| July 31, 2010 05:07 AM | ||||||||
| JULY 2007 | ||||||||
MOST INNOVATIVE DESSERT |
||||||||
Bill Corbett About Bill Corbett In 1999, after spending several years kitchen hopping, he hung up his dish towel and headed to Florida where he worked as a kitchen manager at a local café. Corbett came to New York in 2002, working the line at a small Brooklyn eatery before claiming a post under Lincoln Carson who would become his longtime mentor. Corbett credits Carson with turning him on to pastry and giving him the technical foundation that allowed him to push into new terrain. Together, the two worked in the executive kitchens of B.R. Guest restaurants, managing the pasty production of seven properties. It was Carson who introduced him to Sam Mason, the acclaimed pastry chef behind WD-50. Mason took Corbett under his wing and, within three years of his arrival in New York, the young chef found himself working in one of the city's most lauded kitchens as pastry sous chef. At WD-50, Corbett learned unique techniques and worked with surprising ingredients. All would serve to prepare Corbett for demands of his first executive pastry chef post at Dona restaurant, Donatella Arpaia and Michael Psilakis' popular southern European spot. |
||||||||
Working with strictly seasonal components, Corbett created a pastry program that achieved a symbiotic relationship with Executive Chef Michael Psilakis' menu. Dishes like Milk Chocolate Panna Cotta with crunchy basil, pistachio pesto, and licorice sauce and Lemon Cake with Pomegranate are emblematic of his creative creations. After Dona closed, due to a developer purchasing the building, Corbett was quickly asked to head up pastry again at the pair's new Greek restaurant, Anthos. Corbett dutifully studied traditional Greek ingredients and the desserts of the country before setting out to create his Modern Greek dessert menu. His efforts paid off as the accolades poured in. "As excellent as the savories are, Anthos's strongest course might be dessert. Pastry chef Bill Corbett follows Psilakis’s lead, toying with Greek standards," says Randall Lane, Time Out New York critic. And The New York Times' Frank Bruni says, "This fondness for intricacy is echoed in the arresting desserts by the pastry chef, Bill Corbett." Corbett's signature desserts at Anthos include Sesame, which features sesame-encased sesame ice cream, metaxa caramel, halva, black sesame pasteli, and tahini ganache as well as loukoumades (orange blossom donuts ) with bergamot cream, warm honey syrup, and burnt honey ice cream. "Bill is without question one of the most intellectual pastry chefs I have ever worked with," Psilakis says. "In the Mediterranean culinary world it is difficult to find pastry chef who can provide a synergistic flow from savory to pastry—Bill has bridged this gap in one of the most exciting ways I have ever seen."
RECIPE Tahini Ganache 300 grams heavy cream Place milk chocolate and tahini in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan, bring heavy cream, invert sugar, and salt to a boil. Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate and tahini and let sit for one minute. Using a rubber spatula, stir ganache until combined without incorporating air. Reserve in the refrigerator until needed. Sesame Toffee 155 grams honey In a saucepan, cook honey to a dark caramel. Off heat, stir in butter until emulsified. Stir in sesame seeds and salt. Pour mixture onto a Silpat-lined sheet pan and spread to 1/4-inch thickness. Freeze until solid. Break up toffee and pulse into small pieces using a food processor. Be careful not to grind into a powder. Reserve frozen in an airtight container until needed. Whiskey Caramel 300 grams sugar In a saucepan, cook sugar and glucose to a dark caramel. Deglaze pan with water and then add whiskey and orange peel. Do not burn off too much of the alcohol (alcohol is needed for the caramel to stay liquid when frozen). Pulled Sesame Tuile 60 grams fondant icing Preheat oven to 350°F. In a saucepan, heat fondant and glucose to 330°F/165°C. Whisk in butter and tahini until shiny and emulsified. Pour mixture onto a Silpat-lined sheet pan to cool. Once cool, cover with a second Silpat. Bake until soft. Using a rolling pin, spread mixture between the two Silpats until thin and cool. Remove top Silpat and return sheet pan to the oven. When soft, stretch sugar to the desired sized and reserve for garnish. Sesame Milk 1 liter whole milk Preheat oven to 350°F. Toast sesame seeds until dark but not burnt. In the meantime, heat milk until hot but not boiling. Off heat, add toasted sesame seeds. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain through a chinois and reserve liquid. Sesame Ice Cream 750 milliliters sesame milk (recipe above) In a saucepan, combine sesame milk and powdered milk and warm to 122°F/50°C. Add sugar, glucose, and invert sugar. Continue heating to 180°F/82°C. Off heat, temper in egg yolks and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a spoon. Strain through a chinois and cool in an ice bath. Once cool, add heavy cream and honey liqueur. Chill completely before spinning into ice cream. Halvah 280 grams sugar In a saucepan, cook sugar and water over high heat. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix tahini and salt on low speed. When the sugar syrup reaches 248°F/120°C, add to tahini mixture while the mixer is running on low speed. Mix until almost combined. Turn off machine and finish mixing by hand using a rubber spatula. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined sheet pan and cool at room temperature. Reserve. Halvah Crumble 360 grams all-purpose flour Preheat oven to 325°F. In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the butter and pulse until well incorporated. Add cold butter and pulse until a sandy texture is achieved. Bake mixture on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan until golden brown. Pulse 490 grams of halvah crumble with 185 grams of reserved halvah. Reserve. Halvah Puree Place remaining 490 grams of halvah crumble in a food processor with another 185 grams of reserved halvah and puree until liquid. Reserve. Assembly Eight ring molds (2 1/4-inch diameter by 1 1/4-inch high) Cut 8 acetate strips to fit slightly less than the circumference of the inside of the ring mold. Cut 16 acetate squares that are slightly larger than the diameter of the mold. Place acetate strips and squares on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Spread halvah puree evenly across each acetate square, about a tablespoon of puree per square. Place ring molds on 8 of the squares. Spread a thin layer of halvah puree on each of the 8 acetate strips. Line each ring mold with an acetate strip, puree side in. Fill in any holes or gaps with additional halvah puree as needed. Freeze. Pipe sesame ice cream into each ring mold halfway full. Return to freezer. When ice cream is firm but not hard, create an indentation approximately the size of a half tablespoon in the ice cream. Return to freezer. When frozen solid, fill indentation with whiskey caramel and freeze until caramel is firm. Cover with remaining sesame ice cream, leveling off at 1/8-inch from the top of the ring. Return to freezer. Once fully frozen, cap ring molds with remaining halvah-covered acetate squares and freeze until solid. Unmold, removing acetate, and reserve in the freezer. To Serve With the back of a spoon, place a swoosh of tahini ganache on the plate. Place a generous amount of halvah crumble in the center of the plate. Sprinkle a line of sesame toffee across the crumble. Place the sesame cylinder in the crumble on its side. Garnish with pulled sesame tuile. |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
The Scoop | Pastry Courses | Word of Mouth | Look it Up | Calendar
About Us | Sign In Help
PastryScoop.com © 2010. All rights reserved.