in the kitchen x chocolate essentials

Chocolate is part of any pastry chef's repertoire, it's a crowd pleaser. This is a super simple (and gluten-free!) version of my signature chocolate dessert; chocolate ganache "bar", toasted chocolate chiboust, and raspberry kernels. The trick to making this a stand-out dish is using good quality chocolate. I always use Valrhona, for it's stellar quality and depth of flavor, as well as familiariaty with working with it's chocolate percentages. The chocolate chiboust, when piped and toasted, taste like the most decadent chocolate marshmallow. The raspberries contrast with the chocolate bar, which is rich and decadent. I like to freeze the raspberries and break them up into kernels, as a few of these pieces with a spoonful of chocolate makes the perfect bite.

in the kitchen x persimmon, the star

Sometimes the best things come to you when you least expect it. This dessert was inspired by my lazy saturday breakfast of persimmon, farmer's cheese, and raw honey. So simple and so satisfying. Fresh and ripe fruit is a dessert unto itself. Seriously, nothing compares. Since I can't exactly hand someone a persimmon and call it a plated dessert, this dish is comprised of a pistachio cardamom cake, ripe persimmon, persimmon chips, farmer's cheese, raw honey, and pistachio oil. The persimmon goes incredibly well with the tangy and rich farmer's cheese. You would think adding honey to the already sweet persimmon would be too much, but it highlights the fruit and adds a fun granular texture to the dish. The pistachio oil adds a nuttiness that goes well with the farmer's cheese. The pistachio cardamom cake adds the right amount of spice. I just love that all the flavors are so distinct from one another, but together add up to one delicious bite. Isn't that the most important thing?

in the kitchen x ricotta cake & seckel pear

The best part of November is pear season. My favorite is Seckel pears as they are small and especially cute. I like to let them ripen before slowly poaching them. As I am peeling the skin, the pear should be dripping with juice and soft, not mushy. That's when I know they'll be delicious with a lot of natural sugars, with no need to add a lot of sugar in the poaching liquid. I like to poach them slowly with fall spices to control how cooked they become. I hate mushy fruit; I usually aim for a firm but soft poach. Nothing crunchy, and nothing resembling fruit sauce. I guess it's like Goldilocks, the perfect in-between. This dessert holds the fruit as the star. It is a simple ricotta cake with lemon, hazelnut crumble, bourbon sauce, lemongrass ginger ice cream and garnished with wild strawberries and caramelized hazelnut.

in the kitchen x snickers, please

Sometimes you just want a decadent dessert that reminds you of your childhood. My favorite candy bar to munch on as a kid was a Snickers bar. Perhaps it was because it was also my Uncle's favorite candy bar, but how can you argue against chocolate, peanuts, and nougat? This baked alaska dessert is inspired by those flavors, but for a more adult dessert. It is a salted caramel & peanut semifreddo, vanilla cake, vanilla meringue, citrus cookie, and dark chocolate sauce. Bake it in the oven for a few minutes to brown the meringue and you have an all-encompassing hot/cold package of comforting goodness.

in the kitchen x pecan tart, ricotta, and raspberry

This caramel pecan tart is sold at the cafe, but for fun I decided to doctor it up as a plated dessert. This tart is paired with ricotta cake chunks, ricotta orange "skin" , and raspberry vanilla ice cream. The skin is the top layer of the ricotta cake, and baked again to achieve a crunchy and delicate citrus bite, reminiscent of a wafer. The actual tart is deliciously salty, nutty, chewy and sweet. Complex on its own, but even better with other contrasting flavors and textures. Good raspberries can still be found at the market, but as they are organic, they spoil quickly. What I like to do is freeze them in a plastic pint container. When they are completely frozen, I shake the container quickly, breaking up what was once delicate raspberries into perfect individual "kernels." It's the best way to preserve a little bit summer.