The star of a recent Burlington al fresco meal was the wood-fired pizza oven built by cohost Richard Gliech from a recycled steel drum. But this was not your standard pizza occasion.

Friends sipped refreshing glasses of pilsner combined with Picon, a bitter orange spirit. The aperitif, like the oven and its crisp-crusted merchandise, traces its roots not to Italy but to Alsace, Gliech’s native location in northeastern France.

With the expert aid of his 24-yr-previous son, Bastien, Gliech well prepared to roll, major and bake a sort of flatbread termed tarte flambée in French or Flammkuchen in Alsatian, a German dialect.

The savory specialty hails from the section of France bordering Germany. Gliech, 55, grew up in the little town of Wissembourg, where by tarte flambée is mentioned to date back to the very same era as the medieval churches. Traditionally, it was a way to use more bread dough and residual oven heat, he explained.

At their easiest, tartes flambées are produced from yeasted dough rolled slim…