Archive for the ‘ sweets ’ Category
Few things get me as excited as a cassata siciliana. Look at this one, it’s positively psychedelic, it floats in mid-air, halfway between a space saucer and a tribal mask. It was my elected 2009 Christmas cake. A celebration of “genie patissier”. Too small to sooth my craving for excessive dessert, Im afraid it is [ READ MORE ]
Some may find it extravagant to have a five course dinner on a Tuesday night but I find that if the motive is right and inspiration rolling… Levanto anchovies on toast - Potato, garlic, blood oranges and saffron vichyssoise – this is a recipe I got from Binita Walia a long time ago. It’s my [ READ MORE ]
Can you stick a fork into an egg shell? Sabina Terziani and Maria Tarantino managed to transfer the surreal impressions and serious thoughts gathered during their culinary journey across Sicily some years ago into a respectable essay that inaugurates a new way of thinking and tasting food. Halfway between archeology and phenomenology “Ur-cakes, a journey in [ READ MORE ]
This afternoon I visited one of the two Milanese branches of GROM and tried the following: pear (very good, very real), pistachio (very good but not sublime), hazelnut (fantastic, very perfumed), dark chocolate sorbet (the Brussels’ version by Comus&Gasterea is much better, darker, more ascetic, here I did not feel the dramatic difference with chocolate [ READ MORE ]
There are food things that go beyond taste. There are flavors that are non-flavors, textures that are stronger than flavors, “moments” of the mouth that have to do with a certain resistance to one’s teeth and that for some obscure reason happen to strike such a strong and energizing bond with our symbolic imagination that [ READ MORE ]
GROM is possibly one of the best ice-cream places in Torino. It exists since 2003 and today I discovered that it has branches in several other cities, including Milan, where I believed nothing could be hoped for, since the “Gelateria biologica” closed down several years ago. A few words need to be said about this [ READ MORE ]
The magic of agar agar and some old glasses from my grandparents I found in a cupboard of the living-room. Olga had bought one kilo of smetana cheese but seemed to be doing nothing with it. So I thought I would prepare a lovely-looking solid dessert for the first day of the year. I warmed [ READ MORE ]
A newly published book by a group of young Portuguese designers investigating the state of the art of the country patisserie. It is a fact that Portugal has a rich tradition of cakes that draw their origin from conventual life (time and techniques to develop the cakes, plus religious inspiration for their shape and time [ READ MORE ]
Almost all Portuguese sweets are based on the rich color, texture and flavor of egg yolks. It is almost a national obsession. Yolks are so groovy that you can just saturate them with sugar and serve them up as the most precious of all jams. Eggs are the rich, creamy core of several desserts. You [ READ MORE ]
The golden crust model applies also to Portuguese sweets. The glittery crust of panfried meatballs becomes a coating of crystalized sugar. And if sweets are not fried, the effect is achieved by rolling a sufficiently solid and sticky yellow paste into a bed of sugar. Only one product qualifies perfectly for the task: egg yolk. [ READ MORE ]
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