Mont St. Claire........................

Whenever I look for new ideas I always keep track of what other chefs are doing throughout Japan and France. Here is one shop located in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo. This place is the mecca of patisseries and boulangeries in Tokyo. I have yet to visit all of them. The chef actually trained in France, as most of them have. Mont St. Claire, extremely popular and well know throughout Japan having other cakes shops throughout Tokyo. They do everything from viennoiseries to mini gateau's as well as having their own line chocolate. Visit their site, even though you might not know Japanese. The quality of their pastries is outstanding to say the least.

http://www.ms-clair.co.jp/index.html

The proper portion....................

What is the proper portion for a plated dessert in a restaurant that serves course lunch or dinners? Not too many chefs even think about the ideal portioning of a dessert and just resort to the use of various molds and forms without second guessing the finished product. Or better yet, What is the proper portion of a full course meal? It's not written as a law but a little bit of common sense in regards to food consumption, the proper portion of a full course meal should be between 450g. no more. Whether its a 3 course dinner or a 15 course dinner, the portions should remain within those parameters. As for dessert, 90-100 g.. Yes, 90-100 g. and that includes the ice or sorbet that accompanies the dessert. For restaurant cafe's, 120 g. max.

This, however , seems not to be the case here in Hawaii or most of America for that matter, which has become somewhat of a never ending battle to pull back the portions. The dessert, the closing of a meal which leaves the lasting imprint of the finality of the dining experience. It should be enough to leave a "longing" of wanting to come back and try that experience again.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to fill one's appetite but when the servings get too large where it leaves the customer so full to the point where they can't even move. I feel that we as chefs have failed to create that perfect dining experience for the customer, whether its a 3 star restaurant or a cafe.

I clearly recall doing a 9 course dinner here and seeing a 7 ounce steak go out as the 5th course. 7 ounces-that's over 200 g. of meat! You can imagine after that, everything else was going into to-go containers-even the dessert.

This I fear will be a never ending stuggle here at least until I return to the land of the rising sun.

Plasir Sucre..........................

In English, sweet pleasure.............

Yesterday was my son's birthday and his favorite cake is Pierre Herme's Plasir Sucre.

We would often visit his shop for this cake as well as others on the weekends in Omotesando, Tokyo. Asides from the cakes, out of all the many patiserries and cafe's that I had visited, their coffee was the best.

さすがアメリカ人。。。。。。。。。。。。。

日本でありえない！

やった！！！！！！！！！！！

本日行われました、「世界パティスリー2009」の総合順位は以下のようになっております。
優勝　　　日本
準優勝　　フランス
3位　　　 アメリカ

The results are in for the International Patisserie Grand Prix 2009, Japan

First Japan

Second France

Third America

4th Italy

5th Singapore

6th China

7th Australia

8th Malaysia

I honestly don't believe there is any country, as a whole, that takes more pride and seriousness when it comes to patiserrie than the Japanese. Well done Japan! おつかれさまでした！

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvfxa06fbJM

International Patisserie Grand Prix Japan 2009........

After coming in 4th place in the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie 2009, Japan is looking to take center stage in its own sponsored International Patisserie Grand Prix which is taking place right now in Tokyo, Japan. It will be interesting to see who will come on top. 日本がんばれ！

マカロン。。。。。。

ショコラ、コーヒ、マンゴーマカロン

Chocolate, coffee, mango

苺、パションフルーツ、ショコラマカロン

Strawberry, lilikoi(passion fruit), and chocolate

***

We pretty much stick to the basic flavors, yet, try to include tropical flavors as well. I can think of more wild flavors such as a strawberry-balsamic or how about an apple-celery macaron? Yet, considering our customer base.............I am pretty sure that they would not sell.

Mango Trifle................

Mango cremeux layered with genoise, mango chunks, mango gelee' and topped with fresh raspberries and fresh creme chantilly.

Dulce de Leche Brownie............................

Americana at its finest. This is so gooooood! Oozing pockets of dulche de leche cream inside moist and fudgy brownie. Here, I topped it with ganache and a thin chocolate sheet.

For the Dulche de Leche cream open cans of sweet condensed milk, place in a container, wrap with foil and place in a bain marie and bake for 1 1/2 hour at 400 deg. F.. Cool, transfer to container, refrigerate. To use, leave out at room temperature or microvave at 15 sec. intervals until soft.

Et voila!

C'est bon! Oui......

The flowers came out really nice. For the supporting collumn I thought I'd do something different. I piped alternate layers of white and dark chocolate. To obtain the noodle effect, I ensured that the chocolate was cooler than usual at 24-25' C. I admit, though, that I could have done a better job with the butterfly.

Chocolate anthuriums................

Some chocolate anthuriums and chocolate tea leaves in preparation for a new chocolate showpiece. Still missing the stamens.....

Because of the sturdiness of the flower and the leaves, they were both used for the molding.

ショコラ飾り。。。。。

チーズケーキロリポップ。。。。

Cheesecake Lollipop

I have somewhat gone into the lollipop zone. Thinking of making some truffle lollipops next.

マカロンロリポップ。。。。。。

Macaron Lollipop

葡萄パン..............

Raisin Bread

milk 2l.
egg 10pc.
salt 30g.
sugar 450g.
instant yeast 90g.
butter 450g.
cake flour 300g.
bread flour 3550g.
vanilla 100ml.
raisin 750g.
lemon zest 1 lemon
orange zest 1 orange
sanding sugar as needed

ブルーベリーチーズケーキ。。。。。。。。。。。。。

Blueberry Cheesecake

Here I made a blueberry compote with fresh blueberries and marbled the top of the cheesecake and then topped it with creme patisserie, fresh blueberries, and creme chantilly.

Cardinal Fraise................

I first saw this cake at one of the new shopping centers near the train station at Nagoya, Japan. The sponge is made with piped lines of meringue and a ladyfinger-like sponge. Very light and delicate. Layered with creme patisserie, strawberries, and creme chantilly.

200C top/160C bottom - 5min, 160/160C 20 min.
egg white 200 g.
sugar 90 g.
egg white powder 5 g.
Make a meringue. Pipe 3 lines 40 cm. in length with space to fill the two centers with the other sponge. Use a #10 round tip.

egg yolk 70 g.
egg 60 g.
sugar 45 g.
lg flour 40 g.
powdered sugar as needed
Follow as for genoise. Notice that there are more yolks making for a more richer sponge. Pipe the sponge in between the three lines. The width should be no more that 10 cm. Use a #10 round tip.

Dust the top with powdered sugar and bake. Be careful this sponge is fragile.

Gingerbread Cookies...............

Spiced Honey Cakes

honey 1600g.
sugar 1200g.
water 250ml.
egg 300ml.
sugar 100g.
ammonium bicarbonate 60g.
milk 400g.
potash 40g.
water 100ml.
spice mix 100g.
cinnamon 10g.
white flour 4kg.

This is a recipe from the Richemont Swiss Confectionery School. The dough is moist and very soft making for a soft and moist cookie. Perhaps the best recipe that I have come across.

Mix all of the dry ingredients. Warm the honey and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Mix the ammonium and the potash with the milk. Mix all of the wet ingredients together and add the dry ingredients. Allow to rest 1 day. Pin to 4-6 mm., cut, and brush with milk. Bake 180 deg. C. for 10-12 min. Glaze with fondant if desired.

Biscuit Cuillere.........

4 jaune

50 g. sucre

4 blanc d'oeuf

50 g. sucre

100 g. farine

sucre en poudre, comme nécessaire

クリスマスストーレンパン。。。。。