ICE’s catalogue has some choice offerings this session, including (but definitely not limited to!) classes with chef Michael Laiskonis from Le Bernardin, and this recent class I took with Johnny Iuzzini from Jean Georges restaurant. Iuzzini is a James Beard award winner for Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year, and has trained with Francois Payard, Pierre Herme, among others. He’s also made TV appearances on Paula’s Party, Top Chef as a quickfire challenge judge, Martha Stewart and, oh yeah, also happened to be twice voted NY’s sexiest chef in a Daily News poll. Iuzzini’s book, provocatively entitled Dessert Fourplay, has just been released, so the desserts in the class were based on his book.

Iuzzini is quite a rock star in the pastry world, so I was a bit starstruck meeting him and some members of his team at Jean Georges, who were on hand to assist students throughout the class (they were all so great and helpful, by the way!). I just got a new camera lens a few days prior to the class which I am not yet accustomed to, so I feverishly snapped away throughout class hoping to get a few decent, in-focus shots – in between chopping fruit, piping cake batter, flambeeing bananas, etc.

Various stages of creating the Polenta-Pineapple Cake, from caramelizing sugar, filling with pineapple and piping cake batter; akin to creating flan or an upside down cake.

Chef discussed his dessert quartet concept used at Jean Georges, or how a single element is carried out in a complementary plating of four mini desserts. We would be working in teams to create the numerous components to ultimately plate our own “fourplay” (har, har).

I really liked this peanut phyllo crisp, for example, with a peanut flour/sugar layer, which was later used to garnish one part of the quartet. After an initial baking, a layer of confectioner’s sugar is dusted and the phyllo crisp is reheated, allowing the sugar to caramelize (though unevenly in the second photo below – you want to avoid that). This creates a delicate, flaky crisp, which is later broken into shards and used for garnish.

Peanut phyllo crisp

One of the other quartet components was the flambeed bananas with rum and coke ice cream, which Iuzzini is demonstrating below.

Fire and Ice: flambeed bananas and rum and coke ice cream quenelle

After working in groups the whole night, we each had the opportunity to plate our own desserts. Here’s Iuzzini’s plated demo. I loved the way he balanced and delicately offset the quenelles atop the phyllo crisp/bananas. He also created carrot foam using fresh carrot juice and an immersion blender.

Clockwise from left: Chef Iuzzini’s plated demo of pain perdu (brioche French toast) with cream cheese ice cream and papaya lime compote, pineapple polenta cake with pineapple spice sauce, mango lhassi with diced fruits and carrot foam, flambeed bananas with rum and coke ice cream, peanut phyllo crisp and caramelized peanuts.

Wow, I hadn’t realized all that we accomplished in class until I just detailed all the components in that lengthy description. The class was really well-orchestrated in this respect. Also, while the components are certainly numerous, none were especially difficult. We were all left to plate our own arrangements using the desserts we created in class.

My plating arrangement with overfilled lhassi, deflated carrot foam, half-assed melting quenelle, sans specialized, compartmentalized Jean Georges dinnerware.

In perusing my copy of Iuzzini’s Dessert Fourplay, I’m quite surprised by the relative accessibility of the recipes. Though I haven’t tried them yet outside of class, I think they would appeal to a wide range of pastry cooks. The recipes and flavor combinations are really quite compelling and I imagine this will be a great go-to book. I particularly like how each of various elements of the quartets can really stand on their own, should the idea of creating four mini desserts at once be daunting, as I imagine it would be to many. Also, the desserts are beautifully photographed, which is always appreciated.

My one minor complaint was that I wish there were a little more of a color contrast in the final dessert – but this is more of a personal photography issue (though the photo of the same dessert in the book is quite stunning). Class was a blast and the mere hours spent there were inspiring, edifying. Iuzzini was a really charismatic, generous and playful instructor, even poking fun at students who burnt their caramelized sugar (tsk, tsk). Good times!

Pictured above are François Payard and his domed layer cake with chocolate ruffles. I caught the tail end of this demo so unfortunately, I’m not sure what the actual creation was. The recipes from the show are supposed to be up on the Chocolate Show site soon.

