Science Plus Butter

Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.

Where we are: We’re still in Austria. Our first US visitor left, and the next is arriving on Monday. In the interim, we’re catching up on some work and errands. I wrote the following a few months back.

Science Plus Butter

People (people we meet as well as readers) keep asking why we stayed so long in Melbourne. I have a quick, simple answer: we went for the croissants.

In Australia? Yes.

For several years now, I’ve been dying to go to Lune Croissanterie. Every time I meet someone from Melbourne, I get all excited and ask if they’ve been, and tell them how desperate I am to go to their fair city. They slowly move away from the crazy lady with the manic look in her eyes.

In April of this year, the stars finally aligned and we were able to visit Melbourne. Because it’s the home of Lune, we decided to make it a long visit, so we settled in for four weeks.

Lune, owned by baker Kate Reid, has received international acclaim for their croissants. That’s all they make, but they make variations that will make your heart sing and give you diabetes, at the same time. Every day for 28 days, Lee got up early and walked to Lune, where he ate his breakfast, then bought something to bring back to Princess, who is not an early riser.

They make a range of daily ‘regular’ croissants (flavors like almond, chocolate, traditional plain), and they have a handful of rotating monthly specials. I think I tried every basic flavor (except the cheese and Vegemite scroll—no need to ruin breakfast), as well as two months’ worth of specials, because we managed to hit both the April and May menus.

Croissants are Kate Reid’s second career; she studied aerospace engineering, and spent years working in aerodynamics for a Formula 1 racing team. It’s interesting—to my mind, at least—to consider the skills an engineer brings to the kitchen: precision, attention to detail, an understanding of the basic chemistry and physics that underpin baking, and experience with the scientific method.

Here is what I observed, and found fascinating, during my 28 days of Lune croissants:

—An obsession with perfection.

—The kind of passion that results in lifelong exploration of an art form.

—The joy of watching a true master at work (because yes, I did eventually go to see the bakery in action).

—The progression from the basics to the pinnacle, both in her career, and in our breakfast. Lune’s croissants are built on a foundation of tradition and perfection; only if the dough itself is technically perfect can the baker’s innovative artistic vision take full flight.

Science plus butter: yum.

Were they the best croissants I’ve ever had? I don’t know. Because we ate so many, we had ample opportunity to consider what makes something the ‘best,’ whatever that means. They were undoubtedly technically perfect, but we all have different tastes, different preferences. Presumably, many Melbournians love cheese and Vegemite, because it’s on the permanent menu. I loved the chocolate-orange special, because that happens to be my favorite combination, but even so, it felt a little too decadent to be a proper breakfast.

It was a delicious month of stacking up croissant memories—the flavors, the textures, but also the beautiful Lune space, our cozy Melbourne apartment, and the daily sweetness of my husband bringing me breakfast.

So many of my favorite croissant memories (yes, that’s a category in my head) are attached to a special place or a person or moment. Isn’t that the way of all our best memories?

Take care,

Lisa

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