Back in my twenties, I was desperate to become a gourmet cook. I already knew how to cook by then, but my repertoire was mostly simple and homey Southern fare.

I longed to get more complicated and dreamt of puff pastry, butterflied lamb roasts, layers of Genoise. But my job as a cub reporter paid a grand $110 per week, and I could barely afford to eat, much less pay for cooking classes.

So I offered myself out as a dishwashing assistant to every cooking school in town in exchange for the chance to observe and sample the culinary masterpieces. This went on for years, and now, several decades later, I still cherish my notebooks filled with those first “gourmet” recipes. Only now, after turning myself into a “desperate” cook who automatically thinks in terms of saving time in the kitchen, I have streamlined many of those early recipes to fit my current sensibilities.

Take this glorious cherry tart.

The recipe comes from Janet Grennes of Raleigh, NC, and it’s truly a work of art. But I decided to cheat on the crust and use a refrigerated piecrust instead of made-from-scratch “pate sucree.”

Is Janet’s version better? Honestly, yes. It’s to die for. But my one-step-down-from-nirvana version is pretty darn amazing, too! Try it and tell me what you think.