Instructions: This Tarte Tropezienne recipe is not my original creation. Its based on a recipe in a cookbook entitled La table dun Provencal by Mr. Guy Gedda, a noted authority on provencal cuisine, and incorporates some adaptations weve made to accommodate our own tastes.

According to Mr. Guy Gedda, the recipe was developed by Alexandre Micka, a Pole whose family immigrated to the Lorraine part of France in 1914. WWII brought Mr. Micka to St.-Tropez. He fell in love with the sun and sea and decided to stay after the War. Relying on his pre-War apprenticeship in a pastry shop in Lorraine, he opened his own pastry shop in St.-Tropez. Using local ingredients, he re-created as best he could a pastry that he recalled from his youth in Lorraine and called it Tarte Tropezienne. The people in St.-Tropez didnt give much regard to his creation at first. It was considered just a "local curiosity" until the 1960s when St.-Tropez began attracting beautiful people from around the world who fell in love with his creation.

Mr. Mickas biggest turning point came in 1970, when he was offered a one-month Mexican vacation by an American businessman who owned a chain of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. The offer was conditioned on Mr. Micka cooking up his Tarte Tropezienne at various restaurants to introduce to North American palates. This sojourn in North America introduced Mr. Micka to the convenience of frozen foods and he launched a line of frozen Tarte Tropezienne upon his return to France to increase his market base.

Today, the authentic Tarte Tropezienne is made fresh in Cogolin, a town adjacent to St.-Tropez. Mr. Micka will not reveal the secrets of his creme patissiere. But a pastry chef named Roland Delmonte in Bormes les Mimosas, the home of Mr. Geddas restaurant, has re-created it to a level of 19.5 authenticity on a scale of 20! Here is his basic recipe with a few of modifications added in.

This is an ambitious recipe which takes about 5 hours from start to finish.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.