Instructions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk yolks and 7 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Bring cream to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Gradually whisk hot cream into yolk mixture. Whisk in Grand Marnier and vanilla; divide custard among six 3/4-cup custard cups.

Arrange cups in 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal pan. Pour enough hot water into pan to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake custards until gently set in center, about 25 minutes. Remove cups from water and refrigerate uncovered until cold, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.)

Preheat broiler. Place custards on baking sheet. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar onto each. Broil until sugar starts to bubble and color, turning sheet often to prevent burning, about 2 minutes. Chill until topping is hard and brittle, at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours.

This recipe yields 6 servings.

Comments: As a kid, Id accompany my mother to her job at the racetrack, where she would lead the horses out to the starting gate. Eventually I was helping out in the stalls, and when I got older, I became a jockey. My mother was also the person who, in a roundabout way, inspired my other passion: cooking. Id come home from school, and she would have prepared something from a box or can. I didnt always like what was on the dinner table, so one day I asked her to buy me a cookbook. Pretty soon I was making dinner for us almost every night. Now, after seventeen years of racing horses and cooking for family and friends, Im making the jump to professional cooking.

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