Think about the fanciest dessert you've ever seen. Now imagine your grandmother setting fire to cherries at the dinner table, or carefully torching a mountain of meringue that hides ice cream inside.

At the end of a hearty meal, most of us crave a little something sweet. It's been that way for centuries. The ancient Egyptians, for example, ate boiled mallow plants with honey. During the medieval ...

74 x 105.6 x 106.5 cm. (29.1 x 41.6 x 41.9 in.) ...