WHAT? Literary legacy. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are,” wrote Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the famed nineteenth century French food lover and gastronomic writer. What would he have said to one who ate the rum-infused cake that shares his name? A savarin is a yeast dough baked in a ring mold and soaked in rum syrup, the center hole brimming with pastry cream, crème chantilly, or fresh fruit. The dessert is a close relative of the Eastern European baba, which includes dried fruit in the dough and is served without a filling. Some accounts say that Brillat-Savarin himself invented the cake, but the Oxford Companion to Food tells a different story. The tale goes that one of the Julien brothers, from a family of Parisian pastry-makers, set his mind to experimenting with the baba recipe sometime in the 1840s. The result was this rich and tasty dessert, which he named in honor of Brillat-Savarin.
WHERE? Raul Vaquerizo's Beard House dinner
WHEN? October 3, 2009
HOW? Pistachio Savarin with White Chocolate, Mango–Peach Chutney, Yogurt Foam, and Mixed Nut Croquant
WHAT? Literary legacy. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are,” wrote Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the famed nineteenth century French food lover and gastronomic writer. What would he have said to one who ate the rum-infused cake that shares his name? A savarin is a yeast dough baked in a ring mold and soaked in rum syrup, the center hole brimming with pastry cream, crème chantilly, or fresh fruit. The dessert is a close relative of the Eastern European baba, which includes dried fruit in the dough and is served without a filling. Some accounts say that Brillat-Savarin himself invented the cake, but the Oxford Companion to Food tells a different story. The tale goes that one of the Julien brothers, from a family of Parisian pastry-makers, set his mind to experimenting with the baba recipe sometime in the 1840s. The result was this rich and tasty dessert, which he named in honor of Brillat-Savarin.
WHERE? Raul Vaquerizo's Beard House dinner
WHEN? October 3, 2009
HOW? Pistachio Savarin with White Chocolate, Mango–Peach Chutney, Yogurt Foam, and Mixed Nut Croquant
