Thought for Food

Elizabeth — author of the new memoir of food and romance in the most beautiful city in the world, Lunch in Paris — recently received a gift for the ages: the recipe for the traditional French cake that is served on Galette, the feast of the Epiphany. The cake, she writes,

is a dense almond cream called frangipane, tucked between two layers of puff pastry. Inside the cake is hidden a tiny figurine – la fève – originally a broad bean. He who finds the fève is king for a day – paper crown and everything.

Ah! It it the pastry forefather of New Orleans’ beloved King Cake. And her description brings back a delicious memory: many years ago, my family and I spent New Year’s Eve in New Orleans. One day, we went to a French bakery and bought a Galette cake and it was so heavenly that we ate it with our bare hands right there on the street! (Perhaps I’m exaggerating.)

And I found la fève and fell deeply in love with New Orleans and together we lived happily ever after….

(Again, I may be embellishing. Apologies. But the power of the Galette cake is just that strong. So strong that for many Carnival seasons in New Orleans I searched high and low for this very special King Cake but had no words to describe it, merely a taste memory fading by the day. And now! I can make it at home. For it just so happens that M. has some homemade puff pastry in the freezer that he demands I make use of. Only doing my part.)

Thanks to Elizabeth Bard of Lunch in Paris, I’ve spent the last 20 minutes marveling over unusual, intelligent, and beautiful kitchen- and tableware designed by Konstantin Slawinski.

A sculptural metal squiggle, dubbed the “Noooodle,” is a pasta-measuring guide that doubles as a trivet. The “Throwzini” knife block echoes the sexy curves of a magician’s assistant and magically keeps the knives in place with magnets. Graphic candles set the pace of your dinner party, moving from cocktail hour to after-dinner cigarettes (Slawinski is French, after all) to bed.

Elizabeth writes of the “S-XL” cake pan, which marks out slices in four sizes; “Is it me or does [it] seem tailor-made for judgment and humiliation? Go ahead, take the piece that’s the size of a throw pillow, I dare you.”

If you dared me to buy everything in Slawinski’s collection, I just might do it.

Distraction of the day: Lunch in Paris, a charming and addicting blog by Elizabeth Bard, an American expat living the foodie, mommy-bliss dream in Paris. She’s the author of the upcoming book of the same name, which looks utterly fabulous.