A Life in Baking, Pastry, and Libations.
Inspiration: This dessert was the final course of a vegetable-centric five course meal that featured produced grown in New Jersey. I read about a ‘peas and carrots’ themed dessert done by pastry chef Bill Corbett in Dessert Professional (when it was published as Pastry Art and Design magazine). The idea stuck with me for many... Continue Reading →
Components: Grapefruit panna cotta (with olive oil cake), Campari meringue, dehydrated grapefruit, caramelized vanilla honey, grapefruit marmalade, grapefruit segments, grapefruit granite Inspiration: How many ways can I use grapefruit in one dessert? Technique: Fruit panna cottas are never easy to develop as its tough to achieve the right balance of cream and milk that will... Continue Reading →
Theme: Paying homage to ancient Italian ingredients. Inspiration: I’d love to wax poetic about being inspired by La Cucina Italia for this dessert but the truth is more mundane: I had been logging the same case of farro flour in my inventory for two months and I got tired of looking at it. Farro is a staple grain... Continue Reading →
Components: bread pudding, brown butter caramel, lemon-thyme gelato, apple terrine, vanilla crème fraiche, sbrisolona Concept: An innovative approach to a classically rustic dessert. Approach: It’s difficult to heat bread pudding in an oven without drying it out. Placing a sauce in the center of the bread pudding makes it easier to heat the pudding quickly... Continue Reading →
Elements: chocolate mousse, chestnut dacquoise, sautéed chestnuts, bitter chocolate sauce, cocoa nib crumble, chestnut-honey gelato, micro-marigold blossoms. Concept: Chocolate and chestnuts are a classic European dessert pairing, particularly in Italy. In America, chestnuts are best known as a stuffing sidekick on the Thanksgiving dinner table. How could I best introduce Americans to it? Pair it... Continue Reading →
Elements: Whipped ricotta panna cotta, almond (frangipane) cake, pear pate de fruit, poached pears, pear-white balsamic sorbet, honey foam, fennel Concept: The flavor of a ripe pear is so delicate and fleeting that I have trouble using it as a frontal flavor in desserts as the slightest tinge of heat seems to dull the floral... Continue Reading →
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 