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Desserts to Die For

By Carole Kotkin

Desserts to die for. Double and triple chocolate concoctions. Seductive multi-layered crème brulees. Cake layers piled high with dense filings resting in pools of exquisite sauces. They’re everywhere--upscale restaurants, hotels, bistros, coffee bars, bakeries, and bookstore cafes. Pastry chefs are baking up original desserts that extend the boundaries far  beyond the usual repertory of pies, cakes, puddings and ice creams. Desserts suddenly are not just closing the show, they’re stealing it. Once the kitchen’s unsung artists, pastry chefs are now well-compensated, wooed by restaurants, and are increasingly independent in terms of creativity and direction. These days, it’s not uncommon for top restaurants to have a separate dessert menu promoting the pastry chef’s name.

No matter how strong the country’s professed obsession with fitness and health, rich desserts just haven’t gone away. The question is: Who eats these things? The answer is: More people than you think. Ten thousand visitors showed up at the Beaver Creek National Pastry Team Competition and Culinary Festival this summer in Beaver Creek, Colorado.  During the most talked about event in the history of pastry competitions, fans lined up to watch celebrated chefs compete, lecture and demonstrate pastry techniques.  ”It’s a given that most everyone likes desserts,” says chef Norman Love, formerly pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Naples, Florida, a co-organizer of the invitation-only competition, along with Michael Schneider, Editor-in-Chief of Pastry Art & Design and Chocolatier magazines . “People skip courses so they can indulge in dessert. It’s the most fun part of the meal,” says Love.

Each of the twelve competing teams was made up of three pastry chefs per team from major hotels,  bakeries and restaurants throughout the United States. The total prize fund was $125,000 with each winning team receiving a minimum of $5,000. The winning team gets a spot in next year’s international pastry team championship, which will also be held in Beaver Creek.  “This talent level won’t be matched anywhere else in the world,” says Schneider. “It’s a who’s who in the industry. “The intention is to create an international competition on American soil,” says Love, who was captain of the U.S. pastry team that took the bronze medal at the Coupe du Monde held in Lyon, France last year. ”This type of competition puts the pressure on and pushes chefs to extreme limits. Trends developed at Beaver Creek set the precedent for the next 3 or 4 years. That’s why it’s so important for pastry chefs to compete.”

Beautiful food centerpieces have long been the source of inspiration and table conversation and the most spectacular part of the competition were the creation of the centerpieces. Following this year’s Hollywood theme, teams crafted silver, chocolate and sugar objects d’art depicting film projectors, movie stars, and movies. These gifted artists pulled sugar into bright taffeta-like ribbons, marbelized chocolate, and blew sugar into glass-like works of art.  Their craft requires long hours of training, steady hands and patience. It also takes speed, coordination and a knack for repetitive detail.

“Pastry is becoming more of an art, and patrons are paying more attention to desserts,” says Todd Mueller, pastry chef at Norman’s in Coral Gables, “It’s an artistic avenue of expression with the juxtaposition of hot and cold, texture, colors and flavor, “ he continues. For Mueller, who graduated from Johnson & Wales University and studied at Ecole Lenotre in Paris, dessert provides  “the last chance to really wow people.” Mueller’s contributions to local sugar cravings include a sloe gin, lemon scented, cherry cobbler with stresuel, presented in a crisp open pastry shell and served with a decadent scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Mueller describes his dessert menu as a team effort, with signature desserts created by chef/owner Norman Van Aken, continually on the menu. The same process of cross-cultural influences that enlivens appetizers and entrees is spicing up the dessert plate as well. At Norman’s, for instance, they don’t hesitate to incorporate herbs or even chiles into desserts when the flavor seems right. Banana spits are a venerable American tradition, but Havana Bananas with Barbados Rhum, Chiles, Chocolate Sauce, and Macadamia Brittle Ice Cream is a departure from the norm. It’s made with both chipolte and ancho chiles, and is one of the restaurant’s most popular desserts. At Normans, where almost 80 to 90 percent of the customers conclude a meal with something sweet, three or four desserts change on the menu every few weeks. Recently Mueller studied pastry in the kitchens of Restaurant Daniel in New York with pastry chef, Thomas Haas, who competed at Beaver Creek last year. “I want to gain a perspective on excellence as it applies to all restaurants of this caliber,” Mueller says. 

Happily, South Florida has become a paradise for dessert lovers.

Thomas Worhach, Executive pastry chef, Four Seasons Hotel, Palm Beach, one of the contest participants, is known for his “sauce painting” with tropical fruit purees. “I create in three dimensions. The dessert Itself, the garnish of sugar or chocolate or fruit tuilles, and then the plate where I incorporate the sauces into elaborate designs. Desserts have become a main part of the meal, so if it’s not an eye-stopper, it can get lost,” says Worhach.

