Pain d'épice is translated most often as gingerbread, and why not? Since the Middle Ages, cooks in every corner of Europe have made spiced honey cakes. Russian prjaniki belongs to the same family as Italian panforte di Siena, German lebkuchen and Swiss leckerli. It's such a loosely affiliated group that even historians can't agree whether the origins derive from Ancient Greece, the Middle East or the court of Genghis Khan in China. In France, it was first associated with Reims and later with Dijon, where at one time there were more than 20 small factories producing it. The big difference between British gingerbreads and the French variants is that we have tended to add shortening to ours. We also, in the past, liked them rolled thin, so they were closer to a biscuit, as in the traditional gingerbread man.
The typical pain d'épice is loaf-shaped, springy to the touch and flavoured with spices other than ginger. The honey makes it sweet, but not so much so that it's cloying. It's as effective in savoury as in sweet dishes.
The recipe is so straightforward that it's surprising so few current chefs have tried making it. The New International Confectioner, once the pastry chef's bible, lists 10 basic spicing blends alone.
At Simpson's restaurant in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, Andreas Antona and Luke Tipping make a version where the balance of spices, vanilla and grated citrus zests provide a taste that fills the mouth.
All about Luke Tipping
Simpson's in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, is a Michelin-starred restaurant with a chef-patron, Andreas Antona, who deflects attention from himself to a brigade headed by his long-standing first chef Luke Tipping. The two first worked together at Birmingham's Plough and Harrow (then owned by Crest Hotels) when it was one of a handful of British starred restaurants. They joined forces seven years ago soon after the Sussex-born Greek-Cypriot chef had launched his own business.
Luke Tipping's father had his own restaurant in Moseley and by the age of 12 his son was already looking over his shoulder.
"I never wanted to be anything else but a chef," he says. Apart from stages in France, he has spent the whole of his working career in the Midlands and was Midland Chef of the Year in 1999 and 2000.
Pain d'Epice
Pain d'épice ice-cream and cherries in red wine (Serves one)
Pain d'‚pice ice-cream (Pacojet method) (Makes about one litre, 20 quenelles)
Basic red wine syrup
Cooking uses
Foie gras and roasted banana
Simpson's uses pain d'épice in an unusual starter with foie gras. It lays a fried slice of foie gras on a slice of fresh pain d'épice. A baby banana fried in the duck fat goes on top. The dish is sauced with a lemon and banana coulis and veal glace flavoured with banana liqueur. Powdered pain d'épice is sprinkled as a light dusting over the sauces.