Jacques Torres is always a popular attraction. Here he is making a chocolate bowl, dipping a balloon in chocolate in a tulip-like pattern to create the bowls pictured below. They were filled with a chocolate sauce and chocolate caramel popcorn. The man works with such lightning speed, he also demonstrated this tiered chocolate cone with two-toned shortbread cookies. (Pieces were assembled beforehand, of course, but I’m still in awe over what he accomplished in under an hour.)

On Sunday, a representative from the Italy based Amedei presented a guided tasting of some of their chocolates. Amedei is regarded as some of the best chocolates in the world, and is relatively difficult to find in the US. It was created by quality-obsessed brother-sister team Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri, with Alessio scouring the earth to source the best cacao and Cecilia creating the chocolate.

We were instructed on the proper way of tasting chocolate: 1. Look at the piece -the color should be uniform with no trace of grey, or cocoa butter separation 2. Snap – there should be a sharp snap. 3. Smell the aroma. 4. Taste

Some of the aromas/tastes evoked from the various chocolates were tobacco, green tea, forest, exotic fruits, spices, nuts, etc. The Madagascar chocolates are one of Amedei’s more exotic types, with traces of minerals from the volcanic soil from which the cocoa is grown.

Another highlight was watching Rich Capizzi from Bouchon Bakery and famed restaurant Per Se. He demonstrated an uber-sophisticated “Chocolate S’mores” dish. In the photo below, he is making marshmallows and gauging the temperature of the boiled sugar by dipping his hand in cold water, and then into the melted sugar which he rolled into a ball to test its pliability. I think I’ll just use a thermometer, thank you.

Rich brough a very generous sampling of five of Bouchon Bakery’s cookies: Nutter Butters, TKO’s (Thomas Keller Oreos), Oatmeal, Shortbread, and Chocolate Chip. (It wasn’t until we were halfway into the cookies that I remembered to take photos, as you can see.)

Afterwards, we sampled the exotic s’mores plated dessert. There are several components here including a chocolate brownie, graham cracker crunch, marshmallow, chocolate cremeux shaped into quenelle and dipped in “magic crack” or chocolate shell, cocoa nib coulis, and chocolate emulsion. Phew – I hope I got it all. I’d say the cost of the desserts we sampled in this demo alone were equivalent if not more than the entrance fee to the Chocolate Show.

I also managed to squeeze in one more demo from Kate Zuckerman from Chanterelle restaurant in New York, and author of The Sweet Life. Kate demonstrated a chocolate caramel tart with crushed caramel decorations.

A very edifying and inspiring show! Now that I’m about armed with all this new found knowledge and inspiration, I’ve got to make use of the ahem, over 20 pounds of couverture that I purchased from the show…

A handful of vendors were set up for the preview/opening night. Among them were Éclat Chocolate, who displayed  cocoa sticks (below, left), which are melted in hot milk to create hot cocoa. They also had some spicy peppercorn chocolates shaped in disks. Oliver Kita had some fashionista chocolate shoes (below, right) adorned with what appears to be crystallized violets.

Two booths that you will not want to miss are Mary’s from Japan (below, top and bottom left) and the Italian Confederation which is comprised of several Italian vendors (below, top and bottom right). They both have some amazing chocolate available to purchase only at the chocolate show (outside of Japan and Italy, of course). Mary’s green tea truffle samples were a big hit last year and kept flying off their counter. The chocolates from the Italian Confederation table are also notable. I sampled some salted chocolates, Gianduja, and chocolates topped with lemon rinds (wow), which were excellent.

Keep in mind there will be many more vendors at the actual show, including Amadei, Jacques Torres, John & Kira’s, Valrhona (among others), and you can find the full list and more info here.

On to the chocolate fashion show! This year, former Project Runway designers and celebrity pastry chefs joined forces to create pieces under the theme of Superheroes! Here are some pieces from the show:

Left: “Villain to Mother Nature (Oil Spill) by Renee Masoomian & Vedika Webb and Right: “Viracocha” made by Steve Evetts of the Marriott Marquis and designed by Brian Bustos. Fierce and fiercer!    

Clockwise, from upper left: “Black Phoenix” by Kit Scarbo, Fritz Knipschildt, and Torben Bang, “Ironman” by Faith Drobin and Michelle Tampakis, “Barbarella” by Gregory Fale, Richard Capizzi & Grand Marnier, “Batgirl” by Michael Plosky & Martin Howard, ”Storm” by Vanessa Greeley and Dina Sadik, modeled by Sophie Deni.

