My heart started beating a little faster; orange donuts had been on my training table for years! A go-to breakfast food that in my youth had been manufactured by Freihofer's Bakery, but had sadly been discontinued sometime in the last decade. It was a different bakery, but it was the familiar box of six, orange flavored and glazed cake donuts. I tucked the box under my arm, smiling like the Cheshire Cat; gladly paying whatever price to attain them. And with that, and some pleasantries with the cashier and some fellow customers, I headed home. As I carried the donut on my way to sit down, all I could think was, "I hope that this is as good as a Freihofer's orange donut."
Light. Bulb.
THIS was exactly what I had been referencing when talking about recreating/reconnecting people to childhood taste/flavor memories! "Could it ever live up to my memories?" I took a bite...it was good, but not as great as I remembered my childhood orange donuts. "BUT, is it possible that I have over romanticized the childhood donut? And THIS donut is just as good if not better?" That is a lot of soul searching regarding a donut...
And that kind of soul searching happens everyday. How do we capture that "lightning in a bottle," that magical feeling that you remember from the first time you had a warm chocolate chip cookie, (or a glazed orange flavored cake donut)? Not only do chefs try and connect you, as their guest, to their flavor memories, chefs are trying to reconnect you with YOUR flavor memories.
