Desserts as we know them today most likely were introduced by the French. The word dessert (“disserve”), which appeared in the 17th century, derives from the French word desservir, meaning removal of what has been previously served. Des-
sert, referring to treats enjoyed after the previously served foods had been cleared
from the table, at that time included sugar sculptures, cakes, crêpes, confections, sweetened fruits, meat pâtés, and cheeses.
French culinary professionals are revered the world over because of their dedi- cation to the art and science of cooking and baking, maintenance of rigid standards of preparation, insistence on the finest, freshest ingredients, and production of de- lectable wares that have become the world standard. Some argue that, in France, cooking is an attitude, and the reverence and passion for traditions have made France the culinary heart of world cuisine, and today the French remain as discrim- inating in their ingredients and methods of preparation as they have been for centu- ries. It is not surprising for the French to walk from one specialty store to another seeking the best-quality honey, freshest eggs and cream, purest butter, or richest chocolate for their sweets and treats. And it is not surprising that young French children are already able to judge the quality of ingredients at these markets.
Nor should it be surprising that the word dessert comes from the French word desservir , which means, „to clear the table.‰ History suggests that the word was first used during the 17th century to describe a serving of fruits, nuts, or cheeses after dishes from the main course were cleared. It was during this time that the French developed the quintessential French desserts that we enjoy today·desserts typi- cally made from genoise , cream, custard, and fruits·desserts favored by many as the best pastries and confections in the world. French cuisine is·and French chefs are regarded as·the best of the best, the finest of the fine, la crème de la crème. The word chef itself comes from the French chef de cuisine , „head of the kitchen/ head of cooking.‰
Two chefs have earned the title roi des cuisiniers et cuisinier des rois , „king of chefs and chef of kings,‰ and both were instrumental in developing the French haute cuisine we know today. The first, Antonin Carême, perhaps the first „celeb- rity chef,‰ left his imprint on French cuisine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Carême knew how to „market‰ his talents to Napoleon (in the form of a wedding cake), to royalty, and to the rich and famous of the time. Carême was one of the first to use meringue and nougat, and he became famous for his monumental ar- chitectural constructions of buildings made from sugar, meringue, marzipan, spun sugar (beautiful fine threads of boiled, hardened sugar), and other ingredients of the time; his edible creations gave birth to todayÊs elaborate wedding cakes. His pastries and desserts set the foundation for classic French confections, including plain or fruit- or crème-filled pastries, as we know them today.
The second king of chefs and chef of kings was Auguste Escoffier. In the early 20th century, Escoffier cast aside CarêmeÊs ornate style and executed a simpler French cuisine that was easier to replicate multiple times in multiple places. Es- coffier laid the foundation for using exact methods·methods that are still used throughout the world, and that make French techniques the standard in food prepa- ration. In the field of sweet treats, Escoffier is best remembered for his creation of pêche Melba (peach Melba), in honor of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba, one of many desserts he created for the rich and famous.
Moving on in time, there was another chef, among many, who placed his sig- nature on French cuisine. Fernand Point lived during the first half of the 20th cen- tury and was the primary shaper of nouvelle cuisine. His best practices were to focus on the quality of the ingredients, to keep the integrity of the ingredients during preparation, and to respect the classical methods of preparation (devel- oped by Escoffier, Carême, and others), while keeping a vision for new ideas and creations. He insisted on „buying local,‰ and using regional ingredients. Point earned his reputation for perfection by training world-class chefs, first, in exact classical techniques and then, only when these techniques were mastered, by train- ing them in their application to new· nouvelle ·culinary creations that pleased all senses: taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound. Point, at the age of 26, opened the distinguished Restaurant de La Pyramide in the old Roman town of Vienne, nestled between Paris and the Cote dÊAzur. The restaurant remains to this day the destination of locals and tourists alike, is hailed as „the greatest restaurant in France,‰ and is still famous for one of Fernand PointÊs „masterpieces of pastry,‰
gâteau marjolaine.
