The kitchen rule she rarely breaks.
To buy the best quality ingredients I can, and then, keep it simple.
Always in her refrigerator.
Fresh mint, bunches of greens, Greek yogurt, organic eggs.
Her standard hostess outfit.
An easy, draped silk dress with nude heels and pearl earrings.
The taste she’s always craving.
A creamy and spicy cup of chai. All the time.
Her must-have entertaining tool.
Transforming our apartment from everyday to entertaining always involves three simple things: fresh flowers everywhere, smoky incense and flickering candles, and soft music in the background.
The restaurant meal she’ll never forget.
Last year, we spent a week in Provence, staying in a quaint villa amidst hundreds of vineyards. There were a few small villages a number of miles away, the sort of villages that had nothing but a crumbling church, a library, a butcher that was closed more often than it was open, and a lively open air market on Saturday mornings. On the final night of our stay, we asked the winemaker for a recommendation for where we could find a bottle of wine and some simple country fare that evening; he made a reservation and scribbled down an address for us. The village was dark and empty when we arrived on its cobblestone streets. We pushed open the heavy door of a centuries-old stone building and found the most sophisticated and elegant restaurant behind it. Imagine a modern space, all white, with a few tables and a glass wine cellar filled with the world’s most exclusive wines. We started with ice cold oysters with a tart and smoky mignonette. We ordered in French and six decadent and artistic courses followed. For dessert, a shallow white bowl was placed on the table, holding a sphere made entirely from chocolate. The waiter poured warm chocolate from a height, which melted through the center of the sphere, revealing chocolate ice cream inside; it was a rich study of chocolate in all textures, in all temperatures: creamy, crisp, cold, fondant. As the night drew to an end, we sipped espresso and idled over salted caramel macarons, amazed that we had expected a taste of local, rustic cuisine and instead we found a restaurant that exceeded our previous experiences at the world’s top restaurants in New York and across Europe. It was the most memorable restaurant meal, not only for the design and the tastes, but also for the hours of lingering conversation and for the way that we looked at one another across the table, reflecting on our life together and dreaming of the future, with still as much to share as when we first met. We drove back to our villa through the wide, empty countryside in the pouring rain…
Her signature entertaining dish.
Always something sweet… I love anything floral and, of course, dark chocolate, which means that my dark chocolate mousse tarts with rosewater and black tea syrup are perfection. They are sophisticated and delicate; thin, flaky pastry filled creamy, rich mousse still soft in the centre, infused with rosewater and balanced with a hint of salt. I pour a sweet, fragrant syrup over them that is all at once floral and earthy, finished with a generous spoonful of cream and pieces of chocolate strewn about. (see recipe next)
Click here to get the recipe for Robyn’s Dark Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Rosewater & Black Tea Syrup
Her entertaining style in 5 words or less.
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