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desserts
citing dessert," Martinovic says. “I had the
crumble to a pretty good position but I
thought it was missing something. And then
I had the idea of adding the popping candy
to the crumble. It’ great to see a 60-yearold
couple giggling."
As well as the passion of his staff in selling
the desserts to diners, Martinovic believes
the high buy-in rate also comes
down to two other things -- making sure
the dessert list is included on the menu
that's first handed to diners, and deliberately
making desserts lighter and less
sweet. “We probably use 40 per cent less
sugar than most, and there are quite a lot
of savoury components or aspects to
them,” says Martinovic.
“I try to just make them a lot cleaner
and stay true to the components and keep
it to say three or four component on the
plate. I think diners are moving away from
overly rich and sweet desserts and love the
fact that is it light. I think that's working
in our favour, absolutely. The first spoonful
is really good and it gets better as you
go along.”
The use of more savoury components
adds to the appeal, he says. “For the
caramel pudding I'm using caramelised
walnuts and adding a salt but also taking
the caramel a little further so that instead
of being really sweet caramel we are taking
it much closer to those bitter tones and
then there's a little sea salt on top of that.”
The push towards more savoury
flavours and ingredients in desserts is very
Monkey Magic’s Black
Sesame Creme Caramel
(above); Pierre Roelofs’
dessert called Red.
much a trend, says pastry chef Jane Strode
who operates Sydney's successful Bistrode
restaurant along with her husband, chef Jeremy
Strode. “Using salt in desserts and
more savoury ingredients is a huge trend
and I quite like it,” says Strode.
Strode, whose Honey Tart with Peanut
Butter Ice Cream has become the signature
dessert at the restaurant famed for its homage
to traditional English dishes, says people
are not wanting things that are overly
sweet. “One thing we've always done is to
use savoury pastry for all of our tarts,”
Strode says. “The fillings are very sweet
and just having that little bit of savoury,
salty pastry with anything, a chocolate tart
or a frangipani tart, it just really brings out
that flavour. We never use a sweet pastry.
There's no point.”
Strode says dessert is hugely popular
with Bistrode diners with at least 60 per
cent of customers ordering them. She believes
her passion for dessert and being out
on the floor talking about them is a key
factor contributing to that high percentage
rate for the restaurant.
Getting the balance right for the dessert
menu is crucial, says Sydney chef Dietmar
Sawyere who's had the challenge of creating
two very different dessert menus, one
for his three hat fine diner Berowra Waters
and the other for his hot new suburban
Sydney French bistro Ad Lib. His Berowra
Waters desserts can range from a warm
chocolate tart with sheep’s milk yogurt
cream and crushed candied almonds , to
braised pineapple with coconut coconut
mousse and pineapple soup, while at Ad
Lib the bistro favourites include a pistachio
and Grand Marnier brulee and dark
chocolate mousse.
Sawyere says it's very rare for diners at
Berowra Waters not to choose a dessert
course to include in their degustation
menu, while Ad Lib's diners lean towards
almost always having a dessert.
24 hospitality | august 2010 hospitalitymagazine.com.au