I wrote this back in 2005 for my Newsletter “Relatively Speaking” which has since passed away due to Spam-A-Lot.  I have always felt that by  typing out a true story ( maybe not so well told) will get me in gear to accomplish my goal .. make a pie .

Being on, around and immersed in food for close to 40 years and blessed with having rubbed elbows with some of the world’s greatest chefs and having eaten at the world’s top restaurants, I have (I believe) not a meager understanding of what appeases the palette and what places the mind into culinary stupor. Now that might sound like I’m a little taken with myself when it comes to haute cuisine, but shucks, after almost 40 years of it I need to brag a little. Right?!

I’m a food fanatic, a diehard in the wool - a fun-loving foodie by profession and also by choice. What, I recently asked myself, have I been missing all these years? I’ve traversed the world and tasted the flavors and smelled the aromas from Morroco to Edinburg , Athens to Montreal , Lubec, Maine, to St. Louis Obispo, California, to Seattle, Washington, to Hollywood Beach, Florida and Holmesburg Pa

I’ve worked with great French chefs such as Emmit Grongiere (later of La Pavion in NYC and then Executive Chef, Culinary Institute, Hyde Park) and Andre Lamazier of Fountainbleu in Miami as well as great American Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill in Chicago.

I’ve partaken in $148/lb. Kobe beef at Bradley Ogden’s in Vegas, enjoyed at $3.00 a dog Nathan’s hot dogs, smothered with Grey Poupon in the Dallas, Texas, Galleria Mall and seared my tongue on K-Paul’s deliciously hot jambalaya in New Orleans. I scoured the Mission district in San Francisco looking for the perfect Puerco Con Salsa Verde and the Pike Street Market, Seattle, for the most mouthwatering Coho. All this, and I never spent a dime of my own money.

All these interesting people, exotic places and incredible plates I’ve experienced, yet looking back and mentally surveying the field, I can unequivocally, without one moment of hesitation, say that the tastiest, most incredible food to melt across my palate was my grandmother Rose Sullivan’s chocolate banana cream pie. That wonderful small wedge of culinary bliss my Nana made. 

I would watch her in her kitchen while she cooked from scratch that pie. Real chocolate not from a box, real cream whipped until thick and real bananas (of course) with home crust made soft and flaky.  I made sure I would eat everything on my dinner plate leaving no doubt I would get my  incredible slice.    My recollection is that I had about 20 pieces of that pie before she passed away about 50 years ago  .

Was it actually the pie or the experience surrounding that pie that made it so tasty? Was it a 9-year-old’s palate yet untouched by sorbates, lactates and disodium inosinates that allowed the pure rich chocolate to coat my tongue, suspending that moment in my mind forever? Whatever it was, I cannot physically re-create it. I can make a nice Lobster Newburg, a wholesome Yankee pot roast and light syrupy cinnamon buns. But make that pie…nope!, no way.

I’m retiring soon and plan to spend a good part of my time recreating that recipe. Once I get it right I’m going to throw it, along with a few others I’ve found worth saving over the years, into a cookbook. Some of my recipes are a couple hundred years old. You’ll need a couple Chewtes and a fallow deer to complete these recipes. I will also be happy to give space in my book to anyone else’s special recipes from the past, with credit going to the submitter. Hey! Maybe you can help raise money for DeadFred with a book of memorial recipes donated to DeadFred by its friends of the Archive! Maybe we can call it:

Family Recipes by the Friends of DeadFred
Includes Rose Sullivan’s Incredible Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

If you like the idea send your recipe(s) to archivists@deadfred.com, or if you don’t want to cut loose of the special secret recipes then you could just donate some money to support the archive.

DeadFred.com
PO Box 6937
Springdale, Arkansas 72766-6937

Before you close the envelope include a recipe for Chocolate Banana Cream pie if you have one.

Bon appetit

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 12:57 pm and is filed under For Your Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.