Catalan Cream and Variations

OK, it’s not grilling or barbecue—not technically, at least. But once you’ve watched Pierre Gironès, owner of the restaurant L’Hostalet de Vivès near Céret in southwestern France, pull an incendiary hot metal poker out of the manorial fireplace where he does his grilling and touch it to the top of his signature crema catalana (a crème brûlée-like dessert), once you’ve seen and smelled the smoke rise with an alchemical hiss and the sugar melt to a vitreous shell, once you’ve tapped th