As we run two different restaurants pastry menus from the same kitchen I try and cross over some little bits of prep , but using the items in different ways, one to cut down on food cost( less ingredients in the kitchen) and also to ease up on prep. Serving 200 in the brasserie and 80 in the restaurant can put a strain on the small team we have , especially being short staffed half the time due to the lack of people wanting to pursue a serious career in pastry where we are based.
One of the items is Macarons, I love them, most pastry chefs do, and for sure we all try and hunt out our favorites, Tried them in france, Spain, london and many more places. My favourite is still Tetsuya Namekawa's macarons ( a close friend of mine in New Zealand), his Lemon macs ones rock.
I make mine with an Italiene Meringue, just due to personal preference. Some times flavouring the batter with freeze dried fruits, and trying not to color them too much. I like the pastel look rather than the glow in the dark if you know what I mean.
In Our Brasserie the Chocolate Macaron comes with Orange blossom Ice Cream, fresh Raspberries, and a Nayarit Milk Chocolate Cream, with freeze dried mandarins mixed through it. We sell so many of these, and then to cross over the mise en to the restaurant we make small ones for petit fours and serve them with a lemon curd and raspberry jam centre using up the raspberries that soften up a little to much.
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