Upside-Down Pear & Nut Tart with Calvados Syrup

Before I lived in Amsterdam, I lived in The Hague while attending art school. To make some extra money I worked in restaurants, in the kitchen or as a waitress. In one of the restaurants (Peppermint; you may have heard of it), we’d bake this tart weekly. A hundred years later I still find this a great recipe, and I’m giving it to you—I noted it down in my very, very first recipe journal, which I made with my colleagues Natascha and Iris.

We used to eat it with maple syrup, but I mak