History and Recipe of the Tarte Tatin

One story holds that the Tatin sisters, who held a restaurant in Lamotte-Beuvron in the Loire-et-Cher department of France, realised they forgot to add the pastry when the rich, deep scent of caramel wafted through the kitchen. Adding the pastry on top of the apples while the Tarte was still baking, they then served it upside down, creating the now illustrious Tarte Tatin.

Another affirms they accidentally dropped a just baked Tarte on the floor, and, wanting to resolve the mishap, served it upside down.

The Grand Larousse Gastronomique merely laughs at these apocryphal stories, providing a rather less fascinating story... it explains the Tarte Tatin was born from the labour of skilled and adept managers of a successful restaurant, and not as a result of the sisters' maladroitness or having their heads in the clouds. Nevertheless, it is the first story that is recounted on the website of the town of Lamotte-Beuvron.

In 1926, Curnonsky, baptised the Prince of Gastronomy for his title as the most well-known writer on gastronomy in the 20th century, was seduced by the dessert. He presented in Paris under the name of the "Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin".

The Tarte Tatin is now an all-time classic French dessert, famous around the world, hailed by chefs in the likes of Christophe Michalak and Jean-Gorges Vongerichten. To this day, it is still served in the restaurant where it was originally created and a favourite amongst many diners. It truly is an indulgence "naturellement reversante"!

I've tried a few recipes of the Tarte Tatin by now, and the best one I've stumbled across is Christophe Michalak's one. It's been kindly written up by several bloggers, but I find the one from "Les petits secrets de Lolo" to be a particularly well designed blog post.