In a perfect world, we would all just step outside and gather beautiful seasonal leaves to line our cheese trays. In my world, though, or at least in New York and San Francisco, most of the things you’d find blowing down the street shouldn’t go anywhere near your food. And, in any case, in the rush before guests arrive, priorities like setting the table and putting on my shoes will almost always trump leaf-gathering.
Fortunately, our friends the French have solved this little problem. A company called Sisson Imports makes beautiful photorealistic parchment leaves that you can stash in a drawer and pull out in seconds, transforming this
Into what you see above, or this. They’re also useful to dress up a plate for cookies or a cake.
For years I bought them at Williams Sonoma, but, as far as I can tell, they’ve recently dropped the classic Sisson leaves in favor of their house brand, which, in my opinion, looks sort of coarse, like an unsuccessful amateur watercolor.
Now I gather my paper leaves at www.amazon.com, where you can get Sisson Imports leaves (in Spring, Fall and mixed colors) for $10 for a pack of 20.
