The Cinderella narrative for food bloggers goes something like this: You are young, working a job as an administrative assistant or techie that pays the bills. But your passion is food, so you begin blogging about your cooking successes and failures, as well as your visits to markets and restaurants. You're obsessive in a good way, and you blog faithfully, outfitting each entry with digital pictures that look as appetizing on the screen as any glossy page in a cookbook. You develop enough of a following that editors take notice, and soon you have magazine and newspaper assignments, if not a book contract. Before long, enough work is coming in that you can quit your job and devote yourself full time to a career in food writing.

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It happened to Julie Powell, the former secretary who documented her attempt to cook every recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Now, it has happened to Clotilde Dusoulier, a young Frenchwoman whose blog, Chocolate & Zucchini (http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com), has since 2003 documented her adventures in cooking and dining around Paris. Dusoulier, 27, freelances for French- and English-language publications, contributes commentary to National Public Radio and now has her first cookbook.

"Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen" (Broadway Books, $18.95) offers many new recipes that showcase Dusoulier's fresh, creative, market-driven approach to cooking as well as a fresh helping of her unique prose.

Dusoulier's English is fluent, both in print and in conversation, and yet there is something — an unorthodox word choice, an undercurrent of arch humor, an appealing lack of irony — that suggests an outsider's perspective. (Her writing reminds me a little of another fine English prose stylist of French origin, Atlanta Magazine's Christiane Lauterbach.)

Dusoulier's passion for food was awakened "during the height of the dot-com years" in the San Francisco Bay area where she and her boyfriend, Maxence, decamped after university to work as software engineers. (To prove her geek bona fides, she notes that Maxence gave her the domain clotilde.net for her 21st birthday.) After two years they returned to Paris, and Dusoulier saw France's food culture through new eyes. She became an avid cook and soon decided to launch a blog to be written, naturellement, in the lingua franca of blogging — English.

Before leaving for a book tour, Dusoulier called me from her Montmartre apartment and braved a few of my questions.

Q: How has your blog evolved over the past four years?

A: I think my writing style has evolved. The more you write, the better you write. But I think it still has that joyful quality.

Q: Why did you start blogging in English and not French?

A: I grew up in a very Anglophile family, and they speak good English, so I was immersed in the language. But really it's just about me loving the language. It has a flexibility that the French language doesn't have.

Q: Your recipes often mix sweet and savory flavors. Isn't that unusual in France?

A: Hmm. I have that tendency to put fruit in savory dishes and zucchini in chocolate cakes. But I think my cooking style is a good illustration of how French people cook in the kitchens today.

Q: So would you consider your book a typical French cookbook?

A: Not totally. In terms of instructions, no stone is left unturned. [American readers expect] books to be very good at teaching. French cookbooks usually assume the reader knows more.

Q: Your book reprises just a few of your recipes from your blog. Why did you devise so many new dishes for it?

A: I knew I had a loyal readership from the blog. I wanted for them to have a reason to buy the book.

Q: Are you working on a second book?

A: Yes, a guide to Paris for the enthusiast. It's part restaurants and part shops, markets and pastry shops. It's the sort of guidebook that I wish I had for every city I visited.

Q: So many of the breakout food bloggers seem to be people in their 20s. Is blogging age-related?

A: Well, I think it's a matter of having free time. I don't have kids. If I did, I wouldn't have all my evenings and weekends free! But there may be another reason. Most of us [young food bloggers] have a desire to document what we're learning.

Q: What are your favorite places to visit for the food?

A: I've really liked the Basque country in Spain. Spanish cuisine and the relaxed approach to it is quite exciting right now.

Q: What are the best and worst aspects of the Paris restaurant scene?

A: Well, the majority of restaurants have chalkboard menus, which change pretty much every day. If asparagus is in season, it will be in all the dishes, and the chef will be really enthusiastic about it. But my wish for Paris would be more authentic ethnic restaurants. A lot of time the cuisine is dumbed down because the French palate isn't adventurous or used to spices.

Q: So what would be a perfect day of eating in Paris?

A: Mmm, for breakfast a piece of baguette with butter at the bakery Coquelicot, then a walk through the organic Batignolles market (open only on Saturdays), and then go sit somewhere and have a picnic with what you bought. I might have afternoon tea in the Grande Mosquée de Paris — the oldest and biggest mosque — then a pre-dinner drink at a wine bar, and then dinner at one of those "neo-bistros." I like the one called Ribouldingue, which specializes in offal. And then after that? Bed.

Gateau Chocolat et Courgette

(Chocolate and Zucchini Cake)

2 servings
Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: About 1 hour, 15 minutes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, or 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 pat butter or teaspoon oil for greasing
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
3 large eggs
2 cups unpeeled grated zucchini, from about 1 1/2 medium zucchini (keep the remaining zucchini for optional garnish)
1 cup good-quality bittersweet chocolate chips
Confectioners' sugar or melted bittersweet chocolate (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10-inch springform pan with butter or oil. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a food processor, process the sugar and 1/2 cup butter or oil until creamy (you can do this by hand, armed with a sturdy spatula).

Add the vanilla, coffee granules and eggs, mixing well between each addition. Reserve a cup of the flour mixture and add the rest to the egg mixture. Mix until just combined; the batter will be thick. Add the zucchini and chocolate chips to the reserved flour mixture and toss to coat. Fold into the batter and blend with a wooden spoon — don't overmix.

Pour into the prepared cake pan and level the surface with a spatula. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes, run a knife around the pan to loosen the cake, and unclasp the sides of the pan. Let cool to room temperature before serving. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, glaze with melted chocolate, or decorate with a few slices of raw zucchini (you don't have to eat them, though).

Per serving: 288 calories (percent of calories from fat, 41), 5 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 14 grams fat (8 grams saturated), 75 milligrams cholesterol, 238 milligrams sodium.