A critic cooks: Fay Maschler’s recipe for glossy, golden apple tarts, inspired by Pierre Martin

French glam: drizzling a sugar and butter emulsion on top will make the tart shine
Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd
Fay Maschler11 November 2020

It was 1975. One way you discovered new restaurants to review was thanks to letters from readers — yes, handwritten on notepaper! Sent in an envelope! With a stamp! One with a description of a new and different kind of fish restaurant directed me on a wintry evening to La Croisette in Ifield Road. 

When reviewing, I compared my visit to this Kensington restaurant to a short holiday in the south of France: plateau de fruits de mer astounded, Provencal prints delighted, the leaping freshness of simply prepared sea bream seduced. Generosity with extras all contributed to place it happily midway between a chippie and the sort of turbot-for-toffs establishments that existed then in the London fish restaurant pond.

I only met co-owner Pierre Martin, from Cannes, when he opened his second establishment, Le Suquet in Draycott Avenue. “Your Croisette review meant that we didn’t anymore sit there all evening, playing cards,” he said. We became friends. He was a gifted restaurateur, with the ability to gauge a room that working 12 years as head barman at Le Fouquet in the Champs-Élysées had bestowed. And he had prodigious energy. After service he would drive to France to buy fish from Boulogne and Rungis market to ensure best product at best price.

It was at Lou Pescadou, another of his five restaurants, that I tried this dessert, a delicate apple tart. When he explained the method, Pierre observed contentedly that three-star Michelin restaurants do the same sort of thing, call it tarte fine and charge a great deal of money. 

Pierre observed contentedly that three-star Michelin restaurants do the same sort of thing, call it tarte fine and charge a great deal of money

It occurred to me that it was possible they might spread apple puree beneath the slices or substitute apricot compote but I like the speed, the clarity and the crunch of this direct approach. You could even envisage making it, as it were, to order. When Simon Hopkinson offered it at Bibendum when he was chef-patron there, the menu requested that you wait 20 minutes and plenty of people did. It is a quick, hot, ticklish assembly that would follow on well from, say, a salad main course or a gathering of leftovers, and contribute a bit of French glam. Ready-rolled sheets of puff pastry are a great asset here. When serving, a splash of Calvados and maybe also a spoon of crème fraîche offers enhancement.

Lightning apple tarts

Serves: Each saucer-sized tart feeds one, two at a pinch

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 25-30 mins

You will need:  

  • 1 packet puff pastry,  block or ready-rolled sheet
  • 2 dessert apples e.g. Cox’s Orange Pippin or Braeburn
  • 75-100g butter
  • Caster or icing sugar
  • Dash of Calvados (optional but desirable)
  • Crème fraîche (ditto)  

Method: 

  • Turn on the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.
  • Roll out the pastry very thinly. Using a saucer — roughly 15cm diameter — as a guide cut out four rounds.
  • Place these on a wetted baking sheet (or sheets); puff pastry rises more easily and crisply, oddly enough, with the help of rising steam.
  • Peel, core and halve the apples and slice into paper-thin crescents. Lay these in concentric circles, slightly overlapping to cover the pastry discs with one layer.
  • Dot butter on the tarts and sprinkle with sugar or icing sugar, bearing in mind that the apples are independently sweet.
  • Bake in the pre-heated oven, checking after 20 minutes to see if apples are tipped with gold, and glossy with caramelised butter and sugar. If not, return until they are.
  • If the surface is still not dazzling with its shine, melt about 50g butter, stir in 50g sugar, simmer until emulsified and slightly toffee-like, then pour on.
  • A splash of Calvados or a dollop of crème fraîche offers is enhancement. 

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