DESSERTS: TRIED AND TRUE
By Lucie Grys
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Chef, food writer and larger than life personality, James Beard, once said, “A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.” As a key figure that brought French cooking to North America in the 1950s, Beard knew a few things about the wonders of butter, cream, sugar, eggs and chocolate.
Dessert dates back thousands of years to when people made sweet confections from ingredients like honey, fruit and nuts. The ancient Mayans used cocoa in their cooking and often added hot peppers to spice up their favourite hot chocolate beverage.
However, it wasn’t until the 11th century that, as a result of the Crusades, sugar made its way to Western Europe. Crusaders returning home talked of a new spice and the first sugar recorded in England was in 1099. Over the next century, there was a major expansion of trade with the East, which included the influx of sugar into Europe. In the 1500s, records show sugar was available in London, for today’s equivalent value of $100 a kilogram. It goes without saying that sugar and desserts were truly luxury goods and available only for the extremely privileged.
No longer kept under lock and key, desserts are a mainstay on menus. Whether a patron prefers a high styling pastry or craves a down-home bowl of apple crisp, the key to any pastry chef’s success – especially in today’s economic climate – is in the quality of products used to tempt and tantalize the sweet tooth.
“We’ve been through many recessions and survived all of them,” says Dufflet Rosenberg, owner of Dufflet Pastries in Toronto, who only uses premium ingredients in her products. “People will continue to indulge in a treat they can afford … (because it) is a great way to cheer (oneself) up.”
Affectionately known as the “Queen of Cakes,” Rosenberg has been in business for close to 35 years. As such, she has seen trends come and go – and come back again – all the while staying true to her business philosophy and away from unusual combinations and flavour pairings.
“We know what sells and that is classic combinations.”
The same can be said for dessert presentation. Pastry chef Sarah Bell believes the simpler, the better.
“(It’s) more pleasing to the eye.”
The former head pastry chef at Canoe http://www.oliverbonacini.com/canoemovie.html restaurant and, presently, a teacher for the Bonnie Gordon School of Confectionary Arts,http://www.bonniegordoncakes.com Bell has seen a number of different taste and flavour pairings on a plate but says the most successful desserts are those that are rooted in tradition.
“Most people really identify with elements of tradition,” she says. “The more familiar I made my menus, the more I would sell.”
However, with a push to bake with locally grown or organic produce, today’s dessert menus are starting to look like a lesson in local geography.
“Sourcing suppliers for fruits like wild blueberries from Sudbury (and) Quebec artisanal cheeses for the cheese program was huge at Canoe,” recalls Bell.
Another big trend in dessert-making is the application of molecular gastronomy. A new scientific discipline that is slowly making inroads in Canada, molecular gastronomy concerns itself with the chemical processes that take place during cooking. It involves deconstructing the components and flavours found, for example, in a dessert r and then arranging them on a plate or even in test tubes, so “foodies” can taste the elements of the dessert individually rather than eating the dessert in its final prepared form.
Although these trends appear to be here to stay, familiar tastes and flavour combinations that hearken back to childhood memories are popping up on even the most sophisticated dessert menus albeit with a twist. Bread pudding made with artisan bread and a hint of liqueur adds a new note to a traditional favourite and sour cream cheesecake with ginger snap or chocolate shortbread crust is replacing the traditional graham cracker fare.
This article is excerpted from a previously published issue of FoodService News.
