Mmmmm...donuts...

Last night on my way home from work, my sweet tooth kicked in.  "Pie. Cookies!  CAKE!!!" I really started craving something sweet but "substantial."  Then I looked at the time, and determined that if I continued at my current rate of speed, I would be able to make it to the village store before closing...with five minutes to spare.  Fantastic!  However, there is no bakery: no pie.  No cookies.  No cake.  "That's okay," I thought.  "I'll just get some ice cream."  Then, as I head down the aisle to the ice cream freezer, a non-descript box catches my eye: "Orange Donuts."




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.