Blue Cheese… in a dessert?

Here is the second installment in What’s Sean Been Up To?

Bittersweet Chocolate Tortino, Gorganzola Cream, Almond Croquant, and a Persimmon Brodo

Bittersweet Chocolate Tortino, Gorgonzola Cream, Almond Croquant, and Persimmon Brodo

This is a dessert that takes some convincing to try, but most people love it once they do. It is the inclusion of gorgonzola, a blue cheese, into the dessert that throws you. However, the gorgonzola and the bittersweet chocolate pair up wonderfully. The inspiration for this dessert come about when I was doing research into traditional Italian desserts and read about a walnut and gorgonzola tortino. The walnuts turned into almonds and the idea to include chocolate… I’m not sure where that came from, but it certainly works!

The cake is a dark chocolate butter sponge that has been dipped in a frangelico soak. Next is a disc of almond croquant followed by another layer of cake. Between this and the final cake layer is piped rounds of whipped cream with gorgonzola and mascarpone cheeses. The cheeses are brought up to room temperature, whipped lightly, and then folded into whipped cream. On top is a whole wheat tuile that adds a nice nuttiness from the wheat bran that gets toasted when the tuile is baked. Finally, surrounding the tortino is a brodo (broth) of clarified persimmon and dots of persimmon puree. To acheive the brodo I used an agar filtration technique on the pureed hachiya persimmons and then just sweetened it slighlty with simple syrup. The dots of orange puree is just the blended hachiyas with a little bit of orange juice and simple syrup. Not only is this dish beautiful, but I think it is delicious.

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Last Day

This is my last day at Le Bernardin and I am sorry to see it come to an end. I am very grateful that chef Laiskonis has allowed me to spend this time in his kitchen. I also need to thank all of his staff for letting me help with their production tasks and showing me how to make the recipes. It has been a fantastic learning experience.

Here is a list of a few things that I found especially interesting —

• Sweet Potato Pearls – a flavored puree of roasted sweet potato that includes LBG and agar. It is put into a squeeze bottle and then dropped into a chilled oil bath. As the little drops of puree sink to the bottom of the chilled oil bath they cool and the gums are set. The pearls are strained and rinsed before being served. Very cool technique.
• Chocolate Biscuit (pronounced bis-kwee; as in a cake, not a cookie) – he has several different biscuit recipes that include chocolate as a fat (along with butter). I’ve never seen this before. I like the end result, which is more moist and slightly denser than a normal biscuit.
• Saucing Stencil- okay, this one might not be as exciting to you, but I think it’s a great idea and had never seen it before. Basically, he uses this flexible stencil material that has been cut out to a rectangular shape and spreads the sauce on the plate with it. The stencil is lifted away and you have a perfect rectangle of sauce on the plate.
• Organization – I love organization and this is a kitchen that has it in spades. Lists abound and things run smoothly.

This is my last stage in NYC. In a little over a week my wife and I hit the road for our cross-country move back home to Seattle. If you know of anyone in Seattle looking for a pastry cook…

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