The Chef Dessert That Was So Good It Made Julia Child Cry
For any aspiring chef, being invited to appear on Julia Child's late-'90s PBS series "Baking with Julia" was in itself a high honor — but creating a dessert so exquisite it moved the legendary chef to tears was something else entirely. In Season 3, Episode 3, a young Nancy Silverton prepared her crème fraîche brioche tart topped with a "secret white sauce" sabayon (a light Italian custard) and sautéed stone fruits. After tasting it, Child was so overcome with emotion, she called it a "dessert to cry over."
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Proof that good things are worth waiting for, the delicate tart requires two days to prepare, featuring a buttery brioche base, a bread ideal for sweet dishes such as French toast or bourbon-laden bread pudding. Silverton makes a crème fraîche custard that bakes with the brioche under a low temperature of only 270 degrees Fahrenheit. Her secret white sauce (although not so secret after airing on public TV) is caramel-infused with vanilla bean and white wine, a sauce she uses to cook sliced peaches, plums, and nectarines, and to make the sabayon.
A moment to remember
French chef, TV personality, and co-author of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" – perhaps one of the most famous cookbooks in American history — Julia Child inspired professional chefs and amateur home cooks during her career spanning over four decades. Over the years, the passionate gourmet cooked with many other renowned chefs, from Jacques Pepin and Daniel Boulud to Rick Bayless and Alice Waters, but only Nancy Silverton's magnificent tart made Child weep.
When Silverton appeared on the show, she was a celebrated James Beard award-winning chef, baker, and restaurateur in her own right, but cooking with Child must have been nonetheless memorable. Heartwarming memories of Julia Child abound from her hilarious cooking fail on David Letterman's late night show to reams of good sense cooking advice, but it's doubtful Silverton, or any of Child's fans, will ever forget the taste that made her cry.