Red Wine Tart

I previously knew a little about Anne Willan. I knew that she is originally from England, founded the La Varenne Cooking School, and has written some very well-received cookbooks. But, after reading a review copy of her memoir, One Souffle at a Time, I learned so much more about her life, her work, and her travels. After attending Cambridge, she wasn’t interested in following the current trend of young women who “were out pecking for a husband, (when) business careers, even for women graduates of Cambridge or Oxford, were a rarity.” She took a position as a cooking teacher at Winkfield, a cooking and finishing school she had attended one summer, and so began her career in food. Next, she completed the advanced course at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in London and then began teaching there. Then, she was off to France to attend the Paris Cordon Bleu after which she taught French cooking to the staff at Versailles for fundraising dinners. It wasn’t long before her move to the US to live in New York where she quickly enough landed a job with Gourmet magazine. She married her husband in Costa Rica, moved to Washington DC, and became the food editor of The Washington Star. She traveled with her husband for business and pleasure with one trip including stops in Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Delhi, Tehran, Isfahan, Persepolis, Jerusalem, Jordan, and Cairo. She wrote the Grand Diplome Cooking Course for an American audience while seven months pregnant. And, after her second child was born, she was working on her book Entertaining Menus. It wasn’t long before she, her husband, and children moved to Paris where she started planning for La Varenne, and many more books came later as well. Her life sounds like a never-dull whirlwind of cooking, writing, entertaining, teaching, and traveling. I’ve breezed through some moments of her past, but it’s all so much better described in the book. And, each section is accompanied by a recipe that corresponds to an anecdote like the Shrimp and Cheese Souffles that she prepared for Craig Claiborne in Manhattan, the Gourgeres from a reception attended by Julia Child and James Beard, and a Red Wine Tart served at a summer party at her chateau. 

I was fascinated by the idea of a tart with a red wine filling. The chef instructor from La Varenne had discovered the recipe in an old cookbook from Burgundy. In the headnote, Willan mentions that she prefers a particular French pinot noir for this because it pairs well with the cinnamon in the recipe. I brought home a bottle of French burgundy and got baking. The crust is a sweet pate sucree made with egg yolks, butter, flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt. After resting, the dough was rolled and fitted into a nine-inch tart shell. It was blind-baked until golden. The filling was just a mix of two eggs, a half cup of sugar, two teaspoons of cornstarch, and two teaspoons of cinnamon that was whisked together. A cup of pinot noir was stirred in last. It’s noted in the recipe that any froth is to be avoided, and careful stirring is advised. The filling was poured into the tart shell, and it went back into a 375 degree F oven for about 20 minutes until the center was set. It was served with whipped cream. 

The flavor is fruity but vaguely so, and the cinnamon is front and center. I think I was expecting a redder looking tart, but the color is almost like chocolate which is not a bad trade-off. It’s a great dessert for a dinner party, and it’s an easy one to prepare. I was as delighted to learn about this red wine tart as I was to read this memoir. 

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