Chateau Fluffy closed down! Chateau Fluffy, of course, was Cafe du Jour at 117 West Washington Street in Ann Arbor, where I worked as a baker, sous chef, and occasional kitchen manager for four and a half years. The sign posted on the window blamed the closure on "severe economic conditions," which, though there had been more than a few problems in the past, sounds pretty plausible to me. I've been hearing weird rumors through the grapevine regarding what'll happen to the place next, but will keep them to myself for now as there's enough of that kind of thing on the Internet. It's a little sad, really; it was well past time for me to leave by the time I switched jobs in May '08, but much of what I know about cooking and the restaurant business I learned there and I wished it well (strangely enough, a slightly flaky girl who used to work there as well just walked past my front porch). I may learn more after a few chats here and there; I doubt the space will remain empty for long, and have to wonder what'll come next. There's an unexpectedly revealing look here at Ann Arbor food culture in which there's a brief shot of the storefront. One of my favorite things I learned to do there was make quiches (whence I migrated to tarts), and so here's...

Tarte Corfiote (taken from an existing recipe, but it didn't have a "tart" name, so I gave it one based on the ingredients' Greco-Italian nature, although tarte heptanese sounds even better--I'm guessing the recipe probably isn't actually native to Corfu):

1 tart pastry

2 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lb. leafy greens (any will do, but I used chard from our "kitchen garden" at work), coarsely chopped

1/4 cup chopped and pitted Kalamata olives

15 oz. ricotta

salt

2 large eggs

2 oz. ricotta salata or feta

Preheat oven to 400. Saute garlic in olive oil until soft. Add greens and cook until soft. Beat together ricotta, olives, greens, and salt, then beat in eggs. Pour mixture into tart pastry and sprinkle feta on top. Cook tart for 30-40 minutes until done. 

I found it a disappointment, to be honest. The Natural Area Preservation Volunteer Potluck for which it was intended quickly devoured it, and I hope people enjoyed it, but maybe this is just natural irritation on the part of the cook. The ingredients themselves prepared beautifully--the chard with garlic was spectacular, and the resulting aroma was brilliant. It was a little underseasoned (maybe a little more salt?), but I'm more of the opinion that I'm just not a ricotta kind of guy, at least in combination with these other ingredients. The texture was similar to vanilla ice cream, and there were even a few taste similarities, but overall it seemed rather blah in comparison to the all-too-brief tastes of the kalamatas and chard. I'm not quite prepared to give up on the recipe, though, and may try a more flavorful cheese in the very near future (especially as I still have a crapload of chard to play with).

Bo Schembechler's grave looks surprisingly picturesque from this distance (blogged much of this from my porch--it was a spectacular day).