Chervil

Cerfeuil haché, concassé et en pluches teaches one true thing: chervil’s perfume belongs to the final moment. The leaves should reach the table green, feathery, and quietly fragrant with anise. Heat and waiting steal that fragrance, so prepare the herb only when everything it will finish is ready.

The professional formula assumed a brigade hand available at service to strip, wash, dry, and cut separate trays for several stations. At home, one fresh bunch, a salad spinner or two towels, and a sharp knife do the work. The quantity has been reduced to what four bowls of soup or one family supper might need, because a large batch would fade before you could use it.

Separate plates for several stations are brigade scaffolding and can go. Complete drying and the last-second cut are the preparation itself, and both must stay. Before the knife touches the leaves, make certain no water remains.