Skyscraper-size and overproduced desserts are yielding to plates that are simple and familiar, but fun. Executive Pastry Chef at Nemo and Shoji Sushi, Hedy Goldsmith, sees a shift to desserts that showcase visually appealing simple, clean,  straight-forward flavors and  relaxed presentations along with a return of classics. “It’s okay to be simple as long as it’s really good. No longer are we layering flavors and confusing the palate, “she explains. Goldsmith is one of a growing cadre of women in Miami making reputations as professional bakers, a field that has traditionally been dominated by men. While studying film and photography at the Philadelphia College of Art  she worked in restaurants to earn extra money. She loved the energy in the kitchen and the artistry of pastry. A friend made her Maida Heatter’s lemon cake and she was immediately transported to another realm. After college she returned to her avocational interest in baking and enrolled in the Pastry Major Program at the Culinary Institute of America. She began her professional pastry career at Mark’s Place, where she honed her skills for five years. “I prefer baking to other kinds of cooking because it requires a great deal of technical skill,”  Goldsmith says. “In cooking you can make a mistake and sometimes cover it up; baking is not so forgiving. But, it is such a creative and artistic experience with so many possibilities, “ she continues. Women are attracted by the softer, esthetic side of pastry work, and the unabashed showmanship that desserts allow, but they also like the working hours. “I’m at the restaurant early in the morning and work during the daytime when the restaurant is not busy, and I’m out by service time. This allows me to have a career and a life outside the restaurant.” Goldsmith’s execution of Tahitian Vanilla Panna Cotta in Chilled Strawberry Consommé with Assorted Melons, Berries and Lemon Sorbet has garnered rave reviews from Nemo’s patrons during her 5 year tenure.  ”I’ve taken it off the menu before and everyone wanted it back, “she says. At Shoji Sushi she continues her quest for simplicity in desserts with true, clean, refreshing flavors like her Green Tea Cheesecake and Ginger Creme Brulee.

French-born Michel Chiche, former pastry chef at the Biltmore Hotel, agrees, “simplicity is in, with an emphasis on flavor and flavor combinations. There are still pastry chefs that like the architectural style, and people enjoy that for the visual effects, but the emphasis today is on good tasting desserts.“ Chiche who worked his way through the French apprentice program credits his mentor, Michel Richard, of Citrus in Los Angeles, with teaching him the use of fresh ingredients. At the Biltmore he uses as much tropical produce as possible: mangoes, guavas, tangerines, passion fruit, and key limes. He churns key limes into a frozen caramel nougat parfait with blood orange segments and Grand Marnier. “Without a classical base, you can’t do anything,” explains Chiche. “But now if I make a dessert, I have the advantage of new equipment and technology.” Seventy percent of the selections on the Biltmore’s dessert menu are low in fat and sugar. While many  customers love his exotic sorbets made from passion fruit, guava, or mango, they will never replace chocolate as the all-American favorite. Chef Chiche prepares a warm crisp chocolate cigar perched on a small mountain of  homemade passionfruit, and mango sorbets, surrounded by bits of mangoes, pineapple and rum sauce.  “Rich desserts seem to speak to basic human needs. “They make people feel like a kid again,” says Chiche. “People will always find an excuse to eat them. They’re the ultimate reward.”

“Whether as a reward for moderate eating, no-pain-no-gain exercise programs or the stresses of contemporary life, don’t expect the dessert boom to end anytime soon, “says, Maria Frumkin, pastry chef/owner of The French Bakery Café in Bay Harbor. She points to the escalating number of European-style pastry shops popping up in big cities. Frumkin, originally from Buenos Aires, spent four years studying in France at Ecole Lenotre where she learned the importance of using quality ingredients, the hallmark of her trade,  before setting up shop in Florida. She returns to Ecole Lenotre every year for a month-long refresher course. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she makes all sorts of unstintingly rich tarts and cakes, muffins, cookies and exemplary croissants at French Bakery Café; all made with real butter. Frumkin was intrigued by pastry as a small child and has always viewed pastry an art form. Her craft doesn’t involve paint or canvass, but it does call for chocolate, tempering and patience, as well as imagination and sheer artistry. “Once you get to know your ingredients well, you take it from there—it’s like painting. Most people don’t view food as art. But when you stop to think about it, what brings more pleasure than a beautiful plate? After all, you do eat first with your eyes.” So let’s save room for dessert.

See www.pastrychampionship.com for more information.

Images by Jack Affleck and Carole Kotkin

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