First salads made inroads into breakfast; now vegetables take
aim at dessert. This trend stretches far beyond carrot cake,
pumpkin pie, or the occasional hot pepper in a custard: according
to Huffpost Taste, chefs are increasingly making desserts using savory vegetables like
beets and mushrooms.
Some of the choices are logical extensions of familiar flavor
profiles. Fennel's licorice flavors shine in strawberry-fennel
chiffon with black garlic ice cream and fennel-oil jam at San
Francisco's Central Kitchen. Winter squash, a close relative of
pumpkin, is a key ingredient in James Beard Award-nominated chef
Jonathon Sawyer's Opera Torte, served at Cleveland's Greenhouse
Tavern. Other vegetable choices are less conventional: Kory Stewart
of San Francisco's Hotel Vitale serves candy-cap mushroom ice-cream
sandwiches (candy-cap mushroom gelato surrounded by
butterscotch-pecan cookies, served with brown-sugar caramel). And
three-time James Beard Award nominee Chef Luciano Del Signore is
serving golden beet and tomato-water sorbets at Detroit's Bacco
Ristorante.
Not every chef is enamored with this trend. "I'm honestly tired
of all this sesame-seed ice cream and shiso jelly," says Chef
Anthony Salguero of Oakland's Bistro Michel. "I've done that. I've
done the foams. It's fun, but I think some things should be kept as
simple as possible. I'm going to make chocolate fondant and crème
brulée in the traditional ways, but I'm going to make the best
chocolate fondant and crème brulée that I can."
What do you think of vegetables like mushrooms making their way
onto the dessert cart?
Photo of candy-cap mushroom ice cream sandwiches courtesy
Huffington Post Taste