As the dessert is passed around, a contest ensues to see who can guess the flavors of the seven-sorbet sampler. Finally the group asks its server to divulge the flavors. Such guessing games are playing out over dessert at restaurants across the country, where after-dinner menus reveal playfulness among pastry chefs. It's tempting, in a fit of creativity, for pastry chefs to add their mark to a classic dessert with a dash of spice, a handful of herbs. A bit of clover honey balanced the sweet-sour taste.
Experiments continue for a dessert that can showcase the exotic syrup.
The recent craze may stem from the public's ongoing love affair with big flavors and its growing interest in herbs as alternative remedies or as ingredients in everything from nutrition bars to shampoo. It also might reflect playful pastry chefs' inclination to innovate and be as creative as their counterparts working the stoves. In the pastry kitchen, Russo uses what he sees to create sauces with saffron and banana, and chilled melon soup with jalape o and mint. Working with spices always has been required at the French Pastry School in Chicago. And interest is growing, says Jacquy Pfeiffer, instructor and pastry chef extraordinaire, whose colleague at the school, Sebastien Canonne, created the spiced pumpkin mousse.