The actual Chocolate show takes place this weekend, Friday to Sunday November 7-9, 2008, and will include demonstrations by some top pastry chefs (which itself is worth the $28 price of admission), activities for children, book signings from pastry chefs, as well as  the full roster of chocolate vendors. For more info on the show, click here.

Note: Please contact me at janet@prettytastycakes.com if any pastry artists/designers were not credited appropriately.

As soon as I saw Pichet Ong’s smiling face, my mood was instantly uplifted. Pichet is such a personable man. So cute! He spoke about his background at Jean Georges, La Folie, Spice Market, etc. and how his experience in savory cooking has influenced his desserts in both flavor profiles (his desserts often play with salty/sweet flavor combinations such as the apple hand pie with bacon caramel) and his creative development process. He uses more of an instinctual approach, spontaneously creating, tasting, then revisiting the creation a second time to record the measurements used for any given dessert. Pichet regarded this instinctual approach in admittedly generalized terms as a vaguely “Asian” approach. I found this interesting and personally inspiring as I’ve come to regard baking as less and less of an exact science based on precise measurements and timing and learning to hone my instincts instead.

Apple Hand Pie with Bacon Caramel (my handpie chosen for plating demo!)

The class was divided in two. As much as the Apple Hand Pie with Bacon Caramel intrigued me, I’m actually allergic to bacon (or rather, the nitrates) so I quickly opted to join the Stilton Souffle, Walnut, Basil and Arugula Ice Cream group. At least we all got to shape a few hand pies. This cheese souffle (picture below) was quite savory, counter-balanced by the light, cool arugula ice cream.

Perhaps my favorite dessert of the class (and also the least savory) was the Carrot and Salted Caramel Cupcake, which is sold at Batch Bakery in New York. This cupcake was moist and oh so delicious.

Another delicious item was the Chevre Cheesecake Parfait with Huckleberry, Walnut, and Maldon Salt. The base of the dessert is a walnut cookie crust, a very nice crunch that contrasted the airy parfait.

This class was so much fun. I purchased Pichet Ong’s book The Sweet Spot and am so inspired by the exciting and unusual flavor combinations. Pichet is also working on a second book, though I’ll be “digesting” the knowledge I’ve acquired from this class for a while…

This is a real test of multitasking (blogging, listening and photo-taking/editing at once – phew!) We happen to be sitting next to Rachel and Matt from Coconut and Lime and met Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake. Joey’s doing his intro now, so be back soon!

Martha just came out. She looks great! Other blogs in attendance are Cute Overload and Smitten Kitchen.

Yum. Mattbites is showing us how to make alfajores, South American cookies filled with dulce de leche. I tried these for the first time in Argentina and have always been interested in making them. They are vaguely like macarons in their assemblage process of two cookies sandwiched together with a filling.

We also got to see Martha judge / eat her way through a hot dog contest (to be aired at a later date). Now that was amusing/entertaining, but also somewhat torturous to watch as we approached lunchtime.

That’s all for now! Check out the show!

The longer log cakes pictured above are the modern French-style buche de noel. This style is more popular in Paris than the rolled jaconde with buttercream that I made over Christmas (the rolled version is apparently a more old-fashioned version) and requires a special trough-shaped mold which I was very tempted to buy.

The beautiful shot glass filled with fruits and creams and decorated with a violet was called an “emotion exotic” and was composed of pistachio creme brulee, pineapple seasoned with lime and coriander, coconut, and tapioca. mmm…

In the background of the picture above, you can see some of Pierre Herme’s macarons, the cookies adored by Parisians. The store had some rather exotic macaron flavors as balsamic vinegar and truffle.

We had to save some room for Sadaharu Aoki, pictured below. It was a favorite from our last visit, and just a few blocks away from Pierre’s boutique.

The “bambou” green tea cake was as delicious as ever, and we sampled a few different flavors, as well, including black forest and raspberry (no, not all on the same day).

We also went to Dalloyau for this amazing fruit pastry. Just look at all those layers! It looks like the cross-section of some geological formation. I don’t know exactly what was in it, but it was tart and delectable.

