Vanilla is anything but plain

Vanilla as an ingredient is a wondrous thing, ambrosial, floral, warm, and sophisticated.

“It’s an essential ingredient, adding not just flavor, but also body and soul into a dish,” says Francis Ang, a San Francisco-based pastry chef.

It is integral to so many foods, adding familiarity to everything from ice cream to sugar cookies.

it’s a luxury good in its own right, the result of a wildly time and labor-intensive harvest that must be done almost entirely by hand.