Today’s recipe combines one of my recipes and one by my friend Inger, who writes The Art of Natural Living. She posted a pear frangipane tart sometime before Christmas, and I had been tasked with finding a Christmas dessert with a 1999 Château d’Yquem Sauternes (thanks, Lee!). Such a problem …

I love this tart, it might seem daunting, but I’ve broken it down into three parts, so open a bottle of rosé and have fun with it. You’ll be really happy with the results, I promise! I’ve made the pastry, but feel free to buy it. There are some amazing …

This chocolate and pear tart is a perfect dessert for autumn. Chocolate and pears are a magnificent marriage of flavour and texture. For this dessert, I also created a leaf design with raspberry coulis and caramel on a white plate (using squeeze bottles) and blended the colours with a synthetic …

One of my favourite desserts is seasonal fruit tarts (tartes aux fruits). These tarts also make nice afternoon treats. So, I make them all year with local, in-season produce. In California, you find puff pastry sheets at most grocery stores (Ralphs, Gelson’s) and at French supermarkets like Carrefour or Intermarché. …

There are a few things that you might regret in life, but visiting Vancouver, British Columbia, would never be one of those things. Spending a week in this beautiful city on Canada’s west coast was a dream made possible by good friends who insisted we needed a getaway. They were …

Almost indescribable, the scent of a fig tree full of almost ripe fruit is a fragrance that is both sweet and earthy, it’s summer in Provence. The scent is distinctive, almost arresting in the open air, however, in a closed space can be overwhelming. And, you can eat too many! …

The origin of the Apple Tarte Tatin aux Pommes is rooted in France’s Loire Valley in the small town of Lamotte-Beuvron. Born out of an unintended mistake in the kitchen, this tarte is the sweet result. At the time, the two Tatin sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline, owned and operated the …

The French love the flaky, sweet Galette des Rois (that we enjoy in January) so much that they find excuses to eat more of it all year long. For example, this recipe for the fish-shaped pastry is a creative take on the beloved Galette des Rois. While it might not …

If you enjoy the almond flavour of the Galettes des Rois (a traditional holiday recipe in France) but find it a bit too rich, here is an alternative with a twist. Almond cream can also be used in tarts to make our Tartes Bourdaloue or in tartlets for our Amandines. …

This past weekend I made my favourite dessert of all time; a seductively simple warm chocolate tart that I first encountered at Joel Robuchon’s restaurant in Paris many years ago. It is a rich and decadent dessert, with a silky-smooth custard-like chocolate filling that truly has no peers. The first …