On holiday in Brittany one summer, I was taken to lunch at a St Malo restaurant that specialises in tarte Tatin. At À La Duchesse Anne, this famous French upside-down apple tart, invented at the turn of the century by the Tatin sisters at their hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron in the Sologne, is served hot from the oven.

I learnt how to cook it thanks to the Claude Monet chapter in Jane Grigson's book Food with the Famous. All baking that could not be sent to the baker's oven, Grigson explains, was cooked over direct heat with a cone-shaped metal dome, called a country oven. In the case of the Tatin tart, apples, sugar and butter caramelised together, while the pastry on top cooked more slowly.

The tart was turned upside down on to a serving dish to show the brown syrupy apples. Apart from the curious look of the tart, it's the distinctive burnt flavour that makes it so beguiling and, as well as from apples, it works deliciously well with pears, pineapple, nectarines and peaches.

At Leiths School of Food and Wine in London the other night, I joined chefs and food writers to do battle over the hot plate and the finale was a wonderful fig tarte Tatin.

At home, I served it with crème fraîche, but at Leiths we ate it with Chantilly cream flavoured with orange-flower water - a subtle idea from Andrew Holland, a student and this year's Brown Brothers Award.

When I was working on The Big Red Book of Tomatoes and totally obsessed with tomatoes, it occurred to me that they were an obvious contender for the tarte Tatin treatment. Firm plum tomatoes are what you need, so that by the time the pasty is cooked, their plum-like texture hasn't become a mush. It's a liberty really because the tomatoes aren't caramelised, instead cooked in caramel-coloured balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing. This lovely tart goes well with a simple rocket and goat's cheese salad.

Fig tarte Tatin

Tomato tarte tatin

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