MARSHMALLOWS - THE BOOK AND YOUR QUESTIONS

Questions about the book? Here's the place to get your answers. Just click on the comments link directly below to ask a question or let others know about flavor variations you try, and ways you've used the marshmallows and fluff you've made. I promise to answer your questions as quickly as possible, and I hope you are enjoying the book!

Eileen

About desserts at fancy restaurants in France

For anyone who hasn't had the privilege to go to France and eat at a fine restaurant, here is a primer on the way it generally, but not always, works (the explanation of the desserts is at the end):

When you arrive, the waiter will place the "amuse bouche," a small, usually one-bite savory that is not ordered from the menu, but placed on the table as a "gift" of the chef. Sometimes there are two or more of these per person. The term amuse bouche means "to please the mouth" in French, and the course is meant to prime the palate. Chefs use it to show off their skills. It always feels like a special treat to me.

After the amuse bouche, some restaurants serve a pre-hors d'oeuvre or pre-first course. If one is served, it also is something that has not been ordered, but is always tasty and interesting. It is sometimes more substantial than the amuse-bouche.

Next is the hors d'oeuvre, or first course - something that you have ordered. That is followed by the main course, which you have also ordered. Then a cheese course, also ordered, and the choices are from artisanal, local cheesemakers who, for the most part, use milk from their own farm.

Dessert at these restaurants seems more like a lavish, luscious, edible parade to me than a course. The waiter will bring out a pre-dessert (not ordered), followed by a dessert (which you've ordered), followed by an apres-dessert. which you haven't ordered.

It seems like an enormous amount of food, but the portions aren't big, and the meal is consumed over three or four hours. Needless to say, it's the only meal you need to eat in one day.

Provençal Desserts - Le Clos de la Violette

Aix en Provence is a lively, interesting small city in Provence, southeast of Avignon. We drove there to spend the day and to eat (a 3-hour!) lunch at Le Clos de la Violette.


While the food itself was spectacular, my interests always are most-focused on the desserts. I was especially pleased that there were two kinds of marshmallows on the petits fours tray! The squares were flavored with the herb liqueur chartreuse. Sweet, herbal, and quite sensuous. The pyramids were berry-flavored. Exquisite.

A re-engineered tiramisu, the mascarpone filling was encased in a berry tuile, with strawberry sorbet and fresh berries on the side, drizzled with an intensely flavored berry reduction. If you look closely, you will see a spiral of berry-flavored caramelized sugar atop the sorbet.