Sugar Britches

Hello, dessert people of the world! How’ve you been? Fabulous and enjoying autumn, I hope. I’ve been swamped with all kinds of work projects (definitely a very good problem!), but my favorite part of this and every week is previewing our latest episode and cooking up the insider scoop I think you’d find most interesting. As always, I welcome your comments as to whether I’m doing so.

Let’s dig right in, starting with our esteemed guest judge, Sherry Yard. Sherry is one of the most serious forces in pastry, actually, in food, in the country, as the executive pastry chef of Wolfgang Puck’s extensive empire. She not only has a depth and breadth of tactical knowledge that could fill 12 encyclopedias. She is one of the sweetest, most engaging, and most fun people I’ve ever met. She had us in stitches on the set.  One of the things I found most impressive is the way Sherry delivers information and teaches. She knows exactly what went right or wrong in the execution of a dessert, but conveys it to you clearly, succinctly, and kindly. Did you notice how she let the chefs know in very concrete terms how she felt about their products, but with grace and a smile? As she critiqued, she taught and encouraged. That’s the way to be.

Now, the Elimination Challenge. I bet I know what you’re thinking. “It’s Top Chef, not Top Fashion Designer.  Why did pastry chefs and bakers have to make dresses?” I hear you. First let me tell you that as an editor at DailyCandy, I love fashion and have written a lot about it over the years, so I was definitely excited about the nature of the challenge. It was visual, it was sensual, it was over-the-top (all important attributes of good desserts, by the way), and it tested the chefs on an entirely different set of skills. As for the very natural concern of whether looks or taste were more important in judging, I can wholeheartedly assure you that although the visuals of the edible fashion got a lot of air time (and why wouldn’t they, they were gorgeous), the judging really came down to who worked the hardest as a pastry chef, and to the flavors of the petits fours. What we tasted made the biggest impression. If someone had hand-sewn an elaborate frock and spent hours embroidering it with scallions, but didn’t incorporate some serious dessert elements, they would not have been successful in our eyes. 

A good proof of this is Heather H. In my mind, her edible fashion, or wearable dessert, was the most exquisite. It was simply gorgeous. The suppleness of her draped chocolate was beyond belief. The colors she used, and the fine detail and careful technique made it shine above the rest. However, her lemon curd macaron was nowhere near as tasty as Morgan’s, and her almond cake with passion fruit caviar brooch lacked flavor. Morgan’s petits fours tasted the best, and his hot little black dress fit the parameters of the challenge well because it not only looked like something you’d want to wear, it was a showcase for his talent in the pastry arts… and that was the most important thing any of them could have highlighted in how they chose to design their dresses.

One note about petits fours, which was explained in the episode but bears repeating, especially since Eric’s cheesecake tasted so darn good: petits fours are by definition bite-sized. So to excel at meeting the challenge, the accessories each chef created had to be just one bite. A surprising number of them ignored that. I’m not sure why. So, that’s why Eric’s divine flavors didn’t keep him from the bottom three.

As you saw, Heather C. left us for a second time, because her dress had nothing to do with dessert, and the concept and flavors of her accessories didn’t really work. It would be like ordering soufflé for dessert and getting ice cream … rather disappointing.

Thank you, everyone, as always for watching and reading. Ask any questions in the comments section, and have a stupendous week! See you next Wednesday for dessert!

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