Mad about Macarons
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Portrait of Jill Colonna, French cookbook author in Paris

About Jill Colonna

Real French Food, Less Sweet, More Flavour

Bonjour, I'm Jill - Scottish by birth, French by citizenship and family life, and I've been living and cooking in Paris for 34 years.

I learned French food from the inside: cooking for family, swapping tips with producers at local markets, and plenty of testing, mistakes and trying again. That curiosity led me to write one of the first macaron cookbooks published in English in 2010.

Today I share reliable French recipes for real home kitchens - family food, seasonal cooking, macarons and desserts made with less unnecessary sugar and more flavour. My aim is simple: to help you feel at home with French cooking - and taste France like a local.

And although I'm now French on paper, I still often get le and la wrong. My French husband and daughters have given up expecting miracles!

Macarons changed everything

My 2010 cookbook didn't begin with pastry-school perfection. It began with les caves à l'orange - the name my daughters gave my first homemade macarons, strange little orange hollows that bore very little resemblance to the elegant Parisian ones I was trying to make.

That should probably have put me off. Instead, I became obsessed with understanding why.

I began changing one thing at a time: testing, tweaking and learning what actually mattered until I developed a method that worked reliably at home.
Then French friends began asking me to bring boxes to dinner parties.

If a Scot could bake macarons for the French, perhaps she could cook the rest of the food too. That confidence changed everything.

The method became Mad About Macarons in 2010, one of the first macaron cookbooks published in English. David Lebovitz selected it as one of his favourite cookbooks of the year, and home bakers around the world went on to use the method for everything from first successful batches and wedding favours to launching their own baking businesses.

For 15 years, my publishing contract meant I couldn't share those original recipes online. Now that the rights are back with me, I can finally bring the recipes together here with everything I've learned since: the troubleshooting, tiny details and practical explanations that make macarons work in your kitchen.

explore Macarons
Jill Colonna holding a stack of French macarons in Paris
spoon into a dark chocolate mousse topped with chocolate macaron

Less Sugar Isn't the Point. More Flavour Is.

Living in France changed the way I thought about sweetness. The best pâtisserie isn't simply sweet: raspberry should taste of raspberry, chocolate of chocolate and lemon real lemon.

Even macarons need balance. Sugar is essential to their shells, but that doesn't mean the filling needs to bury everything underneath more sweetness.

After being treated for thyroid cancer in 2019, I began looking closer at what went into the food we bought and ate - questioning just how much sugar many recipes genuinely needed.

So I started testing. The aim was never "diet food". It was better-tasting food.

Using less unnecessary sugar lets the real ingredients speak louder. That's now one of the guiding ideas behind everything I share here: real ingredients, less unnecessary sugar and more flavour.

I'm no expert, but Jill's recipes are so approachable and well-explained that they always make me feel like I'm just a step away from becoming one. - DANILA

Although there are so many recipes published on the internet, yours are the ones I come back to. I can tell you put a lot of work and a lot of yourself into them and I really appreciate their reliability, they're all delicious too! - ALEXANDRA

I love Jill's approach to using less sugar, more fresh vegetables, and following the seasons. You demonstrate that food can be both tasty and healthy. 
Thanks for following your passion! - PATRICIA

Recipes that work in your kitchen

Every recipe I publish is developed and tested in my own kitchen.

If a recipe is temperamental, I want to understand why. If a step can be simplified without compromising the result, I'll test it. And if one little detail makes the difference between success and disappointment, I'll tell you.

Over the years I've also judged French pastry competitions alongside icons such as Christophe Felder, Mercotte and Raphaël Haumont, demonstrated macarons on Scottish television, and helped thousands of home bakers make macarons successfully.

But what keeps me sharing recipes is hearing from readers who thought something was beyond them - and then discovered they could do it. Increasingly, they also tell me how much they appreciate recipes that aren't unnecessarily sweet, even on the savoury side.

steps to make crème brûlée cream custard with egg yolks and vanilla

Egg Yolks, Egg Whites

When you're mad about macarons, you need egg whites to make them - so use the yolks first. It's a delicious loop!

French custards make wonderful use of the yolks: crème brûlée, crème caramel, ice creams, sauces. I've got you covered!

egg yolk recipes

Food and Music

Music actually brought me to France first. I trained as a musician, and spent two summers studying flute at the Conservatoire de Nice with Alain Marion. Music brought me to France. My Frenchman, the food and everyday life here are what made me stay.
I still play today - so if you hear a flute in one of my cooking videos, there's a fair chance it's me.

What would you like to discover?

French Recipes You Can Make at Home: Everyday family dishes, French classics and seasonal recipes.

Master Macarons: My recipes, methods and troubleshooting developed over 20 years.

Desserts With Less Sugar & More Flavour: French favourites where the ingredients get to shine.

Taste France Like a Local: Markets, seasonal ingredients, Paris favourites and food discoveries around France.

Ebooks & Online Courses: Go deeper with my step-by-step recipes, techniques and classes.

Author Jill Colonna of Mad About Macarons with macarons at a Paris café

Come cook with me

Come for the macarons. Stay for French family food, seasonal cooking and the flavours of everyday France. Macarons opened the door. Now let me help you feel at home with French cooking.

Join my weekly newsletter from Paris

"I absolutely love your posts! The French recipes are just the best treat to receive... When your email arrives it brings a big smile and a WooHoo - as well as conversations about a trip back to France!
Thank you for sharing and creating a really beautiful online space."
- Sue McDermott, USA.