This past Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending yet another wonderful food-focused event at the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). “Sweet, Sour, Savory – Fabulous Flavors” was a discussion with the one and only Chef Eric Ripert (of Le Bernardin in New York City) and Christina Tosi (of Momofuku Milkbar in New York City) moderated by Bon Appetit’s executive editor (and co-author of Chef Ripert’s book On the Line) Christine Muhlke. Flavor was the focus and as it does for so many of us, the conversation lead largely back to the taste beginnings of Chef Ripert’s and Chef Tosi’s childhood.
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| © Junenoire Mitchell |
Christine Muhlke got the evening going by asking about the chefs’ earliest taste memories, as she posed it: “What’s your madeleine?” Both the chef’s remember mother/grandmother prepared sweets. Chef Tosi recalled raw oatmeal cookie dough, corn bake and other baked goods filled with butter. Chef Ripert mused about his grandmother’s elusive apple tart. It was about a 12” tart that he said he would gobble down a few times a week. Even when he was little he could smell the stages of the apple tart’s doneness; when it was starting to bake in the oven, when it was time to take it out and most importantly the moment when it had cooled enough to eat.
When asked about favorite treats both thought to favorite candies first. For Chef Tosi it was Whatchamacallits and Reese’s Cups. She told us what a picky eater she was and how much she finds that fact to contribute to her food experiences as an adult. When she was 18 or so she remembers having a BLT and tasting a raw tomato for the first time and how impacting it was. She ate a lot of junk food when she was young like candy, ice cream and sour cream and onion potato chips. Chef Ripert’s upbringing up in France and Andorra meant he didn’t eat junk food because as he says it just didn’t exist. What he loved was sneaking squares from a bar of dark chocolate on the weekends and taking cookies that had been hidden in the kitchen. On the way home from school, the snack time for French schoolchildren, he would enjoy meringues from the pâtisserie. There were also licorice candies they called Batman candy because they were black and white.
