SWEETER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

When it comes to desserts, sweeter is not always better. A plated dessert, just like an entrée or a main course needs to have a balance of contrasting yet complimentary flavours in order to stimulate the palate and keep the diner ‘interested’. If the first bite of a dessert is very sweet, then the last bite will be difficult to ‘swallow’, and will leave you with a sickly sensation on the palate and that guilty feeling of over indulgence.

This idea first became obvious to me when I was working in a restaurant in France called l’Esperance. In 1997, I was there when it was just coming to the end of it’s reign as the defining bastion of traditional French Cooking. It had a 3 Michelin star rating as well as 19.5/20 in the ‘Gault & Millau’ Guide, which is a very exclusive club in Europe to be in. The chef/owner Marc Meneau had earned his first Michelin star there before I was even born, back in the early seventies.

I arrived in ‘St Pere sous Vezelay’ on a Sunday afternoon, just after lunch service, off a train from Copenhagen with one promise of an interview, two suit cases and about three words of French in my vocabulary. After waiting for an hour in the lounge of this small boutique hotel, in the middle of this 2 horse town, 5 hours south east of Paris, I was finally joined by ‘the man, himself’….and an interpreter.

He offered me a stage position, which means that you work for free, I explained to him that unfortunately my financial situation or rather lack there of, would not accommodate such an arrangement. Monsieur Meneau  looked at my shaky hands, patches of sweat under my arms and agreed to give me a 2 week trial as a chef de partie – patisserie, at the end of which he would decide on my future……phew!!!
(I passed the trial)

The pastry chef was an odd character and they put me with him because they needed another body in that section but also because he had worked in New York for a couple of years and therefore spoke English. His accent was so thick that I understood him better when he spoke French!

The total kitchen brigade consisted of 26 chefs, but 10 of them were working for free, they came from places like Japan, the United States, Lebanon and London. The days were long at 18 hours, but we usually got a break in the afternoon for an hour or so. There was just enough time to get home, lie down for 20 minutes and have a shower. Most of us lived in a hostel in the next ‘big’ town which was Avalon, there was no public transport to St Pere which was 20 kilometres away so at certain times of the day you would see groups of guys walking along the country lane in their white jackets, a cigarette hanging out of their mouths and their thumbs hanging out over the road. All of the locals knew who we were and so it didn’t usually take long to get a lift, unless it was raining. On one occasion I was picked up by an Australian nun who resided at the old monastery in Vezelay, on the mountain top above St Pere. She invited me for Sunday lunch, but she advised me that they observed a strict vow of silence there; this would definitely have been an interesting experience for me, unfortunately I never had an opportunity to take her up on her kind offer.

The menu had 18 desserts, and more than 20 kinds of petit fours, all made everyday or to order. One of my favourites was the chilli roasted pineapple with fromage blanc sorbet. Most of Marc Meneau’s desserts, as with all of his food, were very simple visually and uncomplicated on the plate. The execution though was faultless and often there was an unexpected or unusual ‘twist’ in the eating. There was a choice menu of course, but there was also several set menus to choose from and it was these that we sold most often. This meant that as soon as the order came on we already knew what desserts would be needed and this allowed us to prepare items from scratch, such as the pineapple which took 3 hours to cook(god help you if you messed one up). It sounds like you have a lot of time, but when you have a hundred covers in an evening and some menus that consist of three dessert courses as well as petit fours… you certainly feel it!

The whole pineapple was peeled and cored and spiked with dried slivers of vanilla pod then roasted, while being basted often, in a heavily spiced, very dark caramel sauce which had been thickened with banana rather than any dairy product. The pineapple went to the table with the green leaf head placed back in the hollow core on the top, where the waiter carved it up for 2-4 guests. Fromage blanc sorbet and lemon confit madeleines went out on the side. The flavours were not what you would expect from a dessert, and even though there is sugar in this dish, it left your palate refreshed rather than sweetly numb and sticky.

I have seen variations of this dessert in several restaurants around Europe and in the UK. I am not surprised though, it is a fantastic dish and I have also had a version of some kind on my menu most of the time, since I have been back in Australia. Presently I serve the roasted pineapple chilled with a granite of the cooking liquid and a natural yoghurt sorbet, but it also works well if you slice the pineapple very thin and plate it like a ‘carpaccio’  serving it with a natural yoghurt panna cotta.

CHILI ROASTED PINEAPPLE WITH NATURAL YOGHURT SORBET

For the pineapple;

1-3 whole pineapple, peeled
3l water
2kg caster sugar
6 bananas
100g fresh ginger, sliced thinly
5 birds eye chillies
10g dried chilli flakes
10 vanilla pods, split
15 cardamom pods
10 star anise

• Caramelise the sugar well, in a heavy pot until almost burnt.
• Add all the spices and the vanilla pods and allow them to toast gently in the caramel for a couple of minutes.
• When you can smell the spice fragrances add the water and banana.
• Allow to simmer gently until the lumps are worked out of the sugar and the bananas are softened.
• Puree well and pass through a fine sieve, making sure that you work the banana pulp through also.
• Stand the pineapple in a deep roasting tray and baste it generously with the caramel sauce.
• Roast for app. 3 hours in a moderate oven, basting often, until a skewer passes through easily.(there will always be some resistance in the core)
• Add hot water as you cook if the caramel sauce thickens too much or starts to burn in the roasting pan.
• Allow to cool and store in fridge. It will last for a couple of days, do not cut until ready to serve.
• Thin down the cooking liquid with a little water, then freeze it in a tray and scrape it with a fork to serve the granite.
• There should be plenty of caramel sauce left over and you can melt down the granite and use it again to roast also.

For the sorbet;

500g natural yoghurt
600ml sugar syrup
Juice from 5 lemons

• Hang the yoghurt in a tea towel in the fridge overnight to allow the excess liquid to drain off.
• Dissolve 1.5kg sugar in 1l of water over heat, to make sugar syrup. Do not boil.
• Allow to cool and mix 600ml with yoghurt and lemon juice.
• Process in an ice cream machine until set and put in freezer.
• Serve with chilled pineapple and granite.