photo courtesy Vosges Haut Chocolate
For all of you French conjugators – I decided to change the title from Garnir to Garnis, as in tu garnis….. lest you think I made a boo-boo. I didn’t want to cause confusion……
What are you doing today? At this moment, I’m dreaming of a dark chocolate-brown-butter-caramel-morello cherry truffle with pink himalayan sea salt……….
I love the name Vosges – the word itself. Makes me want to get on a plane and jet off to that little corner of the Alsace-Lorraine…… 🙂
It’s the beginning of Valentine’s Day weekend and reservations are near impossible to secure if you have waited this long. There may be a good deal of argument over what is the focal point of the meal for tomorrow. Is it Dessert or not? There is “heat” out there these days over the viability of the dessert course. There’s much ado over this. Well, if people aren’t ordering dessert as part of a restaurant meal, then they must be surreptitiously sneaking pastries, candies and bread items during other times of the day (or night), because, as far as I can see, there is absolutely no shortage of offerings, innovators and celebrity in the genre of sweets!
I got to thinking about all of this last week when Pastry Chef Johnny Iuzzini posted this article and asked for feedback:
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbites/food-trends/why-dc-restaurants-no-longer-care-about-dessert.php Hmmm……
When and how do food trends affect an entire class of chefs? People have been predicting the demise of the pastry chef for years now. And, it’s true that many restaurants have shut down their own pastry departments based on cost/benefit analysis – that short-sighted cost/square foot vs revenue per square foot analysis employed by department stores. Only, I see more and more focus on the pastry arts – in the number of students studying, publishing and media and in the overall delivery of sweets and breads as markets mutate and expand.
Trends in eating are very interesting to watch. Economic, social, even political issues affect how and what we eat. In the last 20 years or so we have seen many a major shift in the overall food environment.
Here is just a brief list of what’s happening:
1. growing acknowledgement that food is physiological, emotional and environmental
2. 9/11 changed the food scene in New York, as did Hurricane Sandy; the great recession of 2008 affected all
3. food publishing, unlike other publishing continues to explode
4. American cuisine folds in many more international trends, flavors, ingredients
5.meal courses get adjustments based on how people think about food value – economics and calories
6.calories finally become weighted by distribution of protein, carbs, fats
7.continuing evidence that food obsessions are fickle and ever-changing
At a lot of restaurants I eat in, I see that when choosing their meal allocation over courses, people tend to pick a cocktail over dessert – if they are choosing. This is an interesting phenomenon. This could be so just by virtue of the fact that when they arrive at the restaurant they are “hungry” and so, of course the cocktail is first up. By the time they finish a drink, maybe a piece of bread or an appetizer and their entree, they are basically satiated. When the dessert menu is offered, they may peruse, like I do, to see what the pastry department has to offer and then pass. If the restaurant does indeed have someone toiling away in the pastry kitchen, they may offer what I call the Amuse Bouche of the Last Course – a little gift for the table, in lieu of not utilizing this asset at all and in order to intrigue, perhaps for the next visit.
And, so, while the overall viability of the course known as dessert, in restaurant dining, may be in flux, the Amuse Bouche of the Last Course may be coalescing, if not creating its own sub-set of the course. I like this idea and all the possibilities it presents……….
Yes, it is true that with all the “weight watchers” out there, we tend to forego dessert in many cases. Some people would rather die than eat a piece of cake. There are even some particular phobias and shame about eating sweets. And, there is no doubt that the medical community, if not some food “manufacturers”, are finally beginning to acknowledge the dangers of over-consuming sugar. Yet, everywhere you look, the art of pastry and pastry chef-dom is sizzling hot and borders on celebrity obsession. So, I ask again, who’s eating sweets/breads and when? Just a little food for thought today……..
On Tuesday, I got a personal peak into the brandy-new pastry kitchen at Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen, probably the best thing to happen to the Vail Mansion in 100 years and the food scene in Morristown, NJ in many. Don’t get me started on the loss of priceless architecture in my own hometown since the 1960s. Suffice it to say that I am giddy that someone has tried to showcase this brilliant structure in a way that celebrates its history, architecture and placement in a functional way, instead of relegating it to the wrecking ball. Anyway, after lunch, we asked to see the other dining rooms and since I’d interned with the new pastry chef there, I peaked in, said hello and was very impressed with the size of the pastry kitchen that had been allocated for this new restaurant (opened in November). So, wow, I said to myself, this surely flies in the face of the Washington article.
It is perplexing that the signals seem to be so strongly contradictory in the world of pastry and baking. Or, maybe we are just in the midst of an evolutionary phase in American eating. There is certainly a huge trend to pass on the bread basket and the dessert menu when dining out in restaurants. On the other hand, artisan breads, bakeries and chocolate shops and their chefs are growing in popularity and saturation everywhere you look – books, shops, farmer’s markets, specialty shows and shops, etc. On one hand, you can order just about anything online and get it “next day”. And, people like me will plan and travel across oceans and continents with the express purpose of visiting the iconic pastry, confection and bread shops of cities and towns and legendary venues. This is all very fascinating to me.
Perhaps we should just say we have become tortured souls of cuisine – and, to morph that famous saying, “the heart and the palate wants what the heart and the palate wants”. And, maybe, just maybe, we have changed our behavior in order to imbibe and indulge and wind up indulging in a little self-deception in the process – just sneak that morsel in when no one else is looking and not at the table with your fellow diners . Or, maybe we are just distributing our total intake over a different arc in the day. I don’t know, but it is surely, um, interesting (that worst of words).
Well, what does this all have to do with the title of this post – The Amuse Bouche of the Last Course? I’m onto truffles – just one of those confectionary gems that have spawned many a chocolatier and shop devoted purely to an array of flavors and designs. Such is the mind of the pastry chef – always imagining new presentations and flavor combinations an evolving, searching, dreaming.
The truffle may just be the present-day pinnacle of the celebration of class that is the bon-bon. And, here is the perfect confection for Valentine’s Day, should you choose not to indulge in more of a major dessert course presentation. There are dozens of iterations to choose from and, honestly the possibilities are as varied as your own imagination.
So, I’m off on the truffle hunt – where’s my little piggy? I still have that Dark Chocolate-Brown-Butter-Caramel with Morello Cherry and Pink Himalayan Sea Salt Truffle on my brain.
Anyway, here is a little primer on truffles and some ideas. Should you still be pulling together your Valentine’s Day dinner plans before a blazing fire, take out your saucepan and ganache it up! Ganache et Garnir! Seize the day! (but don’t seize your chocolate)
Pick a flavor or flavors, scan your spice rack, mince some tiny fruits, drizzle and garnish! Use this occasion to set free your whimsical impulses – and make your love a selection of bonbons! Seriously, you can hardly screw this up. I doubt anyone will be disappointed!
http://www.finecooking.com/articles/chocolate-truffle-master-class.aspx
Some recipes to work with:
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/caramel-dark-chocolate-truffles-with-fleur-de-sel-109085
http://foodnessgracious.com/2012/01/brown-butter-caramels-2/
Or, since it’s abundantly sunny today, bundle up and just go shopping:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/restaurants/best-chocolate-shops-in-new-york
photo courtesy Fran’s Chocolates – one of the country’s top chocolatiers!