![]() She explains “It was a quick shot, but I worked hard to get the right look and technique, so I could make it over and over again, and have it look exactly the same each time, which is essential for a movie scene.” ![]() It was on the latter project that she got very, very good at apple tarte tatins. Her name is Susan Spungen and she’s a cookbook author and food stylist and whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably admired her behind-the-scenes handiwork on movies - see: that croissant scene in It’s Complicated, oh and everything Amy Adams and Meryl Streep cooked in Julie & Julia. And I had a feeling I knew who had cooked/styled it - my across-the-street neighbor. I’d begrudgingly resigned myself a life of tatin mediocrity when I spotted one of the most stunning ones I’d seen to date on a magazine stand. I mean, just look at them - too thin, too sparse, too pale, apples either under- or overcooked, and way too many apples have dissolved long before the cooking time should have been up, despite being “good baking apples.” I love it enough that I’ve written about it twice (!) in eleven years but my efforts were… mediocre at best. If you’re lucky, the apples will taste like they drank a cup of caramel and then napped in what they couldn’t finish. When made well, this upside-down apple tart looks like snug copper cobblestones on top of a rippling puff of flaky pastry. I don’t need all recipes to have 5- or 10- or fewer ingredients - I fare poorly under arbitrarily restrictive confines - but doesn’t it just blow your mind that you can make the apple tarte tatin above with only apples, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and a sheet of defrosted puffed pastry? Almost without fail, the more bafflingly short an ingredient list and the more stunningly delicious the outcome, the more likely it is to rivet me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |