My grandfather was raised on a farm in the Grand Est, Haut-Rhin region of France. He started working in kitchens at a young age before moving to Paris to learn the trade. Later, he immigrated to New York City and opened a restaurant called Nicola's for decades before retiring back to France.

My family always tries to get recipes from Claude and it has never been easy. His directions usually are frustratingly imprecise such as 'a soup spoon or two', and if I ask for a specific measurement, he tells me to add 'a good amount'. How do I know if something is ready? 'When it's done' he says. How much salt and pepper should I add? 'To taste!' he says.

These are his recipes taken verbatim with pencil and paper and slightly edited for clarity.

Anything marked "Notes" are comments I added to help clarify

Future upgrades:
add translation widget
allow conversions between # / grams
output fractions instead of decimal value