Remembering Summer

Last summer, the restaurant offered a tomato tasting menu.  My role played out in a yellow tomato sorbet for pre-dessert, and this strawberry and tomato combo for the main dessert.  The simple pairing of tri star strawberries and a tomato basil espuma, accented with a little balsamic reduction, made a refreshing end to the meal.  Can't wait for summer 2012!!

Lemony Lunch

The lunch dessert calls for straightforward simplicity.  Give me easy flavors, make it tasty, and make it quick...after all, I need to get back to work after this!
I love sweets in a glass...who could pass up a sundae or the Brit's knickerbocker glory?  Just dig your spoon in and pull up a mouthful of textures and flavors.  This light and lemony panna cotta plays host to two tiny mountains of olive oil streusel and fresh pomelo cells.  A little kick of cilantro rounds everything out.  A single spoonful is tartly creamy, tenderly crunchy, lightly herbal, and surprisingly juicy (thanks to the pomelo).
Come down and try one for yourself!

Working On Restraint



I'm trying my hand at simpler plating techniques that still look stunning and finished.  Let me tell you, it's harder than it looks!  The menu will read "Lemon Meringue", which in itself can conjure fluffy, sugary mile high abominations some might try to pass off as dessert; this is anything but.  A frozen mound of lemon parfait is anointed with a touch of lemon curd, then sprinkled with a rubble of crushed vanilla meringue.  A couple fennel fronds on top hints at the final table side flourish-- a small pour of fennel lemonade dotted with a pale green fennel frond oil.

There's lemon, and there's meringue, but definitely no fluff.  In fact, there's actually no cream or butter in this dessert, which makes it a great option for someone with a dairy allergy who just can't bear another fresh fruit plate to end their meal.

Fennel Lemonade

100 g  fennel juice*

50 g    lemon juice

35 g    simple syrup

Combine all liquids and strain through a coffee filter overnight. 

Keep chilled.


*Blanch 2-3 fennel bulbs that have been chopped into small pieces.  Run through a juice extractor.

A Who-Ville Win

 

ABC Good Morning America invited me to participate in this year's gingerbread competition.  The premise: each of the four news anchors were to pair up with a New York pastry chef, and together build a gingerbread masterpiece based on the anchor's favorite Christmas movie.  My anchor was Ginger Zee, and her chosen movie was "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". 

Her original vision was that of a whimsical and bright Who-Ville overshadowed by the menacing Grinch mountain.  I took the idea and ran with it as far as I could (with the few spare hours I had in between busy, pre-holiday services).  I was lucky enough to have the intermittent help of my three cooks along the way, and one of them even tagged along to the studio with me.
We tried a lot of things for the first time.  The mountain was made of a sticky melange of royal icing and Rice Crispies.  We then covered it in plastic wrap and foil to keep everything together, and to create a canvas for the patchwork of grey and black iced cookies and icicles.
I love how the Who-Ville houses turned out!  The first couple attempts had sharp a-line roofs that just didn't look "Who-y" enough.  We took them apart and shaved the facades down to round them out.  The curved roofs were shaped over a magnum wine bottle like tuiles.  Each house, as in the real Who-Ville, was decorated differently, although I love the repetition of the iced Twizzler chimneys!
Who-Ville would not have been complete without its signature arch, and the proud Christmas tree is there to greet you when you enter.

So did we win?  Yeah, we did!!  I believe what set us apart from the talented competition was our fun and playful use of color-rich candy, and allowing the gingerbread itself to take some of the limelight.

Winter Gingerbread Chapel

Find a tiny photo of it in this December's issue of Brides Magazine. 
The steeple is made entirely of royal icing, complete with a sugar bell.  Can't remember exactly how many hours it took, but it was spread out between four to five days.