Recipe - Tarte Tropezienne Part 1 Of 2 - Background

See part 2 for recipe

Recipe by: Author Unknown

This Tarte Tropezienne recipe is not my original creation. It's based on a
recipe in a cookbook entitled La table d'un Provençal by Mr. Guy Gedda, a
noted authority on provençal cuisine, and incorporates some adaptations
we've made to accommodate our own tastes.

According to Mr. Guy Gedda, the recipe was developed by Alexandre Micka, a
Pole whose family immigrated to the Lorraine part of France in 1914. WWII
brought Mr. Micka to St.Tropez. He fell in love with the sun and sea and
decided to stay after the War. Relying on his preWar apprenticeship in a
pastry shop in Lorraine, he opened his own pastry shop in St.Tropez. Using
local ingredients, he recreated as best he could a pastry that he recalled
from his youth in Lorraine and called it Tarte Tropézienne. The people in
St.Tropez didn't give much regard to his creation at first. It was
considered just a "local curiosity" until the 1960's when St.Tropez began
attracting beautiful people from around the world who fell in love with his
creation.

Mr. Micka's biggest turning point came in 1970, when he was offered a
onemonth Mexican vacation by an American businessman who owned a chain of
Mexican restaurants in the U.S. The offer was conditioned on Mr. Micka
cooking up his Tarte Tropezienne at various restaurants to introduce to
North American palates. This sojourn in North America introduced Mr. Micka
to the convenience of frozen foods and he launched a line of frozen Tarte
Tropezienne upon his return to France to increase his market base.

Today, the authentic Tarte Tropezienne is made fresh in Cogolin, a town
adjacent to St.Tropez. Mr. Micka will not reveal the secrets of his creme
patissiere. But a pastry chef named Roland Delmonte in Bormes les Mimosas,
the home of Mr. Gedda's restaurant, has recreated it to a level of 19.5
authenticity on a scale of 20! Here is his basic recipe with a few of
modifications added in.

This is an ambitious recipe which takes about 5 hours from start to finish.

Entered for you by: Bill Webster
Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #870 by Bill Webster thelma@pipeline.com on
Oct 27, 1997