Masuk Free Press

With Chef Ariq Rahman

To be honest, I was not entirely certain what a crêpe actually was prior to accepting this undertaking. But following my last culinary escapade, I could not help myself. Who wouldn’t want to eat and create unhealthy desserts and tell your parents it’s “homework?”

Though, if my lack of experience with crêpes was not evident enough, crêpes aren’t even necessarily desserts. They can be sweet, savory, spicy, or any other flavor combination. The “crêpe” itself originates from the town of Brittany, France. The name crêpe itself comes from “crespe,” which means crispy in French. This alludes to the crisped edges characteristic for crêpes.

Nonetheless, intricate knowledge of the historical significance of crêpes is not required while cooking. Which leads me to the main event, the art of cooking “crêpes.” Being a teenage boy with very little life experience, the task of cooking this delicious, versatile breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert item seemed quite daunting.

The first hurdle I had to overcome was finding an adequate recipe. Who knew the Google search query “Easy crepe recipe for beginners no experience” would not deliver amazing results? Scrolling through YouTube pages, and overly wordy culinary blogs, I eventually landed on my recipe of choice. But as soon as I felt I had found the perfect recipe, I also found controversy.

User “JENNYC89”’s recipe on allrecipes.com may have 4.6 stars out of five, but a small, enlightened few know the truth about this recipe. That is, that the textual instructions provided on the website cause lumps! Weirdly enough though, these instructions are inconsistent with the ones given in the video provided. Anonymous commenter going by the generic name “Allrecipes Contributor” remedied this problem, by providing their own instructions in the comments. Their altered recipe was easy to follow, and was what I used in my own crêpe cooking process.

Though I lacked skill, experience, knowledge and practically every other positive quality when it comes to cooking, nearly every part of the process went well. As I said, Mr/Ms Allrecipes Contributor must be a master in recipe making, as I had no issues following their method. The biggest (and really only) pitfall in the course of crêpes creation was the instruction of “lightly oiling.”

Apparently, everyone but my father and I knew that lightly oil meant cooking spray. Well apparently no one let the two of us on the memo, because our light oiling equaled pouring vegetable oil in the pan. And maybe a bit more than “lightly.”

The considerable amount of vegetable oil used to cook these crêpes left the first couple looking extremely yellow, with even the final pieces being tinted. Though the taste was seemingly unaffected, the whole ordeal put a damper on creating picturesque, ideal crêpes.

If yellowy crêpes weren’t enough disaster, the whipped cream I intended to use as filling expired in November (don’t ask why it was still in my fridge). Meaning instead of real and proper whipped cream, I had to resort to miracle whip. Synthetic toppings and covered in oil is not the ideal way to enjoy your crêpes.

Past these (arguably) small issues that I encountered, the crêpes did come out. Which, to be honest, was better than I was expecting. And though tinted yellow, and not entirely as delectable as I had hoped, crêpes were a fun undertaking uncovering the baker inside of me. Chef Ariq out.