Dispatches from Abroad: Catching up with Crème Brûlèes

Cinnamon crème brûlée, poached pears, and pear sorbet at the Kyfelsen Inn

My last annual round of crème brûlées ended in June 2022, just as the new post-pandemic normal was starting to take hold. July 2022 was remarkable not only for my lack of crème brûlées but also because I managed to spend the whole month at home in Boston. But I was on the road again in August, this time driving to Montreal (in an EV, of course) with Nick Gotelli for the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America. I was attending the ESA meeting on behalf of the British Ecological Society’s journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, which, as its newly-appointed Executive Editor, I was helping steer towards gold open access—a goal that was reached in January 2023. I also got to reprise my role as roadie and maestro of the sound board for Nick & Company’s annual performance at the ESA meetings.

September was another month at home, gearing up and packing for what has turned out to be a full year of travel—away from home at least part of every month since last October, and which looks to continue unabated through mid-February of 2024.

Continue reading “Dispatches from Abroad: Catching up with Crème Brûlèes”

Dispatches from Abroad: Crème Brûlèe Take-aways

While the long, dark shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic has restricted opportunities not only to travel but also to dine inside restaurants, especially in the US and Europe, meals taken-out or delivered can provide a welcome respite from the day-in-day-out routine of cooking in. While take-out is wonderful in the abstract, the reality is that anything that’s spent even 15 minutes getting from the restaurant or bakery to the home table (and 30-45 minutes is more likely) is bound to disappoint. And for desserts, even more so, and a pastry chef I am not. Opportunities for crème brûlèes have been few and far between this past year, but as winter set in, a few presented themselves. Continue reading “Dispatches from Abroad: Crème Brûlèe Take-aways”