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    Home » Food » Recipes » Soups

    March 5, 2022

    5 learnings from 8 weeks of Soup Sunday Challenge

    Le chef's wife holding a bowl of Magical Leek soup in her kitchen

    The past 8 weeks I hosted my first ever Soup Sunday Challenge. I am not sure what propelled me to launch a Soup Sunday Challenge on top of my full time job, 2 young kids and busy life, but deep in the wave of Omicron, and over the Christmas holidays, I felt inspired. We were looking to eat better and thought, "I already have lots of soup recipes, this will be easy!". I reassured my husband, "It won't take up too much time, cherie..."

    In the way that a professional Chef knows, he knew this would be an endeavor. Had I ever held an instagram live before where I was cooking on my own? Nope. 8 weeks of Soup Recipes, 8 Sundays of live cooking demonstrations. 8 grocery shops, at least 24 pots of soup (more on that below). But in the way that he has been many times over the past 17 years, he was there for it.

    Here are 5 learnings from my first Soup Sunday Challenge:

    I love Soup.

    I knew I loved Soup but I didn't know how much I LOVED soup. Originally, I thought that I would be sharing the recipes I have already written. Ha! Out of the 8 recipes, 7 were brand new. Why? Because I felt inspired. I was inspired by the soup recipes that were being shared with me, inspired to challenge myself. I was inspired to learn more, to share more. And I feel like I am only getting started. Chances are that I will be making soup again this weekend...

    Le Chef's Wife in her kitchen in front of a row of pots and pans with a bowl of soup

    Cooking Live is no joke.

    Anything can happen! My stove top stopped working in the middle of my Magical Leek Soup demonstration. Fortunately a kind viewer suggested that I ask my husband to flip the breaker. She was right! One of my kids had a tantrum, I dropped ingredients on the floor or completely forgot to add a key ingredient another time. Approaching each error with a good sense of humor is key. The show must go on! Cooking live is a test to staying cool, calm and collected even when things aren't going as planned.

    Behind the scenes of the Soup Sunday Challenge - instructions on post its
    Behind the Scenes of the French Onion Soup Gratinée live cooking demonstration. Post it notes on the cupboard to keep me on track!

    Cooking Live requires a LOT of preparation.

    I learnt that I can't just cook a recipe start to finish in front of a live audience and hold people's attention. When my Italian Sausage , white bean and Kale soup demonstration lagged in week 3 and I became discouraged, Le Chef jumped in and taught me his tricks of the trade for live cooking demonstrations. Have a fully cooked recipe ready to plate before you begin. If all goes wrong - at least you have something to present! Pre-chop all of the ingredients in advance. Write down the sequence of events so you don't loose track of what you are doing. Clinical precision in the preparation makes for a quick and lively cooking demonstration.

    For each soup recipe I posted, there were at least 3 pots of soup made. One pot to photograph, one pot fully cooked for the demo and one pot that I cooked during the demo. We ate A LOT of soup over the past 8 weeks.

    Chef Sebastien Giannini and Le Chef's Wife about start the Soup Sunday Challenge
    I would not have been able to do this without my husband. His guidance and his willingness to take care of everything else while I cooked!

    Do anything over and over again and you become better at it

    I am much better at the recipe writing process than I was going into this. It used to take me weeks to get a blog post up for the blog. I would cook, perhaps cook again, photograph, then photograph again, write the recipe, sit on the fence for a while about just the right wording, send the recipe to my mother in Canada to proof read, grapple with SEO, THEN post in the same way that a college student hands in a term paper, wide eyed and white knuckled.

    Obliging myself to post a blog post every week meant that I had to be super efficient, and, after the first few weeks, I started to become that. I have the process down to a science now - even with 2 young kids running around! Is it perfect every time? No - my mom has caught a few spelling errors after I published - but I am pretty proud of my work.

    Le Chef's Wife in her kitchen standing on a chair to take a photo of soup
    Behind the scenes - lunch wasn't served until I took a photo!

