I love me a s’more. Whenever I have one, I remember sitting around a bonfire during sixth grade camp at Camp Lakewood. I was getting pinged with all sorts of nighttime insects (which would normally send me screaming), but we were making s’mores, so I put on a brave face. It was the first time I’d ever had one. (My parents are Indian. They had no idea what they were holding back from me. Knowledge is power, kids.) It was sublime: a toasty, gooey, chocolate-y mess that I remember fondly.
I think a lot of people will have a childhood memory associated with at least one of the desserts in this month’s cover feature, Child’s Play, so any of them would have worked well on the cover. But to me, a s’more is the quintessential childhood dessert. And Monarch’s rendition is the perfect example of how chefs are turning such classics on their head, this time with smoked chocolate ice cream and bourbon-extract marshmallows. Come on! That’s awesome.
— Photo by Carmen Troesser
This article appears in February 2012.
