Stephen

Ah, brown food. Now you're talking...

opening quotation marksOh, hey - it's chocolate under the crust! Not seen that before. So clever, and so true...

You know, some fool tried to tell me once, chocolate is not the only sweet. I swiftly disabused him, let me tell you...

What? What's funny? Nothing funny about it, that poor guy going through life thinking cinammon, thinking coffee, thinking all the wrong brown things, so close and no cigar. Actually he probably did think cigar, that's brown too, and I know Heston Blumenthal does cigar-flavour chocolates at the Fat Duck. And leather-flavour. Don't know what colour leather, but brown would be a good bet, don't you think?

Oh, whoops. There's something in here. Gerard, there's a fly in my brülée. Sorry, I mean of course in my crème. My crème au chocolat. No, there isn't. It's too fat, and too luscious. It's a cherry. Is it a cherry? I think it's a cherry. Hold on...

Wow. That's a cherry. What sort of a cherry is that? Whatever it is, I want a treeful. No, wait, I need to write this down. Italian deli, Newlands Road, ask for Nicky and he keeps them in the blue jar at the end of the counter. Right. Got that. Gerard, you are a saint fallen among sinners, and we are very grateful for it.

I don't suppose you made two of these, did you? Two each, I mean? No, of course you didn't. I bet you counted out the cherries, too. Didn't you? No, you got Nicky to do it, of course, in the shop, but you told him how many you wanted, to the very one. You worked it out. Four per ramekin, you said. Gerard, I love you, we both love you, but listen to this, learn from this - it's not enough. It's a broad ramekin, you could've squeezed eight in here, given just the slightest effort. Nothing superhuman, I wouldn't ask that of you, but honestly...close quotation marks


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