Guinea (pigs...and otherwise)

I have a dear friend named Rob. He's amazing in the kitchen - working toward being a famous pastry chef, and not just in our little town. He's already earned that title here.

Sometimes we are the guinea pigs for his dessert creations. Most of the time we are thrilled by this opportunity. It's a good night when Rob calls up and asks if we want dessert because he was baking all weekend and can't eat any more. Sometimes we get a perfect little two-person-sized portion, sometimes he brings over an entire cake. We eat what we can, and sometimes end up sharing it with more friends too. Rarely do we get a gomer, but we'll give a "thumbs down" if we think it necessary. This is a good arrangement.

This past weekend we had Rob & Tyler over to eat a sort of "finger food appetizer" dinner, and watch a movie. They walked in completely laden with containers and bags full of food items. Tyler rolled his eyes and said "they're all desserts."

I often tease Rob for being overly obsessive/compulsive and anal - but I feel I can say this without malice (in fact, with love and humor) as I see the same characteristics in myself. Actually, we've grown to calling each other "brother" & "sister" because we are curiously similar. This particular evening is one situation where I ribbed him mercilessly and told him I'd have to write my parents about it - "Guess what Rob made us do?!" - and yet, silently I was a little jealous I hadn't come up with the idea.

He brought over 4 different desserts: flan, chocolate surprise, almond genoise (which is pronounced "jhen-wah" but we persisted in calling "jeh-noisy" just for Rob's cringes & laughs), and some kind of custard. All of them were small enough servings, so it wasn't too bizarre that he would have brought four different things.

The crazy/interesting part was that for each of the four desserts he had made three different recipes - changing only one ingredient: the egg. His experiment was to discover the effect of using duck, chicken, and guinea eggs.

Before we got a plate or a fork, we were handed a pen and a paper with a chart on it. Four desserts listed along the left with space for tasting notes ("comment on texture, flavor, favorites," etc. I don't remember the whole list b/c I don't speak "pastry chef") and across the top of the page were the numbers "1, 2, 3" so we could make distinguishing notes & observations in each "box" as we tasted.

Twelve bites of four desserts later, we were told which eggs were used in which desserts. We compared our notes, Rob said "fascinating," and smiled, and we told him which ones he should never make again.