Every restaurant job is different. In one kitchen, with one pastry chef, you make chocolate mousse a hundred different ways, another person hates bananas and tropical fruit so you never use them. In one house you spend 3 hours of your prep time for service painting, baking and lifting tuiles off silpats until you have no more fingertips, and at your next job you will need to understand what and how gelatin works. There's no telling.
As pastry chefs we have books filled with recipes for components but there is no recipe for a plated dessert. Plated desserts are short stories, novellas, quizzical sentences and adventures. We take one or a few flavors, textures, perfumes, concepts and build a plate around those beginnings.
At The French Laundry we served many desserts. Even if you only ordered one, many were shuttled out to your table. We had tiny courses to whet, calm, excite, puzzle, surprise, intrigue, satisfy, warm, cool and generally delight the palate.
One such mignardise was the famous French macaron. A tiny white button of a sandwich cookie filled with a gnome sized hand-print schmear of chocolate ganache could be found in the middle.
I hated making those cookies.
I thought the flavor was almost nothing and I didn't understand why we had to make them.
To my knowledge, this was before Pierre Herme brilliantly hid foie gras, brandied cherries, olive oil ganache and rose scented buttercream within his explicit exquisite macaron. This was before some crazy American women at a local bakery slammed the brakes on tradition and ground whole almonds (most all are made with blanched almond meal) to make such revolutionary great tasting and, gasp, seasonal! macaron, such as grapefruit and rose geranium. Not only do Miette's macaron taste delicious, they are actually made with real flavors. (Much of those fantastically colored and flavored French macaron are made with food coloring and flavor "essences.")
I do remember when Eric came back from working for Gordon Ramsey and told us that he saw beet and other radical flavored and colored macaron there in London. Blech, was all I could think.
These cookies were not only not easy to make at TFL, they were finicky and maliciously inconsistent, not to mention downright stubborn and prissy. Volatile combinations for any dessert component, and, as you can well imagine, terrifying if combined with the hands of an exacting, organized and driven pastry chef manning the wheel.
It didn't help that none of us in the kitchen could figure out how to make them and we were working with an equally temperamental still oven. (Not convection, which is the standard for pastry departments, at least in the USA.)
Luckily for all of you who know how to use the Internet, there is a thorough step-by-step tutorial on this now very famous French sandwich cookie. Fellow pastry chef Tartelette wrote the article and it's source is an online magazine called, fittingly, Desserts Magazine.
Don't delay, go there today.
Because, hey, just because I don't see what all the fuss is about, doesn't mean I'm going to keep you from the sandwich cookie love of your life. Apple of your eye. You Golden Apple of Eternal Desire, to quote Milan Kundera.
Be kept from your passion no more!
Obviously I don't hate them anymore. But until I learn how to make them again with someone who wants cookies that taste like something, I will be glad to liquidate my bank account in Paris or The Ferry Building.
I figure it's a lot like high heels. I think they're very pretty shoes, but I'm glad other people are happy wearing them so I don't have to.
~ post script: Aran was lovely enough to make me some pink peppercorn macaron when I met her in Florida. Yes, this is a beautiful example of how to change a boring component into an exciting one.
shuna, I think the excitement over macarons is due to how temperamental they are and so versatile at the same time. it's almost like a lover I once had. the more distant and cold he was, the closer I wanted to be to him. macarons allow for so many variations and combinations... like you say, plated desserts have no recipes. that's how I feel about macarons. they can be a plated dessert unto themselves. they admit so many flavor, texture and even color combinations... endless possibilities, all in one bite. I hope you enjoyed the pink peppercorn macarons. their color was from all natural red food coloring made from beet juice!!
Posted by: aran | 03 May 2008 at 10:20 PM
You took the words rigt out of my mouth! I never understood what the fuss was all about. I like making them but I don't like eating them that much. I like playing with the colors and flavors. Natural ingredients are what I prefer but customers seem to want red hot high heels where I'd rather wear flats. I have the post you wrote on Pierre Herme a while back saved among my favorite pieces of writing.
Posted by: Tartelette | 04 May 2008 at 01:35 AM
Where are my manners? Thank you for the mention and link :)
Posted by: Tartelette | 04 May 2008 at 01:57 AM
Hi Shuna,
Great post! So timely, as macarons have been on my mind ever since the conversation we had after the caramel class.
What is the pastel green filling in the pink peppercorn macarons in the photo? Its such a pretty combination... they look yummy!
Hello Rachelle,
I seem to remember these Pierre Herme macaron being filled with pistachio creme. Yummy doesn't even begin to describe how those macaron were. ~ Shuna
Posted by: Rachelle | 04 May 2008 at 11:24 AM
Hello
I have been reading your blog for a while and just love it. I am a painter and former pastry chef and relate so much to your stories. This one about macaron really hit home for me. I worked for one of those temperamental chefs who loved them and remember tray after tray coming out of the oven only to meet with his wrinkled-up nose disapproval: "Too much cracking!", or "Too thin!" etc. And all the while I thought, "But they taste like nothing special!!" All that fuss . . . but what an adventure. Thank you Shuna for your intelligent, thorough, hilarious commentary on this bigger than life dessert, and thank you also for links to recipes where they're doing it better.
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Hi there
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Posted by: Niall Harbison | 05 May 2008 at 04:37 AM
I've been meaning to have a go at these for quite a while, but it looks like the kind of thing I'd like to dedicate an entire sunday to, so that I'm not rushed. Of course that hasnt happened in such a long time! Hopefully sometime soon! I really love these, I have a sweet tooth and I'm just an absolute almond lover, any kind of frangipane or almondy thing will get me going.
Posted by: jennywenny | 05 May 2008 at 01:50 PM
For the record, I LOVE macarons. I think, for me, it's a texture thang. Yum. Thanks for the link.
Posted by: Mags | 05 May 2008 at 02:28 PM
I know all about the problems that can arise making these things, but they really are worth it in the end. I actually wrote about the Bouchon recipe (the same as the one from TFL???). The first time was a disaster, but the second time turned out to be fantastic.
Posted by: Mike | 06 May 2008 at 04:53 PM
The best macaron I've ever tasted was a curry macaron from a small Pâtisserie outside the Luxembourg Gardens... Damn good.
I've only tried to make these once, and I tanked. I have to give it another go sometime.
Posted by: Roberto N. | 08 May 2008 at 01:30 PM
I made a few flavors for the first time and they are not easy first time.. I tanked too.. but they are simply the best..
I had a scone/macaron before at a Bodum cafe... OMGosh it was delish...
GJ, I have inserted a link to your post about Macaron because I want everyone to see, not just me. Thank you for stopping by and taking time to comment! Your blog is gorgeous. ~ Shuna
Posted by: Girl Japan | 25 August 2008 at 02:12 AM
Yes, Miette makes one of the best macarons...that was where I got my inspiration first and then Pierre Herme came along.
Posted by: veron | 29 August 2008 at 10:35 AM
I just have to say that if you are ever in Portland Oregon, go to Pix Patisserie. They have the best fleur de sel caramel macarons I have ever had!
Posted by: Anne | 18 February 2010 at 10:37 PM