Gâteau marjolaine is a marvelous gâteau made with four layers of chocolate and vanilla buttercream spread between crunchy hazelnut and almond-flavored me-
ringue. Marjolaine demonstrates the delicate balance involved in making French
gâteaux ·there are perfect balances of hazelnut, almond, vanilla, and chocolate flavors, complemented by crunchy and creamy textures.
Desserts and sweets the world over have French names. Gâteau , génoise , crème
brûlée , caramel , clafoutis , crêpes , éclairs , flan , mousse , nougat , parfait , profiter- oles , tartes aux fruits , tarte tatin , meringue , millefeuille, madeleines , and bonbons
are just a few of the sweets whose names and roots are French. A working knowl- edge of some of these basic pastry types and fillings is in order. A good begin- ning is gâteau , the French word for „cake‰·but not just any cake. Gâteaux most often are cakes with rich fillings of cream, nuts, fruits, chocolate, or multiple com- binations of the ingredients. Gâteaux might be traditional layer cakes but are often made with multiple layers of génoise or meringue. In general terms, any cake in France may be considered a gâteau , but a proper gâteau has fruit or flavored cream fillings made from milk, egg yolks, sugar, and flour (not whipped cream), between the génoise or meringue layers.
Often the name of the gâteau reveals its flavor ( gâteau l Ê orange and gâteau
moka ), its size ( petite gâteau ), its place of origin ( gâteau Pithiviers ), or perhaps the
gâteau is named after a saint ( gâteau Saint-Honoré ).
So, if the layers of gâteau are frequently génoise , an understanding of génoise is also in order. Génoise is a sponge cake that gets its light, fluffy texture from air beaten into warmed egg whites, or yolks, or entire eggs (slightly warm eggs hold more air when beaten); there is no butter or fat in a génoise other than the fat in the egg yolks. Génoise is a relatively light, dry cake, so it is customary to allow the
sponge layers to absorb some fruit syrup or liqueur, and/or to create rich creamy fillings in between the layers.
Rich, creamy fillings also fill delicacies made from choux pastry; choux pastry relies on a high moisture content that releases steam during baking to „puff ‰ the pastry, rather than relying on a leavening agent such as baking powder. (This is true, except for beignets , which are fried, but made with choux pastry.) Cream puffs, profiteroles , and éclairs are choux pastry delights. Although the original recipe for choux pastry came to France with the de Medici chefs, it was modified over the years, and the recipe we use today is credited to the genius of Antonin Carême.
The creamy fillings for choux pastries, or in-between layers of génoise , are also French specialties. In France, crème has multiple variations, but two legal designa- tions are crème fraîche , which is similar to sour cream, that is, slightly fermented, and which must have 30 grams of fat per 100 grams; and crème légère which is not quite so rich, with only 12 grams of fat required per 100 grams of cream. Both chantilly and crème fraîche are used to garnish desserts. Chantilly is essentially whipped cream with some sugar and flavoring (usually vanilla), although chefs and food writers disagree on this point.
Some say that in northern France, crème fraîche is what olive oil is to southern France, that is, an everyday staple. Crème fraîche is soft, creamy, and buttery, and somewhere between yoghurt and sour cream in taste, with a much higher fat con- tent. Crème pâtissière fillings are used between the layers of gâteaux , as tart fill- ings, or to fill the choux pastry confections·cream puffs, profiteroles , and éclairs. This filling is akin to an egg custard and is thickened with flour. Crème pralinée is cream flavored with powdered pralines (nuts coated in caramelized sugar) and is also used to fill French pastries. Another French favorite is crème renversée , or crème caramel , similar to a Spanish flan .
And, of course, there is crème brûlée , literally translated as „burnt cream.‰ Crème brûlée is a chilled, egg custard that, just before serving, is sprinkled with sugar which is then quickly caramelized with a kitchen torch or under the broiler. The topping is brittle by the time it is served. Crème brûlée is a display of the French appreciation for complimentary contrasts in flavor and textures and sounds, pre- pared with a bit of drama.
Tarts are buttery shortbread crusts that are either baked and filled or filled and baked. The crust provides a light and tender pastry shell that complements a crème
fraîche mixture which is either poured over fresh fruits (e.g., apples) and baked or
which is poured into the cooled pastry shell and finished with beautifully arranged berries and other colorful, soft, lightly glazed fruits.
