Bananas Foster

Created in 1951 at Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans. Per the restaurant, owner Owen Brennan asked chef Paul Blangé for a banana dessert, and Owen's sister Ella Brennan worked with Blangé to develop it—adapting her mother's home method of sautéing bananas. It was named for Richard Foster, a friend of Owen Brennan and chair of the New Orleans Crime Commission. New Orleans was then the largest U.S. banana port—the United Fruit Company shipped Central American bananas through the city—and the surplus prompted the dish.

Created 1951 at Brennan's by chef Paul Blangé, named for Richard Foster — owner Owen Brennan's friend and chair of the New Orleans Crime Commission. New Orleans was then a major United Fruit Company banana port. Use 80-proof dark rum, not high-proof; over-strong alcohol gives an acetone afterburn. Just-yellow bananas, no spots.

Halved bananas in a butter-brown-sugar-cinnamon caramel, doused with dark rum and banana liqueur, set alight tableside until the alcohol burns off, spooned hot over vanilla ice cream so the cold cream and warm caramel collide on the spoon. The bananas should still hold shape; if they've collapsed to mush, they were too ripe or cooked too long.

The flambé is theater but also chemistry — burning off ethanol concentrates the rum's caramel and ester flavors without leaving raw alcohol heat. Use 80-proof dark rum, not high-proof; over-strong alcohol gives an acetone afterburn. Bananas should be just-yellow with no spots — ripe enough for sweetness, firm enough to survive the sauté without disintegrating.