Food and Wine released its annual Best Pastry Chefs list for 2014. The list features five chefs from five cities, and their favorite desserts. It must have been hard to have to travel the country trying all those pastries, eh? If you’re attending cooking classes in Boulder you’ll probably spend some time learning about pastries. Why not learn about the best pastry chefs in the country? Check out the list below to learn about the serious culinary artists and their incredible desserts.
Jared Bacheller of L’espalier, Boston
This chef’s signature dish is called “Through the Forest.” It features a mushroom made of candy cap mushroom-infused cream with a lightly toasted marshmallow top perched on moss cake. The cake is made of chestnut flour and green tea that have been blended in a Vita-prep and then microwavedd. The cake is garnished with a maple leaf made out of dehydrated, baked cookie batter. Bacheller adds a few flower petals and the mossy forest comes alive on the plate.
Jen Yee of Lafayette, New York City
Yee’s award-winning dessert is a colorful one. The base is a pastel green macaroon made out of Italian meringue that has been blended with a paste made of egg whites, sugar and pistachio flour. Atop the macaroon sits white chocolate ganache made with Valrhona Ivoire baking chocolate. Yee adds glucose syrup to the chocolate to ensure that the texture is super smooth. The ganache is then topped with fresh raspberries that have been filled with the chef’s own raspberry jam.
Greg Mosko of North Pond, Chicago
Mosko take a global perspective with his dessert, Japanese namelaka, an eggless custard made out of caramelized white chocolate with a coriander meringue-based cake topped with Bosc pears that are deep magenta in color from having been poached in a pomegranate puree. The chef then adds Sun-Maid raisins that have been steeped in verjus, the juice of unripened grapes, which adds a sweet yet tart taste that brings together the mix of flavors used in the entire dish.
Sarah Rich of Rich Table, San Francisco
This pastry chef is known for creating mouth-watering familiar American desserts with a fresh perspective. Rich’s take on s’mores won her this accolade. The base of her dessert is almond butter crunch topped with chocolate ganache that has been cut out with a ring mold and resembles a thin hockey puck. The marshmallows are piped onto the ganache and browned with a blowtorch. Rich claims it tastes just like marshmallow Fluff straight out of the jar. The s’more is then topped with almonds, tiny sprigs of baby tarragon and a dash of coconut shavings. Imagine the clamor if you brought this dessert to a campfire!
Sam Kincaid of Fork, Philadelphia
Growing up on a farm, Kincaid was attune to the changes of the seasons. She found inspiration in her upbringing that has helped her create complex desserts with contrasting ingredients. Her quintessential dish consists of bitter almond cream made with house liqueur that has been prepared with brandy-steeped apricot pits. The chef then adds tiny pieces of roasted nectarine that have been cut out with a ring cutter and amaretti cookies. Kincaid rolls the cookie dough like gnocchi and then drops each cookie into raw sugar before putting a batch in the oven.
