Have they gone soft in pastry? They used to be the biggest bastards, pulling out all the stops to make everything complicated and miserable. We were all sure that Superior would be the worst. Today, were made a chocolate tart topped with fresh raspberries. A blind baked pâte sablé, a demi-cuit chocolate filling (melted chocolate, melted butter, sugar, eggs), and fresh berries. Where was the whisking egg whites by hand? The setting four mousses in 80-degree heat? The screaming? The tears? What’s gone wrong in the world?

There was also a cuisine demo where they made the most expensive appetizer know to man, and were talking expensive pocket book and calorie-wise. My ass spread just watching it being made. The chef took fresh fois gras, chopped it up, and blended it with eggs, cream, and milk. He baked this heart-attack-in-liquid-form and called it a flan. He served in with blanched asparagus and a morel mushroom cream sauce. Asparagus, morels, and fois gras. Eggs, cream, and fois gras. Talk about your triple whammies.