"SeminalFoodMoments" news and stories

I believe that every slashfoodie has a collection of seminal food moments, the ones that transform and open your world in a spoonful. That first taste of freshly-made ricotta; the mouth feel of a sublime red wine at its peak; learning the finer points of emulsification; eating fish-and-chips in a real English pub. One of my seminal food moments was the first time I tasted crème brûlée. It was my twentieth summer, and I was waiting tables at a French restaurant oddly located in a strip mall in Charlotte, NC. I was instantly in love, and I pestered and begged until the chef taught me how to make it. That perfect dessert, with its crunchy burnt-sugar crust and its cold creamy custard flecked with vanilla bean seeds, is now the way I judge a truly good restaurant (one disappointing steakhouse in Denver served up a crème brûlée made with whole eggs, a crime).