Most impressive dessert you ever did see

[Wendy DeBord]

Can you paint me a mental picture of the wasabi sorbet on the ice, please? Since I did my centerpiece cakes I've really been thinking about my own serving pieces as part of my visual presentation. Was it a rustic or refined slab, what size and shape?

[Fat Guy]

Got some follow-up info on the chocolate dome dessert from Chris Broberg. From the the inside, out:

Center: Manjarii (Valrhona) chocolate jelly in the middle, made with milk and a thermo-reversible pectin that's reheatable and activated with milk, rather than an acidic juice.

Also in the center: A tuille made with ground cocoa nibs and a raspberry compote.

Dome: Molded from Guanaja, a Valrhona chocolate.

Melted, poured chocolate: Jivara, another Valrhona chocolate, rendered with milk.

Decorations: On the plate was an agar-agar jelly of citrus juice, with equal wieghts orange, grapefruit and sugar, jellied. Half were colored with grenadine; half were natural color.

Apparently credit for the dessert goes to the Mark's executive chef, Andrew Chase, who went to the Valrhona school with Frederick Bau, master pastry chef and author of Caprice du Chocolat.

I'll see if I can sneak in for some photos at some point.

[Mayhaw Man]

I believe open flames in the dining room are against the fire codes in New York City. Maybe candles and little sterno things are allowed, but I don't think flaming desserts are.

So. Is THAT why the Flaming Orange Gullies we were served at our table at Beacon were pre-flamed, as opposed to the flamed-in-my-face version at the bar?

Man, in New Orleans on Sunday morning at Brennans they have so many open flames going at one time you would think you were in a steel mill or a glass plant. THose guys with the BF carts are all over the place. It actually heats up the room. It is alot of fun though.

[Tanac]

Flames are good. I'm in favor of flames. Flames are right up there with exploding and collapsing things. But I think I'm pretty much desensitized to the old gimmick of just lighting some liqueur on fire in order to create flames. I would need much more serious flames to be impressed at this point.

We know that it is possible to make ice cream using frozen nitrogen.

It occurred to me about a year ago to wonder whether or not one could make ice cream using LOX, and then set it on fire. No experimental trials have been done to this point, but it sure would be interesting to see what happened.

[tan319]

GREAT info, Fat Guy!!!

Thermo activated pectin, too much.

Big Valrhona user, can't argue with those grand cru's too much.

Thanks again for the followup!

[Guest Morel]

Well desserts are my passion and one dessert I still rave about is the Napoleon, I know it's not elaborate but the pastry and the topping is my favorite piece du resistance. I don't think there is a pastry as beautiful as the Napoleon.

[scopra]

Snowshoe Sam's at Big White Resort in Kelowna B.C. used to flambe desserts by pouring burning Grand Marnier down a double barrel shotgun. Not too safe, but impressive nonetheless.

David Forestelle made a Napolean dessert consisting of sesame seed crusted puff pastry, burnt honey semifreddo, white chocolate and sesame mousse, vanilla and cardomon poached pears and pear cider caramel sauce. The components were all separate until service and the pears and sauce were hot. Best dessert I ever ate.

[johan]

I can only recount my failures...

I had read somewhere that icecream was pretty much invisible to microwaves; the idea was that you roll a dollop of something sweet and gooey into a ball of icecream well before-hand, and when it is desert-time, I was going to nuke the icecream and end up with hot fillling inside cold ball.

No joy. The icecream melted before the filling got hot.

fooey.

[Michael Laiskonis]

I had read somewhere that icecream was pretty much invisible to microwaves; the idea was that you roll a dollop of something sweet and gooey into a ball of icecream well before-hand, and when it is desert-time, I was going to nuke the icecream and end up with hot  fillling inside cold ball.

What I've seen of this technique/theory came via Herve This, of Molecular gastronomy fame. I was a bit sketchy on the specifics, as I was reading from the original French.

johan, could you lay out the specifics of your experiments?

[Dave the Cook]

I had read somewhere that icecream was pretty much invisible to microwaves; the idea was that you roll a dollop of something sweet and gooey into a ball of icecream well before-hand, and when it is desert-time, I was going to nuke the icecream and end up with hot  fillling inside cold ball.

What I've seen of this technique/theory came via Herve This, of Molecular gastronomy fame. I was a bit sketchy on the specifics, as I was reading from the original French.

johan, could you lay out the specifics of your experiments?

I haven't read This, so perhaps I will repeat something you already know. And maybe This has figured out something beyond what I can contribute here, but:

- Microwave ovens cannot work their magic if there are no "loose" molecules to agitate. As a result, it's very tedious to melt ice in a microwave oven, because its molecules are locked into the matrix of the ice. The only reason it works at all is because the ice begins to melt simply from exposure to ambient temperature. This frees up a few molecules which can then be agitated. Their movement accelerates the melting of the remaining molecules, and so on.

