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Pear Pressure
How I challenged one ingredient to shine in four courses of a memorable meal
The pear is the grandfather of the apple, its poor relation … which once, in our humid land, lived lonely and lordly, preserving the memory of its prestige by its haughty comportment. — Francois Pierre de la Varenne (“Le Cuisinier françois,” an influential French cookbook)
From the above quote, one might assume that Varenne regarded the pear as a “lesser” fruit, once heralded but now fallen into disregard in comparison to the well-known (and appreciated) apple.
Little did he know that 300 years later, annual pear production in the world would exceed 26 million metric tons.
I think that’s a pretty respectable number.
But pears were grown long before Varenne, the authority on French cuisine, wrote his famous book. Historians say that 7,000 years ago, in the foothills of Tien Shan, a Chinese diplomat named Feng Li became obsessed with pears. His fascination with the sweet fruit led him to abandon his career and begin a business of grafting and selling pear trees. The fruit that he produced, Pyrus communis, is said to be the mother of many of the varieties of pear that are produced throughout the world today.
