Nutella

This is truly my favorite dessert to eat. It is very inspired by my italian-american roots. What is better than nutella on toast? That is the inspiration for this dessert. The baker at the copper beech inn makes the most incredible baguettes I have ever eaten. Seriously. So I wanted to use them in a dessert. I make a cocoa baguette crisp that is the "toast" on the dessert. The main component is a classic italian semi-freddo made with valhrona manjari chocolate. It is served with a valhrona chocolate cremeux, or custard. It also has a rye streusel, a nutella ganache and toasted hazelnuts. In my hometown of New Haven, many of the italian pastry shops use a lot of ricotta cheese in their desserts, especially cannolis. So I make a ricotta gelato using Calabro Ricotta cheese. The cheese making company is literally about a mile away from my house and they arguably make the best ricotta cheese ever. This dish pays homage to all the italian-americans in New Haven who love dessert. Haha.

Pear Dessert

I am very happy with this new dessert I have been working on. It is a bartlett pear and vanilla bean mousse that is aerated with NO2 and then dispense into a vacuum. It is a very aerated and fun to eat mousse. I love CT pears and I am so tired of restaurants poaching them or making crisps with them. I like them barely touched or manipulated. They are delicious with floral flavors such as honey. So in this dessert I serve the mousse with a vanilla-pear pate de fruit that is cut very thin. I serve it with raw pears, an acacia honey foam  and honey flavored kataifi. The kataifi is a form of phyllo dough that is shredded and looks beautiful on a plate and it also goes very well with honey. To add to the floral flavors I made an elderflower sorbet that is flavored with St. Germain liquor. The sorbet is very soft and has a very delicate flavor. The dessert also has a lychee puree. Whenever I eat canned lychees they remind me of more floral canned pears so I thought the combination would be perfect. Pear, vanilla, honey. Simple flavors that remind me of being a kid again.

New Year

So I have been very busy recently and this is why my posts have been seriously lacking. I have left Arrows and beautiful Maine to move back to Connecticut. I love CT and I have missed it dearly. I have recently become pastry chef at The Copper Beech Inn, in beautiful Ivoryton CT. Another new kitchen to create in and i couldn't be happier! Check out Chef Tyler Anderson and his work at thecopperbeechinn.com. He was recently on Food Network's "Chopped" and won the 10 grand! I currently have a three course dessert tasting menu at the restaurant so don't miss it! If you are in CT come check the restaurant out.

Do you know what nougat means...?

At Arrows we have an ongoing funny inside joke. I asked my pastry sous chef if he knew what nougat means a few time without even realizing and now the entire kitchen staff is always asking each other "Do you know what nougat means?" I was looking through an old french cook book and it stated that the word "nougat" was derived from the french saying "Tu nous Gates!", meaning "you are spoiling us!". Children would say it to their old french grandmothers after receiving this treat made from honey, fruit and nuts. I personally love this candy. It pays tribute to the old world cooking of Provence and it really is a classic candy. I try to perfect it everyday and I am very happy every time I make it, even though I have to dedicate 30 minutes of my life to doing it.

Some kitchen stuff....

S'more (revisited)

So..... I love enjoying nostalgic flavors and refining them. I love sherbets, sour patch kids, chunky bars, push pops etc.  So what is more nostalgic than a s'more. So here I was able to develop this dish.  It is a chocolate brownie (extremely nostalgic) topped with a milk chocolate cremeux (pudding). The puree is liquified graham crackers and yes the torched quenelle is marshmallow ice cream. It is inspired by Malcolm's meringue ice cream that was being developed when I was at wd-50. It is made up of egg whites, milk, cream, and various sugars. To keep it from being too "sweet", it has about 10 percent dextrose, as well as glucose. The whites are cooked like a swiss meringue, cooked to 150 degrees F. It is kept emulsified and stabilized by the use of xanthan gum, which also gives ice creams an undesirable "gummy" texture. Thiis "gummy" texture ended up being perfect for this ice cream. The texture is airing yet gummy, exactly like a marshmallow. I tried to get that signature flavor using vanilla extract and salt, but now I just use an artificial marshmallow flavor which is also perfect for the nostalgic feel. It gets aerated by the churning of the ice cream machine. It is churned for about 30 minutes and until it is a very glossy white. And yes! I can torch it!!!

Arrows Garden

So I have been crazy busy raising a family and working so I have been slacking on blogging..... Here are some great pictures of the gardens I walk through every day at work.  Great inspiration.  Instead of buying local just go outside and grow some stuff!