Food Fair: Tarte au citron

Last week I took part in a community food fair to showcase French, Italian or Spanish culinary nationalist food. In preparation for the food fair I chose to make a tarte au citron. I chose this tart because it is a fan favourite and works well at an morning start for the food fair. This time suits morning tea and coffee, which was my aim in selecting a sweet tart. The origins of the tarte au citron lie in Menton on the Cote d’Azur, France. This area produces the vast majority of lemons grown in France. Interestingly, the tarte au citron was codified by Michel and Albert Roux at their Le Gavroche restaurant in London during the 1970’s. This codification has positioned tarte au citron as a staple French dessert. Its popularisation has developed different variations with a sharper and more acidic curd mixture or a meringue topping. The joys and challenges of making the tarte au citron was the time involved. Essentially it is a two-stage process of the pastry and the lemon custard filling. The challenge was the blind bake of the pastry and resulted in a bit of the rim burnt. I presented the lemon tart on the metal base with a knife to cut slices or have a taste. The rich colour of the lemon filling was enough to draw attention. I altered the recipe to have 4 large lemon instead of 7 regular lemon’s so the filling was not as strong. Tarte au Citron was well received as it was entirely polished off by the end of the food fair.