When it comes to flavors, I'm into savory-meets-sweet. Favorite pizza? Sausage and pineapple.  What goes best with pork? Apples, obviously. And I think I may have fallen in serious like with the man who served me warmed Saint Andrès cheese served with Iberian ham and fig spread. Fruit adds that perfect, subtle sweetness I crave. Plus, it's always good to have around the house if the mood for painting still life strikes you.

Speaking of fruit, December is National Pear month. While I haven't traditionally celebrated its arrival, my coworker Dusti and I donned our party pants at Minneapolis' 20.21, for a pear-inspired lunch.

The Pear Bureau Northwest hosted the event along with 20.21's Executive Chef, Asher Miller. There were only a few of us there, a huge perk as it allowed us a chance to sit at the bar and check out the open kitchen just inches from us. Watching chefs do their thing should be a spectator sport. Knives, fire, weird gadgets… it's like a circus, minus the creepy clowns. 



As the kitchen prepped, we sampled a bevy of pear varieties:  Sweet Seckels, buttery Comice and the every holiday gift basket's BFF, the Bartlett. Additionally, the kitchen concocted a pear lasse, with cardamom, cinnamon, half and half and a ginger simple syrup. Since the three-martini lunch went out with the polyester suit, the drinks were sans booze. However, the Pear Bureau's website is loaded with ideas on how to add a little pear panache to your next cocktail party.



Our first course consisted of a Roasted Baby Beet & Humbodlt Fog with Micro Cress, Meyer Lemon and Pear.

Let's stop right there for a moment and recognize true greatness in cheese:



Dusti is a goat cheese hater and even she was raving about the Humbodlt Fog. Of course, I am a fromage-freak and will eat any cheese as long as I don't have to peel it off a piece of plastic… but this stuff was something else, and worked perfectly with the beets and sweet Comice pear.



Next, we had Pan Roasted Chicken with Brussels Sprouts, Bartlett Pear with Carmel Soy Sauce. I know what you're thinking: Chicken = Boring. But it was crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked. I grew up in a house where boneless, skinless chicken was all the rage, so this whole eating the skin thing is actually rather new to me… and I'm now a bona fide member of the 20.21 clean plate club.  

While we're on the topic of new food items… I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever tried a Brussels sprout. No joke. Not that I'd ever passed on them, I just don't think I ever had the opportunity. I loved them, and I think I am going to attempt to make some at home. These were well-executed and delicious (I've been missing out!), but I could definitely envision how soggy and foul they could taste if prepared incorrectly. If anyone has tips or techniques for me, fire away.



And then there was the Pear Crème Brulée. This is the epitome of a dessert I'd love to order, but would completely lose my mind trying to make. It's basically a peeled, caramelized pear, cored, filled with crème brulée and topped with ginger syrup. It was cool watching the kitchen fill the pears and—with cat-like reflexes- quickly flip them over, then finish 'em off with a blowtorch. What was really phenomenal about this dish is that it was cold, refreshing and not overly-sweet.



Miller's creative crème brulée recipe received the Pear Bureau's top honors, and awarded him the title of their December chef of the month. Clearly, the guy's got mad kitchen skills. Plus, check out the 'stache he's sporting. Couldn't be cooler.  I just might have to befriend that Asher Miller. I mean, who couldn't use a chef in their social mix?

For more pear recipes, check out www.pearpanache.com. Anyone have their own delicious pear recipes? And, on an unrelated note, I'm I the only one who was not forced to eat Brussels sprouts as a kid?