And last, but not least, was Laduree…To give you an idea of the popularity of Laduree’s macarons in Paris, we were able to get into Versailles and the Louvre faster than we were able to place an order for macarons. The line went out the door. Of course, we probably went there during a peak time of day at a peak time of year. The store clerks would not allow me to photograph inside, but I managed to get a few pics from the store window. There were some new flavor offerings, such as “rouge diva” (with chocolate, red fruits and spices) and gingerbread, and praline, in addition to the classics such as caramel with sea salt, pistachio, mocha, and so on.

Pictured below are the pastries called “les religieuses” (pink) and “les Saint Honore” made from profiterole-esque choux pastry. We didn’t get to sample those, as our stomachs could only handle so much sugar, so we happily feasted with our eyes.

This trip has inspired me to try making macarons, and Bob fortuitously came across a cookbook in Paris entirely about macarons! It is also entirely in French and suddenly I was thankful I had taken so many years of French in high school into college – to be able to read a darn French cookbook.

Perhaps the most frenzied and visited booth was that of Mary’s, hailing from Tokyo. Their green tea, black sesame and caramel coffee truffle samples flew off their bento box displays the minute they were replenished. To the side, you could observe the artisans carefully hand piping exquisite designs onto individual chocolate squares. Mary’s offers unusual Eastern inspired flavors such as wasabi, sake, and purple sweet potato chocolates.

John and Kira’s was recently featured on the Martha Stewart show for their adorable “pumpkins” of whisky clove ganache-filled figs coated in orange-colored white chocolate. When I saw the pumpkins on TV, I thought the concept was quite cute and unique in itself, but the taste actually surpassed my expectations. Though I only sampled a slice, the ganache was velvety smooth and the taste was not too figgy, but sophisticated.

My husband had purchased chocolates for me from Romanico’s in Miami before, so we really looked forward to visiting their booth. Delicious as ever, they offer flavors such as guava and cream cheese, creamy coconut, and white pistachio.

Although I didn’t sample their chocolates (it was towards the end of the show and I really couldn’t take another bite), Cosmic Chocolate had a very hip and visually appealing display with cocktail inspired flavor pairings of limoncello ginger, champagne peach, and cointreau caramel.

After all the chocolate consumption, we were relieved to be able to watch some culinary demonstrations from some top chocolate/pastry chefs. We observed two demos, Chef Alessandra Altieri from Payard demonstrated a caramelized hazelnut tart with chocolate chantilly cream. The audience received copies of the recipes, as well as mini-samples of the final version! The shell and caramelized nuts were a crunchy contrast to the cream and the combination just sang in my mouth.

Later on, we watched a demo by renowned Mr. Chocolate, Chef Jacques Torres. He charmed the crowds with an inaccessible but entertaining demo of a seasonal life-size chocolate turkey in a white chocolate crate with white chocolate hay and marshmallow eggs. Pictured below is Jacques piping the marshmallow into egg molds, as well as the final product.

The highlight of the show for me was having my photo taken with Jacques Torres himself!

The infamous chocolate fashion show was held on Thursday, November 8, but the fashion collection was still on display. Pictured below are some of this year’s creations.

more chocolate fashion…

By the end of the show, I could barely even look at photos of chocolate in my brochure, a sure sign it was time to go. Good thing the show comes to New York once a year.

Here is a closer look at the window display, and the dessert we took home that night, ‘la religieuse’. It’s a classic French pastry with an eclair-like round topped with another.

Laduree receives high praise for their ‘macarons’, so this tea salon was an obligatory stop. ‘Macarons’ are not to be confused with the chewy, coconut ‘macaroons’ that we know in the US. Perhaps my experience with the latter tainted my expectations of how these would taste, and I was admittedly skeptical of the flavor of these deceptively simple looking cakes. However, one bite of these ethereal creations blew me away. We sampled mini versions in flavors such as bitter chocolate, coffee, pistachio, salted butter caramel, rose petal, hazelnut praline. Ah…sublime…

I have to admit, though, that my favorite pastries were from those of Sadahari Aoki, a patissier who developed his superb skills in both Japan and France.

