Nothing to do with perfume, and I’m not sure if this is meant to help Kevin or taunt him (if you missed his clafoutis tale, go here), but Third Shift in Las Vegas made a lovely peach (I think it is peach?) clafoutis, and then in a nod to recent perfumery trends, an apparently disgusting lychee clafoutis…
Years ago, while perusing Larousse Gastronomique, I saw a beautiful photo of a cherry clafoutis. The clafoutis had been baked in an emerald-green provençale dish and had been placed on a black-and-cream-colored toile de Jouy cloth that covered a shady spot beneath an ancient olive tree; an antique tin bucket, full of sparkling ice and a bottle of wine, had been set on the ground next to the clafoutis. It all looked so delightful! I had to eat clafoutis! So I made clafoutis (several times) and each time I wondered: how can fresh eggs, butter, milk, sugar and sweet cherries turn into THIS mess, this eggy, soggy pile that becomes inedible just minutes out of the oven? Being tempted to buy a perfume you have not smelled is a lot like finding a new recipe: you read the ingredients, look at a gorgeous illustration, and think “I love everything in this! It sounds and looks delicious!” Acting on a hunch that everything will work out fine, you prepare the recipe (or, as the case may be, buy the perfume). Sometimes you relish the result. Sometimes you become nauseous.
I’ve had decades to learn my perfume lessons. I know I shouldn’t buy a fragrance without sampling it beforehand…
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did some serious eating, and I am still in a kind of food-induced coma. But the fragrance shopping must go on…
At formaggio-kitchen, Rose Petal Jam from the Languedoc region of France. This sounds fabulous; please comment if you’ve ever tried rose petal jam! $9.95…
Macys will hold a series of Food & Fragrance events with James Beard-award winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini of Restaurant Jean Georges:
Through in-store chef demonstrations, Chef Iuzzini will explore the relationship between perfumery, science and the senses by pairing prestige fragrance brands with original dessert recipes inspired by the fragrances' sweet notes…The one-hour demonstrations will begin with an introduction to the select notes that make up the “recipe” of the fragrance and the corresponding dessert. Exposure to the same notes will happen again during the demonstration when the actual fragrance is revealed to the audience…
Been wanting a new Rosine perfume? Here is good reason to cave: scientists at Kanebo, the Japanese cosmetics company, have determined that smelling the fragrance of roses can…