Various Melons

Melons divers (various melons) teaches the first rule of fruit service: ripeness is the preparation. When several melons arrive together, their differences become the pleasure, one honeyed, another musky, another almost floral. The variety is the note here, so no syrup, citrus, mint, or liqueur is invited to speak over it.

The source assumed access to the named cultivars of French market gardens and enough hands to chill and cut several fruits just before service. For one home table, three small melons feed four generously, and the refrigerator replaces the fruit room or ice chest. Sorting a grand display was brigade scaffolding and can go. Keeping several distinct varieties, serving them cold, and preserving their individual perfumes must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening, though the stove may remain cold.

Cut the melons into generous skin-on wedges rather than reducing them to anonymous cubes. Their flesh should look moist and saturated, their perfume should rise as the knife passes through, and each wedge should taste unmistakably of itself. Judge every melon before it is chilled; that is the one step that decides the dish.