The green zen-like cake pictured above was my absolute favorite, called ‘bamboo’ (then again, I am a huge fan of match green tea). It was composed of what appeared to be alternating layers of green tea cake, chocolate cream, and matcha green tea cream – simply heavenly. Below that was a passion fruit cake, light, and refreshingly citrus-y and also delicious. The aesthetics and presentation of both were gorgeous.

Looking at the photos makes me regret not sampling all the other creations, but alas, there is only so much sugar one can consume within a week, even if you ‘partager avec’ your sweetie…

And at last but not least, I leave you with a befitting shot of kitsch from the animated window displays of Les Galeries Lafayette (looks like Marie Antoinette meets Disney, non?):

Last night, my husband Bob and I, along with two friends, attended an awesome Top Chef dinner at Tribeca Grill. If you’re not familiar with the show, Top Chef was a reality TV series from the makers of Project Runway that aired on Bravo a few months ago. It’s similar to Hell’s Kitchen, except that the premise is more civilized and the contestants actually had talent.

The menu for the night was prepared by winner Harold Dieterle (shown in photo above), and finalists Stephen Asprinio and Lee Anne Wong. As we walked up the steps to the banquet room, I heard a familiar voice greeting the guests. Sure enough, it was that of contestant Miguel Morales, who agreeably posed for pictures with us.

When we entered the room, we were served an irresistable array on canapés–from delectable chicken, scallop and pork dumplings, to oysters, to a foie gras with apples on ham, to a kampachi with cucumber soba, all of which were prepared by Chef Lee Anne. As we waited on line for Stephen’s passion fruit mojitos and guava margaritas, we met another contestant, Andrea (the natural foods chef). With all the excellent cocktails, canapés, and reality TV celebrities abuzz, the $95 price of admission already seemed to pay for itself.

After a bit of schmoozing with Andrea, Miguel, Harold and Stephen (Harold and Lee Anne were less visible initially, busily preparing in the back), we were all seated at round tables, wedding style. Miguel asked to join our table and then sat next to me! He was a lively character, true to his portrayal on TV, and discussed his experiences on the show and quasi-celebrity life after reality TV with us. During the meal, he called Dave, another finalist. He got his voicemail, but we all left him a greeting.

Restaurant owner Drew Nieporent then introduced the event as “the dinner by the Top Chefs who actually got along with each other,” and challenged the guests to guess who devised each dish, Stephen or Harold. The first dish was a shrimp cocktail with lemon verbena vinaigrette, paired with a delightful and dry white wine, a Ruggeri Prosecco. Most of us at the table guess this was Stephen’s dish (it was actually Harold’s). The next course was a tuna nicoise paired with a New Zealand wine with gooseberry undertones (Stephen’s). The third course was a poached duck a l’orange, served with a spoon serving of tangerine-ponzu, paired with a French rose, domaine Audoin Marsannay Rose. I’m not a fan of the gamey taste of duck, but I loved the mildness of the duck from the slow poaching. Stephen’s mother came up and and emphatically identified this as her son’s dish; it turned out mother knew best.

The three glasses of wine and cocktails had kicked in by now and I excused myself (and nearly stumbled) for the ladies room, which was apparently occupied by some of Stephen’s entourage–his website designer, aunt and grandmother, too!

By the time I returned from my break, we were ready for the main dish–a grilled lamb au poivre with sunchoke-creamed spinach and red shallot puree. “Sunchokes” were a dead giveaway that was Harold’s dish. In the finale, judges raved about Harold’s inventive use of sunchokes in his steak dish. As a final special touch, we were served a Canadian Riesling Icewine, which is quite difficult to obtain here in the States. This complemented our 5th and 6th courses of a trio of cheeses and saffron creme brulee with rainier cherry compote, respectively. The icewine was chill, and had a sweet, almost syrup-like muscat flavor, and was extremely well received at our table.

We ended the meal intoxicated and satisfied. I managed to get a few signatures and some more photos. Even Lee Anne hung out a bit at the end. A truly memorable meal; we can’t wait to taste the fruit of the labor of next season’s Top Chef finalists.

Update: Harold is opening a restaurant in NYC called “Perilla” (opening date TBD). Lee Anne currently teaches at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Stephen is scheduled to open his restaurant in Southern California in 2007. Miguel is a chef at the Mandarin Oriental in New York.