Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin is apples caramelized in butter and sugar, baked under a sheet of pastry, then turned out upside down so the caramelized fruit ends up on top. The story — probably part true, part restaurant legend — is that the Tatin sisters, running a hotel in the Loire Valley, made it by mistake: an apple tart forgotten on the stove too long, saved by covering the burnt fruit with pastry and baking it anyway, then flipping the disaster onto a plate.

What it actually is

Apple quarters are cooked in a pan directly in butter and sugar until they caramelize deeply and soften. A round of pastry — puff or shortcrust, both are used — is laid over the top of the apples still in the pan, tucked in at the edges, and the whole thing goes into the oven until the pastry is baked through.

The tart is then inverted onto a plate, so the pastry becomes the base and the glossy, caramelized apples sit on top, still holding the shape of the pan. It is always served this way — the "wrong way up" is the entire point of the dish.

How it's served

• Warm, straight from the oven, upside down — never cooled and re-flipped, which loses the shine on the fruit.
• With crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream, cutting the sweetness of the caramel.
• By the slice at a restaurant, or as a whole tart brought to the table and cut in front of the guest.

Writing it on a menu

• Note the butter and gluten from the pastry; there's no dairy-free version without changing the method.
• Say if it's finished to order or reheated — a tart re-warmed loses less than most desserts, but a guest who orders it expecting fresh-from-the-oven caramel should know.
• If you serve it with cream or ice cream, name it — it is normally sold as part of the dish, not an optional extra.
• Mention the story if you like; it is one of the few desserts with a real anecdote attached, and it is a natural line for a server to use.