    Sharing is Caring

    The Soup Sunday Challenge would not be what it was without the spontaneous help of blogger friends who felt inspired to share my content with their readers. There are so many to thank but I particularly would like to thank Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons . I have been participating in Toni's Organization Challenge for years and loved it. She was one of the most frequent supporters of the Soup Sunday Challenge from the moment it started and often shared when she was cooking my recipes at home. She also gave me some great advice which prompted me to write the Soup Sunday Challenge Recipe Ebook in the days after the challenge started! Thank you, Toni.

    Soup Connects us.

    Le Chef's Wife in her kitchen in front of a row of pots and pans with a bowl of Soup

    My favorite part were the stories that came out around soup. Everyone has a warm, comforting soup memory. It often involves a beloved grandmother. There is a shared experience that unites us and that was soothing, and quite frankly, healing in times of turmoil.

    During the Soup Sunday Challenge I lost my French grandmother-in-law. Pierrette was very dear to me and we shared a love of cooking. Many of my recipes are inspired by her and sharing her recipes was very healing for me. It was also very healing to cook with my mother every Sunday. She tuned in every single week from Kelowna, British Columbia and having her there was almost like cooking with her again.

    Throughout the Soup Sunday Challenge, readers shared their stories with me. I learned that I was able to bring comfort to a woman struggling with infertility, to an empty nester couple that had lost the motivation to cook, to a woman healing after surgery, to another struggling with depression. This, to me, is the greatest satisfaction of all.

    Thank you, for joining this journey with me.

    Au plaisir,

    Le Chef's Wife

    P.S. Did you join the #soupsundaychallenge ? I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comments here!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sara says

      March 05, 2022 at 2:29 pm

      I joined your soup challenge and we enjoyed it very much. My son was recently admitted into the ICU with a gun shot wound and has been there for three weeks, but I can't wait to get back to normal and cook the rest of them.

      Thank you for sharing them.

      Reply
      • lechefswife says

        March 06, 2022 at 6:03 pm

        Oh no! I am so so sorry to hear this Sara. I can only imagine how hard this time must be on you and your family. I pray that your son makes a full recovery. My very best wishes, Anina Belle

        Reply
    2. Paula says

      March 05, 2022 at 4:51 pm

      I made all your soups and they were enjoyed by the entire family. My son made your baguettes on Sunday morning to have with the soup which were delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipes.

      Reply
      • lechefswife says

        March 06, 2022 at 6:01 pm

        Thank you Paula, you can't imagine how happy that makes me. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to cooking with you again soon!

        Reply
    3. Maureen says

      March 05, 2022 at 4:57 pm

      Thank you so much for this fun - and delicious - soup challenge! I learned some new techniques helping to make the process faster, easier and more enjoyable. You're a delight.

      Reply
      • lechefswife says

        March 06, 2022 at 6:00 pm

        Merci beaucoup Maureen! I am glad you picked up some new techniques - that makes me very happy to hear!

        Reply
    4. Lina says

      March 06, 2022 at 5:49 pm

      Thank you so much for this sharing ! I’m admirative that you made a 8 (!!!) weeks challenge, such length and dedication was truly amazing ! The soups were delicious and I loved the way you connected with us, with a lot of warmth. Thank you for the ebook ! I will definitely use it again 🙂 greetings from Brussels Belgium!

      Reply
      • lechefswife says

        March 06, 2022 at 6:00 pm

        Thank you, Lina for your kind comment. I really appreciate it. Sending you big bowls of comfort from Washington, DC.

        Reply
    5. Colleen says

      March 08, 2022 at 3:04 pm

      I found your blog through Toni @abowlfulloflemons and loved joining in on the Soup Sunday Challenge. I joined a little late because well . . . . life 🙂 but I loved watching every week and was inspired to make a pot of soup even if it ended up happening on a Wednesday! I look forward to your emails and blogposts! Thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration.

      Reply
      • lechefswife says

        March 09, 2022 at 8:37 pm

        Colleen, what a wonderful message to receive! You have brightened this gray and rainy day considerably. Thank you so much for your kind words and I am so glad you are enjoying my work. Have a wonderful day,
        Anina Belle

        Reply

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