- Microwaves have a difficult time penetrating more than about an inch into food, depending on the density of the food being cooked.

- A microwave is about 12 centimeters. Working with even dividends of this length (i.e., 6, 3 and 1.5 cm) creates the potential for stronger concentration of radiation. Conversely, uneven dividends will (potentially) result in somewhat weaker zones.

Without giving it a whole lot more thought (it's late and I've had one too many glasses of wine), it seems that you could create something using the following characteristics:

• An outer shell that freezes very hard. This could be ice cream at somewhere around -20F, or something with a higher freezing point at a less extreme temperature.
  
• a roughly spherical shape of about 10 cm.
  
• the shape would be hollow, with walls 2 cm thick.
  
• The hollow could be filled with something that had an even lower freezing temperature than the shell -- it would not be as completely frozen as the shell, giving you a head start.
  
• To further leverage the difference in melting characteristics between the shell and the filling, you could insert a 1.5 cm metal pin into the filling.
  

Put the thing in the oven and turn on the power. The pin will serve as an antenna, increasing the microwave effect in its near vicinity. Consequently, whatever is in the center would begin to melt much more rapidly than the shell. But eventually, mere contact with the melting center would begin to melt the shell, too.

Is this in any way helpful?

[Michael Laiskonis]

Great stuff, Dave. You've definitely laid some foundation for us to build upon and experiment with. The This bit I referenced was very brief, but I'll either hunt down a link, or comb through my paper files to recall what he wrote on the topic...

[tan319]

An update to the dessert globe mystery.

Not chocolate but maybe the methods are similar?

Chef Cantu of Moto does his thing.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi...74.story?page=1

[racheld]

Baked Alaska-for-two at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, across the table from Mr. Wonderful in an inch-wide tie. The lights were low, the velvets and brocades of the room muting the soft murmur of conversation at romantic tables lost in the candlelight, and I was wearing my pale blue cocktail suit and a corsage of pink glamellias.

The dessert was brought out high above the shoulder of the waiter, presented with a flourish, and ignited to applause from several tables around. The center depression held an eggshell containing a sugar cube soaked in lemon extract, and the perfume was amazingly exotic. The little blue flame blazed for a moment or so, then the waiter deftly divided it onto two plates, poured raspberry sauce, and discreetly disappeared into the twilight.

It was meringue and ice cream and a slightly dry cake layer, but it took its cue from the ambiance and romance in the air, and was a memorable feast, borne forward for years as a special moment etched in time.

A decadent dome containing all the chocolate of eons, a pitcher of poured peach blossoms, eight hours at the French Laundry, a runcible spoon from Careme's own service---they are NEVER going to equal that Baked Alaska.

[Jim Black]

re: the chocolate dome dessert from Chris Broberg

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=734318636646501

[Mendel C-k]

We are much more subdued in Australia...

 

 

However, the recipe is about 3 pages long

[andiesenji]

The most impressive dessert I ever saw in person was a row of 4 croquembouche draped in spun sugar spangled with edible gold leaf "ornaments" and backed with what appeared to be a folding screen made from cast sugar panels. 

It was made for a holiday party fundraiser at the Bonaventure hotel in downtown L.A. not long after the hotel opened in 1976 - in the rooftop restaurant.

 

It was jaw-dropping when it was wheeled in on a long table - many oohs and ahhs.

[ChrisTaylor]

We are much more subdued in Australia...

 

 

However, the recipe is about 3 pages long

 

The dish is temperamental. When I went there the chocolate sauce was too cool to cause the top layer of the cake to melt properly. It's still a very good chocolate cake. I mean, they say 'chocolate cake' on the menu and they're not messing around. The cake does what it says on the tin and then some.

[Mjx]

This (6th image from the bottom, here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/138044-my-last-and-anyones-best-shot-at-elbulli/?p=1804527):

 

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/monthly_04_2011/post-1-0-74185800-1302345749.jpg

 

There is something absolutely perfect-looking about that, and I'm dying to have a go at making it myself.

[jmacnaughtan]

I've had this at Café Pouchkine in Paris.  Absolutely stunning; I'm never even going to try and replicate it.

 

[SylviaLovegren]

I've had this at Café Pouchkine in Paris.  Absolutely stunning; I'm never even going to try and replicate it.

 

rose.jpg

It's gorgeous, but what is it?  Did it taste good?

[jmacnaughtan]

It's gorgeous, but what is it?  Did it taste good?

 

It's called the Rose Pouchkine.

 

It was great- pistachio sponge, pistachio and amaretto cream, stone fruit compote and tvorog (Russian curd cheese) mousse.  The petals were just coloured white chocolate.

 

They have a dark chocolate version as well.