Needless to say the favoritism Malcolm was showering me with didn't go over so well with my boss up the street. I was caught in the crossfire of a strawberry coup.
And so, an equally passionate and iconic dessert with these recruits became immediately necessary. Middleton Gardens Strawberry Soup was born the first dessert special I created for which I had a following, fans.
When strawberries are perfect one need not interfere much. Stephen Durfee, now an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America's St. Helena campus, says if you must wash strawberries, do so in Champagne. Strawberries develop spots and mold soon after they've come into contact with water. The pastry chef trick for keeping fresh berries longer is laying them out, not touching, on a cloth towel lined pan. This is especially important when handling and refrigerating ripe berries.
Except for making jam, I'm not a fan of introducing a heat source to strawberries. Like refrigeration, extreme temperature will steal any aromatics the fruit has inherited.
Craig Stoll, chef/owner of Delfina Restaurant, is responsible for introducing me to the only cooked strawberry I've liked. Whole roasted, vanilla sugar specked strawberries garnish his wildly popular carnaroli rice pudding. But he admits, "It's a bit of a waste for insanely good strawberries." The roasting packs a deep, warm, intense strawberry punch. It's a simple dessert; the traditional strawberries and cream pairing, but with a frisky texture and taste sensation.
Because a strawberry is a balance of texture, flavor, and scent, ripeness is of utmost importance. The factors involve weather, soil, breed, growing practices, and the taste memory you're chasing. "Certain growers grow certain kinds of strawberries better," Craig Stoll states when I ask him from whom he most likes to buy his berries.
I am looking for strawberries in hopes of conjuring memories, attempting to track down an elusive old world scent, for a specific dish, or to eat them as I did in my grandmother's kitchen: with side-by-side dishes of sour cream and sugar for assembly line dipping.
I am a fruit inspired pastry chef for these reasons. When fruit tastes as it should, when its unique characteristic is indisputable, when I can keep my ego from interfering too much, when my hands are barely noticeable, the desserts I create are an ode to the farmer, the soil, the relationship between all of these romances.
Shuna Fish Lydon identifies as a seasonal fruit-inspired pastry chef, instructor, and writer. Her resume includes such venerable establishments' as Gramercy Tavern, the French Laundry, and Citizen Cake. Currently at-large, Fish Lydon's recipes, photographs and prose can be found at Eggbeater (www.eggbeater.com).
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