There are dozens of different tarts to accommodate many types of fruits and crème fillings. One of the most famous French tarts is the tarte tatin , which is affec- tionately translated, „upside down apple tart.‰ It is made by covering the bottom
of a tart pan with butter and sugar, then followed by apples, and topped with the pastry crust. As the tart bakes, the butter and sugar caramelize, and when the tart is inverted for serving, the rich caramelly mixture oozes over the apples.
Clafoutis are an extension of the custard and fruit theme in French desserts. They are traditional desserts from Limousin in rural southwest France, where wild cherries are plentiful, but, of course, clafoutis are now enjoyed not only in France but also in many parts of the world. Although originally made with the wild cher- ries, with the pits left in the cherries to impart an almond-like flavor, today it is made with pitted cherries or the fruits of your choice. The fruit is baked in a pan- cakey-like batter made with eggs and milk, and the clafoutis is done baking when the batter is nicely browned, set, and slightly puffy around the edges. Clafoutis is usually served warm with a dusting of powdered sugar and a dollop of crème
fraîche or chantilly , which is sweetened whipped cream.
The pancake-like mixture in clafoutis is very different from the French pan- cake, crêpe , which is a light, delicate, very thin creation. Crêpes are made with sweeteners and different flours and are spread with jams or fruit mixtures for des- sert. They are folded, rolled, sprinkled with powdered sugar or liqueur, flamed with brandy, all of which result in famous French sweets like crêpes suzette.
Crêpes suzette are flambéed in a chafing dish·warmed in an orange butter sauce,
doused with a fine orange liqueur, and served with a dramatic blazing flair. A small town in the Lorraine region of France, Commercy, claims the origin of the true madeleines de Commercy ·small cakes made from egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, flour, hazelnut-flavored butter, and stiffly beaten egg whites·that are eaten like a cookie and often dipped in coffee or tea. Madeleines are carefully poured into little shell-shaped molds.
Marcel Proust, the French literary genius, memorialized madeleines in Remem-
brance of Things Past , „She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called
 petites madeleines Ê, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.‰
French desserts have an elegance all their own. Equally elegant are French candies·appropriately called bonbons. At a time when sugary treats are frowned on, the French artisans celebrate sweets by making bonbons the old-fashioned way·by hand. Bonbons are edible works of art, often with tiny, exquisite, amazing detail. The same detail is applied to the wrappings and packages of the nougat , car-
amel , and chocolat bonbons. Some claim that one could tour the whole of France
The passion for detail in French sweet treats is not accidental but is, rather, the historical culmination of a respect for care and patience in preparation, a carefully orchestrated balancing of taste, texture, smell, and sound of visually appealing culi- nary creations and the development of an appreciation of the importance of always using the freshest and finest ingredients available.
Further Reading
Abramson, Julia. Food Culture in France. Connecticut: Greenwood, 2006.
Child, Julia, L. Bertholle, and S. Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking , Vol. 1. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.
Child, Julia, and S. Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking , Vol. II. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.
Herrmann Loomis, Susan. French Farm House Cookbook. New York: Workman, 1996. Montagné, Prosper. Larousse Gastronomique: The Encyclopedia of Food , Wine , and Cook-
ery , edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud. New York: Crown, 1961.
Proust, Marcel. Remembrance of Things Past , Vol. 1. Great Britain: Wordsworth Editions, 2006.
„ Restaurant de la Pyramide and Their Famous Marjolaine Cake.‰ Cooking Annie. Ac- cessed August 4, 2012. Accessed April 12, 2013. http://cookingannie.hubpages.com/ hub/Restaurant-de-la-Pyramide-and-Their-Famous-Marjolaine-Cake.
Petites madeleines, “those squat, plump little cakes” memorialized by Marcel Proust
in Remembrance of Things Past, remain an elegant traditional French favorite. (Msphotographic/Dreamstime.com)
Trubek, Amy. Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession . Philadel- phia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
Volpi, Anna Maria. „Caterina deÊ Medici: A Tuscan Queen in France.‰ Accessed May 29, 2012. http://www.annamariavolpi.com/caterina_de_medici.html.