Kitty Morse's discovery, after her mother's death, of her French great-grandfather's war journal chronicling the advance of the Germans in Le Grand Est (Alsace Lorraine) from April to December 1940, along two notebooks filled with handwritten recipes from her French great-grandmother, a Holocaust victim, provided Kitty with the inspiration for Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France. Prosper Lévy-Neymarck, Kitty's maternal great-grandfather, was an army surgeon in WW1, twice the recipient of the Legion d'Honneur. Blanche, her daughter and son-in-law, and most members of their extended family died at Auschwitz in 1944. Kitty retraced their steps in and around Châlons in May 2023 including the tunnel where Prosper and Blanche took refuge during the bombings in and around Châlons-en-Champagne.

Kitty’s career as a food writer, cooking instructor, public speaker, and tour leader to Morocco spans more than three decades. She has published 11 cookbooks, five on the cuisine of her native Morocco, and has been a guest on local and national television stations. Bitter Sweet took 3 years to complete, and her late husband, photographer Owen Morse, provided the food photography. She has contributed articles in French and English to leading publications in the US and abroad. She has lectured on Moroccan cuisine and culture around the US. Her first memoir with recipes, Mint Tea and Minarets: A Banquet of Moroccan Memories, which she translated into French as Le Riad au Bord de l'Oued, were both recipients of a Gourmet Word Cookbook Award. This program will be presented via Zoom.