75 Crème Brûlée

As relevant today as it was 40 years ago. The crème brûlée is a testimony to the idea that certain dishes just work and has become a type of benchmark in cooking. If the brûlée is good then the kitchen is good.

As a dish it is nothing more than a baked custard that has been sprinkled with a type of sugar — most notably Demerara — and then blow torched until it is just this side of burnt. The contrast between the crunchy bitterness of the topping with the smooth sweetness of the cust