What is your favorite food-related memory?

[Ling]

Hi Dorie, I frequently use your books when baking, so it's an honour to talk to you via EG. I'm sure you've had the opportunity to eat many delicious things with many wonderful people thus far, and I was wondering if you could share with us your fondest food memory.

[Dorie Greenspan]

Ling, I'm delighted to talk to you and the other avid – and incredibly talented – eG bakers.

Like everyone else, I've got many, many food memories that I treasure, some are cherished because of the moment, some because of the people who shared the food with me, some because of the effect they had on me and some because what I ate was just so delicious.

One food memory that is special for all of these reasons involves a tiny tartelette aux fraises de bois – a wild strawberry tartlet. It was teensy, as tartlettes should be, but I shared it with Michael, my husband (read, I just about wrestled him to the ground for half of it). We had it on our first trip to Paris and it was classic – a sweet tart dough filled with vanilla pastry cream, topped with a few wild strawberries and drizzled with a bit of glaze – and it was soooooooo good. You could really taste the fresh, slightly tangy butter in the crust, the vanilla in the cream was pure and strong, and the fruit was deeply, deeply flavorful. It was perfect. And it was also a lesson: in the one little bite I had, I felt as if I immediately understood why French pastry was held in such high regard.

[Ling]

The wild strawberry tartlet sounds incredible! I once had wild strawberries included in my dessert, and they were so tiny that I could fit one berry on each of my fork tines. They were the most delicious berries I've ever tasted, and I imagine that tartlet you had was even better!