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How to make Ettore Bugatti's favorite Christmas desserts

Ettore Bugatti's love for cars spawned the automaker that bears his name, but that's not the only passion that he turned into a business. He channeled his love for food into a restaurant called Clos Saint Odile in Obernai, a small town in the Alsatian countryside located not far from the Bugatti factory in Molsheim. It still exists, it's now called La Fourchette des Ducs, and it still makes some of Bugatti's favorites dishes. In 2020, Bugatti taught hungry enthusiasts how to cook a Christmas dinner like its founder; he served minestrone, blazed duck breast with truffle puree and cassis sauce, and strawberry gratin. In 2021, the French company is zooming in on desserts. La Fourchette des Ducs offers customers a cart with 15 desserts around the holidays, including one called Tarte Obernoise that Bugatti served at his wedding. The full recipe is posted on Bugatti's media site. It looks relatively simple: making the dough requires flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, milk, and baking powder, while the filling consists of raspberry jam, egg whites, powdered sugar, and almond powder. It's more time-consuming than, say, opening a box of cake mix because the dough needs to rest for two hours, but at the end you'll be able to say that you made meringue.  If you're feeling ambitious or extra-hungry, Bugatti also provided the restaurant's recipe for hazelnut Kipferle (a croissant-shaped cookie). Making a batch is well within the average cook's reach. You'll need sugar, butter, sifted flour, hazelnut powder, vanilla pods, and cinnamon. If you're more interested in cars than food, you're out of luck: Bugatti hasn't shared how to assemble the Chiron's W16 engine.

Car-crazy 5-year-old boy writes automakers for treasures, gets big response

Part of the beauty of children is that they can find worth in something adults might deem unworthy or overlook entirely. Five-year-old Patch Hurty didn't see garbage or a broken piece of a car when he spotted a Ford badge lying on the side of a road. He saw an artifact, a souvenir, a start to a collection he could only dream of. Ezra Dyer of Popular Mechanics tells the story of Patch and his quest to turn that one lost badge into a museum of manufacturer logos. According to the article, Hurty is a car fanatic through and through, even using car names as a way of learning to read. After finding the Ford badge near his Connecticut home, he and his mom put together a plan to reach out to dozens of automakers, confessing his love of things on four wheels. In each letter, Patch assembled a picture of himself standing next to one of the cars, and a penny to pay for whatever he hoped was sent his way. The response was unexpectedly and overwhelmingly positive. Of the more than 50 letters he sent out, including to obscure or defunct companies such as Bugatti, Suzuki, and Saturn, a majority responded with warm notes and some type of souvenir. Two of the coolest responses came from Lincoln and Bentley. Lincoln sent a sketch of a Continental (all car lovers enjoy drawing cars, right?), and Bentley sent a wheel center cap. How awesome is that? The story reminds us of something that can easily be lost in all of the negativity involved with the auto industry: Everybody is in this because of a common infatuation with automobiles. For more details on the souvenirs Patch received and accompanying photos, read the rest of the story. Related Video: News Source: Popular Mechanics Read This Bentley Bugatti Ford Lincoln Saturn Suzuki

Bugatti is planning several additional variants of the Chiron

Bugatti confirmed it's done trying to build the fastest car in the world, but that doesn't mean it will shift its focus away from performance. The company's chief executive confirmed additional high-performance variants of the Chiron are on the way, and they'll each explore different ways to go fast. Speaking with Roadshow, Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann admitted putting such a big emphasis on top speed was a mistake. "If you look back at the 1920s and the 1930s, Ettore Bugatti has never done only top speed," he pointed out. "Performance is not just going straight and going very fast." Bugatti started moving way from jaw-dropping top speed figures when it introduced the Divo, a Chiron-based model developed with handling in mind, in 2018. Looking ahead, the company will continue to release different variants of the Chiron developed to excel in other performance realms. That seemingly means the 304-mph Chiron Super Sport 300+ will remain the company's fastest car. While he stopped short of laying out the company's product plan, Winkelmann outlined a variant with an impressive power-to-weight ratio, and one that puts an unprecedented priority on handling. There will be others, too; he predicted the Chiron's basic platform can soldier on until about 2025, though production is strictly limited to 500 examples, and a good chunk of the run has already been claimed. Bugatti has time to figure out which direction the Chiron's successor should go in. In the meantime, its research and development department has already started thinking about a second model that will, in Winkelmann's words, be a different type of car. While rumors point to an SUV, he hinted the model could arrive as a "two-plus-two for daily use, with more room and more luggage compartment," and it might receive some form of electrification to keep fuel economy and emissions in check.