So I must get right to what I was excited about. Even though I stated I was not going to be eating desserts for the month of January…I ended up having a dinner consisting of five dessert courses Monday night. There was an event advertised in the Boston Globe for a discussion open to the public. It was being held at one of Boston’s finest restaurants and it was titled “Exploring the Modern Dessert.” They had flown in just a few of the top pastry chefs in the country. I figured there would be a panel discussion and some tasting. Well, I got there and was seated at a table with a bunch of pastry lovers. They introduced the head chef…one of Boston’s (and the country’s) most famous…Mr. KO himself. From there we were brought the first dessert from the chef at the host restaurant. I just happen to know him, so I got a nice, hello. This dessert was a geoglobe of mango puree. It was hollow inside and came with a gingerbeer foam, apricots, and some other sauce. It was a little intimidating to eat as there was this frozen, hollow sphere on everyone’s plate. But with some careful execution we all enjoyed. There were actually 80 people there. The sphere on the woman’s plate next to me went for a ride when she tried to cut into it, but we all laughed…and I enjoyed mine!
Next up, a chef from New York city who owns his own restaurant and it’s a place where they pretty much only serve dessert. You can get something savory, but it’s served with something sweet. This is was probably my favorite of the night. It was a cheesecake that he made with a cream cheese from Brooklyn, crème fraiche, and chevre cheese. In case you don’t recall from previous blog entries…chevre is a goat cheese. The flavors all blended nicely and the crust was a cookie crumb mixed with coffee. The garnish was a carmelized pineapple with hint of vanilla. I would definitely order this somewhere!
After that dessert we were waiting a while for the next. What’s taking so long? They finally came out with 80 plates of this dessert. For real…it landed in front of my and I couldn’t believe it. It was a piece of art work, but had no idea what all the food components were. There was a program that had it all listed, but I don’t have that with me right now. There was a lot of chocolate, some nougat, and a violet foam thing. When the chef came out…he flew in from San Francisco…he told us it was based on a painting by Jackson Pollack. Check out the picture of it…amazing!
Then came the final dessert from another chef from New York City. This guy is kind of crazy, but very cool to talk to. Apparently he’s started his own virtual restaurant. Basically, you go online, order your dessert, watch them make it…and well, that’s it. You do have to pay, but no real tasting. So he did a spin on the ole’ apple pie. There was a circular crust with one apple chunk that was pureed and mixed with a sorbet on half of the crust. The other side had some sort of cheese and I can’t remember what that was. There was also a caramel drizzle over all of it that brought everything together. I did like this dessert as well!
Then all of the chefs came out and they brought us champagne glasses filled with some sort of hot chocolate. It was delicious and was almost like melted chocolate pudding. This was when they all sat together and answered questions from the Globe’s staff and people in the audience. It was pretty cool. After that, it pretty much wrapped up…until…..
On my way out, I saw some of the chefs I work with from different restaurants. They were there helping out the big guys put together the large quantities of desserts. “Karen, are you coming to the afterparty?” Ummm…am I invited? KO himself asked me if I could help drive the chefs from out of town to the party. My reply was obviously something along the lines of “Okay, sure, yup, I’m right on that.” So I had a chef from Boston and the guy with the virtual restaurant in my car and I was trying to keep it cool. We got to the next restaurant and there was tons of food and drinks laid out for everyone to enjoy! Since I was driving and totally out of my league with these chefs, I didn’t really drink. I wanted to remember who I spoke to and make sure I actually talk to them instead of just thanking them for coming. I stayed there for about an hour and then got to drive the other two chefs back to their hotel, and another Boston chef. We get in Ellie (sadly, I didn’t introduce her to them.) They did however, notice all my catalogs in my backseat! Haha So, in my nervousness, I somehow put my car into reverse without turning her on??? Then I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t turn on. Not until the chef in the front seat said, “I think it needs to be in park to turn on…” did I realize just how embarrassed I was. At any rate, they were all super cool guys and fun to talk to. I’m so proud of myself for talking to them and actually holding a conversation. Now I have a connection in San Francisco when I make it out there.
I’m on the train to New York right now for what should be a good week. I’ll try to update more regularly…
Chow,
KK
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