The Perfect Scent

I have on occasion seen macaron flavors listed as parfum at the patisserie. Other times they're called savours.

Don't these macarons look jewel-like?

...like bottles of parfums?

French pastry and French perfume are not unrelated. There is an exotic quality, and an essentially French aesthetic to the visual and sensory experience of both that can not be denied

 

Perfume seems to be the ideal Valentines day gift and yet how to choose?

 

The mysteries of perfume and it's creation are explored in such depth in Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent, that I can't leave the house without this book. The French invented perfume or perhaps one should say took it to a higher level starting with the reign of Louis XIV and the adventure continues

 

Burr takes you to the flower fields of Grasse and the secretive exclusive factories that produce the rare ingredients of today's perfumes. Jean-Claude Ellena, now chief perfumer at Hermès and creator of the breathtaking Un Jardin Sur le Nil, grew up in Grasse in a family of perfumers. His story is tightly interwoven into The Perfect Scent

I stopped wearing perfume when I started shooting at the James Beard Foundation. I was told scent interfered with the aromas of food

Yet Burr tells of a group of "Gourmand" perfumes that are food related. Perfumes redolent of caramel, French mint, Brazilian cacao, Peruvian pink peppercorn, Indian saffron, fresh ginger, grapefruit, pink peppercorn, even just-baked bread. Burr even hosts 6-course "Scent dinners" where reknown chefs mingle flavors and scents in a new way

Burr says,"Guerlain's legendary 1925 Shalimar is built on vanilla, arguably its greatest example of a gourmand perfume...the velvety, succulent Ambre Narguilé, by Hermès, smells like caramel and subtle, nutty banana; Délices de Cartier, is a delicately fruity confection; and Aqua Allègoria Pamplelune, also by Guerlain, a delicious grapefruit scent." The words alone feed your senses

I promise you will be as enthralled by The Perfect Scent. It helps you go out and experience perfumes in a more knowledgeable, sophisticated way. A how-to for choosing for yourself the best scents

Old style perf bottle.

Choices, choices...but such pleasureable ones. Burr has a wonderful way with words and it's well worth following his Scent Notes at the New York Times.

0*=do not enhale

*=inoffensive

**=nice effort

***=good juice

****=Excellent

*****=Transcendent

BONJOUR PERFECT SCENT!