France-tastic

Who would have thought a simple Pav' would have the glamour to wow a french audience? Let alone a pav that didn't come off too well from a massive up-scaling attempt? Twelve egg whites later, and Jenny and Alex learnt a few valuable lessons about meringues and surface area and looong slow cooking and the fact that some recipes can not be successfully quadrupled. None the less, and despite the fact that said somewhat imploded gateau australien was squashed beneath a quiche until I rescued it in horror, the frenchies in my lab were mightily impressed by this lighter-than-light manna, all ears about Russian ballerinas and whipped eggs. Add to this their utter amazement when I told them that in Australia this was considered a rather unsophisticated dessert, and I would never have considered making a pavlova back there to impress dinner guests, and I think I now have the latter part of the meal stitched up any time a frenchy comes to dinner in the future!

As for the whipped cream the pavlova was slathered in, there is another mystery of the french that I'll never understand. They were almost as impressed with that as with the pavlova itself. For a culture which takes so much pride (justifiably, I'll add) in their food and cooking, how on earth can they possibly accept the horrible plastic foam that comes out of a can as whipped cream?



Even now, weeks after the end of year BBQ that introduced Pavlova to the French masses, it is still the talk of the tea room with people coming from other labs to see photos of the fameux gateau australien and requests for an encore arriving daily.