Smoke, Salt, and Sweet

 

 

It started a few weeks ago. The Chef had been wanting to play around with a dry chorizo component for a first course dish, and between the sous chefs and I, we figured the best place to begin would be a powder. The precious fat collected from very slowly rendered chorizo was simply blended with tapioca maltodextrin.

The flavor of spicy pimenton crept up on you, and lingered for some time. Once incorporated into the intended dish, however, its subtlety was lost. As my savory counterparts went back to the proverbial drawing board, I snatched what remained of the experiment and headed to the pastry kitchen.

 

 

 

Trends are funny. I barely take notice of them anymore. I do find that once something hits the mainstream, someone quickly steps out from the shadows to proclaim it 'over'. That seems to be the case with our beloved bacon; the ubiquitous pork belly has yet to completey disappear from menus far and wide, but we do seem to be moving on. Pastry chefs have yet to fully retreat from the pig- I think there are still a lot of ways we can harness its salty, smoky allure. 

So, I decided chorizo was next.

 

 

 

The brainstorm mentioned above just happened to go down the week of the recent International Chef's Congress, to which I'd been running back and forth before lunch service at the restaurant. All of those out-of-town chefs have to eat somewhere, and I found myself with three or four parties of pastry chef colleagues in our dining room, all in the same night. I was delighted to share my new obsession with them.

Loaded into a shell casted from dark chocolate, the powder was spooned over a drop of caramel, a touch of lemon confit, and an extra hit of smoked salt. With little else to get in the way, the chorizo flavor seemed more intense. Perhaps the fattiness of the melting cocoa butter even helped carry that smoky flavor longer. Presented as a transitional petit four after dessert proper, I realized it might also work as well, if not better, as a transition early on, between savory and sweet.

 

 

 

By coincidence (no, really!) this week's episode of Avec Eric finds me in the pastry kitchen with Eric Ripert, after his inspiring trip to Colonnata and a visit with its top producer of lardo. You know what we made. Check your local listings for air date and times. 

 

 

Comments

[Larry P.]

Very interesting. A nice departure from bacon. Not that there's anything wrong with bacon but this is much more thought-provoking at this point.

[Kelvin Yeung]

I come from Hong Kong and love cooking and desserts. You impress me very much and broaden my horizon!
Thank you for your sharing of your art and workbook.I am glad that you share it to everyone around the world. I am looking forward to your new creation.

[Wing]

This is a surprising combination of tastes.