Looking for some fresh ideas for desserts? Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert Fourplay is a goldmine. Chef Iuzzini is pastry chef at Jean Georges in new York - how's that for credentials? One thing I love about the pastry world today is that there seems to be so much excitement and sense that anything is fair game and nothing's impossible. Maybe since cooking pastries has always necessarily had to follow at least some rules to keep things from falling apart, the fact that pastry chefs today are breaking traditions is all the more dramatic.
The desserts in this book all come in four parts. Sometimes it's one thing dealt with four ways, strawberries for instance, other times each quarter of the dessert acts as a crucial element to the larger dish - each delicious on its own but together creating a larger whole. One plus one plus one plus one sometimes equals five. Breaking the dessert course down as such allows one to experiment with novel elements, structures and textures. A custom designed soda no matter how delicious will come off as a cop-out served on its own, but served as a smaller part of a larger whole suddenly becomes a brilliant concoction. Sweet potato gnocci? One of many interesting unusual angles you'll find here. Maybe since the elements are smaller, many of the recipes are simpler and more approachable. One especially nice fact is that while the dishes are beautiful works on their own, you might find some interesting ways to mix and match elements and come up with something of your own, or take one element and expand on it to create a larger stand alone dessert. This book is a great resource on its own or to be used for reference as an idea generator - CHECK IT OUT HERE.
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