Lack of dessert choices: November 2008 Morsel
Published: November 2, 2008
Why is it that when it comes to planning a nice banquet dinner, chefs offer somewhat interesting food choices with every course until we hit dessert? Then, the creative culinary brakes come on.
Currently, I am working with someone who is a high-end pastry chef at a major resort in Orlando on a VIP dinner. When it came to dessert, I was given an option of a cheesecake with blueberry sauce. This is interesting … why? Let me be honest — I don’t know why. The other choices were homemade apple pie with ice cream and a variety of tarts — still nothing of interest.
Let’s face it, I am paying over $100 per person for this dinner, and this is the pastry chef’s best shot?
My point is that the sophistication of dessert should be in alignment with the menu price point, and in this case it isn’t. I challenged the pastry chef to come up with nicer dessert choices that don’t involve a mousse or cream-consistency filling, and to design a dessert that completes the menu’s statement. And to date I haven’t been able to get it. Desserts for higher price point menus should be creative and exceptional without being foreign to the palate.
Claire R. Gould is the owner of Rx for Catering, LLC, a 12-year-old culinary and logistics company that works all over the world negotiating and designing menus for meetings and events. Her company has done work for Coca-Cola, IBM, Honeywell and Embraer Executive Jets, among others. Gould teaches and writes about culinary and banquet trends and topics, and publishes a quarterly online newsletter "The Claire Diaries." Follow her on Twitter @Rx_for_Catering.
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