A Life in Baking, Pastry, and Libations.
Ricotta is underrated in the cheese world—always a supporting actress but never the lead. Cheese connoisseurs wax poetic about the vintage of a Cheddar cheese or the stink of a blue cheese but I’ve never heard people swoon over ricotta (unless they’re debating which ricotta makes the best cannoli filling). This ability to fade into... Continue Reading →
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 →
Fruit seasons can be remarkably short and I am always looking for techniques to preserve fruit to use during the off-seasons. Earlier this year, I wrote about a burgeoning obsession with harnessing the power of fermentation in desserts because under ideal conditions, most foods naturally ferment and the results are digestible and delicious. So much of... Continue Reading →
When you think of olive oil, dessert is not the first thing to come to mind. In Italy and the Mediterranean, olive oil is so abundant that it’s cheaper than butter and is a common ingredient for baking. Some would say using olive oil in desserts is just a trend but I hope it’s a... Continue Reading →
The Caribbean is not a cheese-centric culture so for much of my life, cheese existed in two forms: orange and white Cheddar. It wasn’t until I embarked upon my journey as a pastry chef (and by default, was in charge of the cheese program) that I began my cheese education in earnest. I already knew... Continue Reading →
Apples are one of the most widely cultivated fruits in the world and a staple of the dessert menu that transcends culture and time: apple sharlotka from Russia, apple strudel from Vienna, Alsatian apple tart and tarte tatin from France, and apple pie from America. The beauty of apples is, unlike most fruit, an apple... Continue Reading →
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 