. Season to taste.

If the sauce is sufficiently thick, adjust the seasoning and serve the dish like this. Alternatively, you can spoon out the chicken and most of the mushrooms, keep them warm and reduce the sauce further by simmering it on its own for a while.

An appropriately Norman accompaniment would be pommes en l'air (apples peeled, cut in slices or quarters, and gently fried in butter). Fresh pasta or boiled potatoes are fine as well.