I have two French heroes, geniuses in their professions, and similarly named: Andre Le Notre and Gaston Lenotre.
The first was a poet of landscape architecture: the designer of arguably the most influential and extravagant garden in European history, Versailles. The second was a poet of patisserie: the founder of a delicious empire built on transforming the best and the freshest ingredients into ethereal creations.
That Lenotre — Gaston-Albert-Celestin — died Thursday at his home outside Paris. He was 88. I never ate at any of his restaurants nor visited any of his pastry shops. But once, a friend brought me back a sweet bite from one of his Paris locations. I still have the wrapper, creased and folded inside of the front cover of my copy of Lenotre's book.
I have the crumpled wrapper from a Lenotre dessert tucked inside his 1977 cookbook.
I left a job making pastries and desserts to go to graduate school and study textile design. I was burned out on the chaos of restaurant kitchens. But I was still a devotee of fancy desserts and paid close attention to who was doing what in the professional world of food and cooking. So I immediately got a copy of Lenotre's book when the English language version came out in 1977.
"Lenotre's Desserts and Pastries" is not for the faint of heart. But it is one of the most rigorous, straightforward and clear descriptions of how to make classic desserts that you will ever find. My copy is sticky and chocolate-stained; I'm guessing that's true for anyone who owns Lenotre's book.
It's brilliantly organized with opening chapters offering basic recipes for doughs, batters, creams and syrups. After that, virtually all the desserts are varying combinations of those techniques and ingredients. If you learn a couple, you have an instant repertoire of possibilities. Measurements are given in U.S and Euro amounts and Lenotre often includes recipes for different size batches, such as for one or two cups of pastry cream.
"When you've been at Lenotre, it's like a drug" said former apprentice Michael Richard in The New York Times. "You've been injected with his recipes that you have to carry your whole life." I admit I've only ever made a few of Lenotre's recipes. My most dramatic Lenotre creation was his pair of "Chocolate and Vanilla Charlotte." They dazzled my dinner guests and — almost 30 years later — their memory still dazzles me.
BON APPETIT DEC. 1979
The late Gaston Lenotre displays paired "Chocolate and Vanilla Charlotte," one of his many specialites.
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