Major freebie alert from the Street Sweets Truck

Three awesome promotions at three Street Treats trucks all week! (say that three times fast!)

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Sweets Truck | 1 Comment »

Dovetail desserts

Had a great dinner at Dovetail.  Full review coming soon.

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Best fancy pants restaurant desserts, Dovetail | 1 Comment »

Anyone who saw tonight’s episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts must have been asking the same question: Is lettuce really a dessert?  Tonight there were two contestants who seemed to confuse vegetables, like lettuce and radishes, with normal dessert ingredients like chocolate, sugar and flour.   Danielle and Heather C must have been sucked into a time warp and brought back to Bravo’s old Project Runway when Austin Scarlet made a corn husk dress.  More on this later.

Austin's corn husk dress - no desserts here.

Tonight’s guest judge was Sherry Yard from  Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant empire and she brought with her pleasant (she danced like Ellen a few times) but frank assessments of the desserts she tasted.

Before tonight’s episode I was intrigued because Gail Simmons tweeted that the judges got “a little feisty” on tonight’s episode.  I’ve  always wondered why they never show the judges arguing over the success of a dish.  They must disagree at least some of the time, especially when there are a lot of chefs are still in contention.  Sadly, I never saw the feistiness rear it’s ugly head tonight.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs had to design an edible dress inspired by a pair of shoes which they got to choose at the beginnging of the show.  The winner also gets $20,000.

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Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts: Season I | 6 Comments »

Mr and Mrs Chocolate

Jacques Torres has a lot on his plate right now and I don’t mean just chocolate nibs. A few weeks ago he hosted a party in honor of the opening of Kings of Pastry, the new D.A. Pennabaker documentary about the M.O.F. Pastry Award (go here for the DB review). On the same night, he appeared on the premiere of Top Chef: Just Desserts as a celebrity guest judge.

After exhaustion set in, Team Dessertbuzz cornered Mr. Chocolate, distracted his publicist and made him answer some weighty questions.

Jacques Torres’s achievements in pastry could fill a small book so here’s a short summary:

After achieving just about every distinction for pastry in France in 1986 Torres received the infamous Meilleur Ouvrier de France (M.O.F) medal.  Later Torres worked at Le Cirque before slowly shifting gears to pursue chocolate making.

Now, based in New York, Torres has four chocolate stores here and one in Atlantic City in Harrah’s.   Besides chocolates, Torres is known for his chocolate chip cookies which DessertBuzz ranks #1 in New York.

DessertBuzz: [noticing Torres has a motorcycle helmet in his hands] Did you ride here tonight?

Jacques Torres: Yes, on my motorcycle.  A BMW 650.

DB: Francois Payard rides a 1000cc GSXR Suzuki – is that how all you guys get around?

JT: Well, I traded in my scooter for the bike a little while ago and it is great for moving about New York City.

DB: Been doing any fishing lately?

Jacques Torres Chocolate covered matzo

JT: As a matter of fact I just delivered a striper to Wylie Dufresne [at WD-50]

DB: How does that work?  You just swing by the restaurant and hand the maître d’ a fish?

JT: I catch it then immediately bleed it and get in on ice right away.  Then in a garbage bag and into the top case on my motorcycle – sometimes I have to bend it slightly to make it fit.  Then I drive fast with the fish.

DB: Did you stay [at Wd-50] and eat the fish with them?

JT: No, I don’t know what they did with the fish.   But I really love to eat at Wd-50, love Wylie’s cooking, he is such a talent, he’s doing some great things there.

[Wd-50 said they cooked it up with garlic and served it with a fish chowder]

JT: One time when the fish was too big for the top case I wrapped it in cellophane and draped it across the handlebars and rode to the FCI.

DB: You have a lot of fish stories.

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Interviews, Jacques Torres, Kings Of Pastry, Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts: Season I | 9 Comments »

Georgia's Key Lime tart: not too sweet -just right

Despite what Fabio says about their desserts, I think we all can agree the French make great pastries (and cheese).  The Upper West Side is not not typically known as a hotbed of French pastry unless you consider babka French.  It does however, have Georgia’s.  Georgia’s has quietly developed a loyal following of neighborhood people who come for the excellent baked goods, pastry, as well as breakfast lunch and dinner. (more…)

Georgia's | 1 Comment »

Macaron Cafe Dark Chocolate Macaron - worth the $2.25

A few weeks ago DessertBuzz stumbled into a  double-high-end-macaron-tasting week.  That Monday I tasted a range of flavors at Francois Payard Bakery including S’mores macarons.  Then on Wednesday of the same week I tasted two flavors of Jaquay Pfeifer’s French Pastry School Macarons at the opening of Kings of Pastry. (more…)

Macaron Cafe | 2 Comments »

Lucent Dossier in action

Tonight’s episode had no shortage of crazy shit stuff going on.  We had, and who could have ever predicted this, Seth getting taken away in an ambulance after having a panic attack.  This crazy performance group, a less-diesel-looking Cirque Du Soleil, called Lucent Dossier was part of the elimination challenge.

Tonight’s guest judge was Gail Gand, executive pastry chef of Chicago’s acclaimed Tru.

The Quickfire challenge was to create the best ice cream sundae ever but the chefs didn’t have to make the ice cream since the segment was sponsored by Breyers.  When the contestants learned this Seth said aloud “weak sauce, weak Sauce!” meaning, how lame is it that they, Top Chef: Just Desserts contestants, didn’t have to make their own ice cream.  I can’t believe I am saying this but I  agree with Seth!  In a shameless bid to suck up to the sponsors Heather H says, “I like Breyers!”  Ok, maybe I like Breyers too.

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Top Chef, Top Chef Just Desserts: Season I | 10 Comments »