Tiramisu…we take this simple, delicious dessert for granted, but think back to the first time you tasted tiramisu; perfect parts creamy, cakey and coffee”y”. Not too sweet or bitter, and one serving was dessert and coffee together in a glorious creamy square of balance. Making this dessert in the 80’s was not so easy though, as the recipe was not widely printed and it had not yet become the quintessential dessert it is now. There was no internet available to look up a recipe. One would have to physically scour through food magazine pages hoping to stumble onto a printed recipe.

But, one lucky day, I was at a seminar in Beverly Hills co-sponsored by Metropolitan Home magazine, and there were some magazine celebrities there. The person I spotted and followed to the non-assigned luncheon table was the formidable Coleman Andrews. He was a well known food writer and I followed all the print editorials he wrote. He was and remains the one of the world renowned experts on Spanish and Catalan cuisine, and his wit was as sharp as his writing. As I suspected, he was not exactly friendly, but certainly not rude. Today, we might say he was snarky. When he chose to join the conversation, everyone listened. We talked about Barcelona as I was planning a trip there, and at one point over lunch, we all got to talking about tiramisu. I asked if anyone knew how to make it, and of course, he rattled off the basics of the recipe without even thinking about it. Another lady at the table who had lived in Italy, concurred with him and offered me more specifics. I had a great memory back then, and probably a good cocktail napkin (good thing since there were no smartphones). I went straight from that luncheon to Mario’s Italian Deli to buy mascarpone and ladyfingers, then went home and made my first tiramisu. Success!

A few years later when I opened my first cafe, I had a very small but curated menu and three desserts; Flan, Arroz con leche requemado (brulee) and tiramisu. I made tiramisu every weekday for years, and everyday it would sell out. I hand whisked so many egg whites, and ate so much of it, that incredibly, I actually tired of it. Sadly, like many of my other signature dishes at my cafe, I no longer would eat it. Then years later, when my youngest daughter was in high school, she informed me that she had volunteered me to make a tiramisu for her journalism class party. I got the requisite ingredients and she watched in amazement as I whipped it together without a recipe card in sight. She was on the one hand, incredulous that I had hidden this dessert from her all those years. And on the other hand, she was totally impressed, especially when her friends said it was the best tiramisu they had ever eaten. She still loves it, and I’ve come around to its charms again, especially during the pandemic as I’ve cooked a lot of goodies that I had abandoned for years. There is a reason tiramisu is a ubiquitous dessert menu favorite. It’s simply perfect!