This year Marshmallow Fluff, America’s oldest brand of marshmallow creme, celebrates its 100th anniversary. It wasn’t the first commercially available version—that honor goes to a brand called Snowflake—but it has outlasted its rival by more than 50 years. And Fluff has a particularly devoted following, especially in Massachusetts, where it was invented and is honored with an annual “What the Fluff” festival. (The state also made national headlines in 2006 after a senator filed a measure that would limit serving Fluffernutter sandwiches in school cafeterias to once a week, which provoked outrage and prompted other legislators to propose making the Fluffernutter the state sandwich.)
There were also a few elements of the dish that didn’t incorporate marshmallow creme: thick slices of foie gras, seared and then finished in the oven, sunflower seeds toasted with canola oil and thyme, the pickled green strawberries, and a rhubarb granita. Kirchner artistically assembled a little of everything on a plate, along with a generous portion of foie gras. He deemed it “definitely sweet—it has a lot of textures going on.” Kirchner added, “I’m happy. I’m always happy with a piece of foie gras in front of me, though.”
