It’s taste time (no, not really. But there’s no time to have fun, actually)! No matter how hard I look, I can’t think of anything better in this miserable life than food. Sugar. The fat. Calories. YUM. As a great passionate about gastronomy and pastry of all kinds, I would like to thank today all the clumsy, the boloss, the clumsy and the clumsy, without whom our recipe books would be much less provided. When little bullshit rhymes with big dishes. It’s nice.
1. Tarte Tatin
We start with the most edifying: the Tatin. Everyone knows it (or almost), the Tatin was born by accident at the end of the 19th century. According to legend, it was the Tatin sisters (Caroline and Stéphanie) who started it. Steph, more exactly. In a hurry, she puts her apple pie in the oven, but forgets one of the main ingredients: the dough (it’s quite strong anyway, when you know that the apple pie really only contains 3 things: the dough, the compote ( or cream) and apples…). Lazy to start again, she is content to add it directly to the fruit. Once the pie is baked and turned over, the result is clear: caramelized apples straight from the mould, a crunchy pastry and a dessert that everyone agrees on. It’s “crunchy, it’s greedy, it’s melting”, as good old Cyril Lignac would say.
And if not, you know what Darth Vader orders in a bakery? Nope ? Bah… Breads breads breads tarte tatin tarte tatiiiin… (Do you have it?)
2. The nonsense of Cambrai
Two Cambresian companies dispute the paternity of its small striped sweets, but the legend remains the same: around 1830, a young apprentice inadvertently dropped mint in a preparation of berlingots. As resourceful as he is courageous, he says nothing, and lets the sweets go on sale. If his bosses (his parents, it seems) see nothing but fire: the customers, them, notice this little menthol taste… And they love it! They want more! And hop, from a stupidity are born… The stupidity of Cambrai (and the name takes on its full meaning). Awkward friends, do not despair. Your day will come!
3. The miss
It’s all in the name! This soft cake, to which apples are often added, was invented by a Savoyard pastry chef from the Felix house in the 19th century. By making a “biscuit de Savoie” for a client, he worked too little on his egg whites. So they didn’t go up, and the thing came flat out of the oven. No time to start again: a little butter, a good layer of praline to cover it all up, and you’re done!
4. Nutella
But what? Palm oil fell all alone in there, is that the subterfuge? Oh no ? In 1946, Pietro Ferrero, an Italian pastry chef, dreamed of a cake made with chocolate ganache (also invented by mistake), but here it is… In the midst of post-war restrictions, finding chococo is not easy ! No problemo, Mr. Ferrero replaces part of the cocoa with crushed hazelnuts. For three years, he used this recipe as a ganache, but Nut’ was not born yet! A scorching summer, the cream melts. And there, surprise: the texture is amazing. Neither one nor two, the product is marketed, first under the name of “Supercrema” then, in 1964… of “Nutella”.
5. Chocolate ganache
According to legend, it was in the middle of the 19th century that an apprentice at the Siraudin house in Paris made a small dumpling: he poured a much too hot cream into his chocolate. Damn for damn, he still mixes his preparation. Surprise: the whole gives a superb texture, shiny as you wish. Go hop, we keep!
6. The Carambars
At the base, we wrote “Caram’bar”… And it’s quite logical, since these sweets were born because (thanks) to a caramel bar machine. The story takes place in 1954, in the Delespaul-Havez chocolate factory in Marcq-en-Barœul. Then, two rumors and the same result. Option one: the machine freaked out on its own and merrily mixed doses of cocoa and doses of caramel. Option two: it’s an employee who poured his excess chocolate into the caramel machine, which then went out of adjustment to form long bars, more elongated than usual. The only certainty: the recipe was born by chance, from the incongruous and yet so beautiful encounter of a little cocoa and a sweet caramel. It pisses me off, this story.
7. Les corn flakes
If until now, the stories were cute, that of the corn flakes is a little less so. At their origin, two brothers (whose name will not be foreign to you): Will Keith Kellogg and John Harvey Kellogg (doctor). In the 1890s, Dr. Kellogg is a super fun guy, the head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium: a hospital in which patients follow tasteless diets to suppress their carnal urges, such as masturbation. VIBE. On the menu of this charming centre: boiled corn. Yum. One day, as they leave this delicious recipe to cool, the two brothers are caught up in their obligations and come back to the kitchen a little too late. When they return: the stuff is completely boiled and stale. But hey… No question of throwing them away (economy first!): they flatten them with a rolling pin then put them to grill. Surprise… It’s a full box! They are then sweetened and marketed in 1906 by Will Keith. On the other hand, now that we know the little story, we really want to eat it again… No?
8. La Worcestershire sauce
As much as there are things, we would never have thought of a creation by accident, so much there… When we read the ingredients… We tell ourselves that someone sensible would never have mixed all that consciously. Molasses (already, it’s going badly), malt vinegar, anchovies, shallots, tamarind pulp, onions, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon and many more spices. Yeah, that’s a lot of unrelated stuff put together. Since it’s not tasty enough: the brownish mixture has been forgotten in a jar for two years. The time to macerate and ferment biiiiien. And…yes…one guy really had the guts (stupidity?) to dip his lips into it. And bam, he likes it, everyone likes it, planetary success for a macerated sauce in a jar for years! We are stupid sometimes.
9. Béarnaise sauce
In 1837, Chef Collinet just wanted to make a small reduction of shallots. Convinced of having missed it, he tries to make up for it by adding an egg yolk emulsion. And bam! It’s not the expected shallot reduction, but it’s delicious.
10. Popsicles
Children’s favorite ice cream, invented by… A 10-year-old boy! In 1905, Frank Epperson forgot his glass outside, in the middle of the Californian winter. In the container: powdered fruit juice, mixed with water and a small stick used to stir everything. And presto, the magic of extreme cold operates: in the night, the liquid becomes ice and water ice is created. Today, approximately 3 billion units are sold each year. Like what… You can have your head in the air and balls of gold.
11. Crisps
On one side: Geroges Crum, African-American cook. On the other, Cornelius Vanderbilt, a very nutty customer who demands very thin fries, and who doesn’t hesitate to send them back to the kitchen as long as they aren’t to his liking. The plates follow one another and Chef Crum is starting to get fed up! To teach his client a little lesson, he decides to cut his potatoes into slices as thin as possible, so thin that they are almost transparent. So, of course… His “lesson” didn’t have the desired effect BUT the client had nothing more to say… And neither did we!
12. Le roquefort
“A young shepherd, to follow a beautiful shepherdess, would have forgotten bread and sheep’s cheese in one of the many caves of Combalou. Returning some time later to this place, he discovered them covered with mold. Hungry, he tasted the cheese and ate it. » : the cute little legend that can be read on the site of ” Tourism Aveyron ». I don’t know if it’s true, but personally, I want to believe it… Love story and stinky cheese: it doesn’t take more to fill my little heart.