PRINTToo pretty to eat
The artistry of pastry needs an encore
CATHY SMITH
Encore’s chef creates sweet concoctions on his canvas — the dessert plate.
August 23, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Shades of pink ranging from mauve to fuchsia adorn the pint-sized sculpture. Its surfaces are as slick as ice and accented by a barely there pink spiral encircling two large triangles balanced precariously upon a striped platform. The structure bathes in a psychedelic pool of hot pink and milky white. It’s a sight to behold. And it doesn’t taste half bad, either.
The Raspberry Miroir is one of 14 desserts created by pastry chef Brandon Kelley for Columbia’s new dessert and wine bar, Encore, the evening incarnation of all three locations of The Upper Crust Bakery and Cafe. The dessert is composed of a pink-striped vanilla sponge cake topped with a creamy layer of raspberry mousse and crowned with triangular pieces of flaky puff pastry and sticks of pink pulled sugar. A scoop of sweet raspberry sorbet accompanies the delectable tower, which is also accented with a ring of fresh raspberries and mint leaves. For a split second, it seems like a piece of art, but once the aroma hits the nose, it’s clear that Kelley’s creation is meant to be savored by both eyes and mouth.
3107 Green Meadows Way
Mon. - Sat., 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.
(573) 874-4044
904 East Elm St.
Mon. - Wed., 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.;
Fri. & Sat., 7 p.m. - midnight
(573) 874-3033
4200 Merchant St., Suite 101
Mon. - Thurs., 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.;
Fri. - Sat., 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
(573) 447-4001
Kelley’s culinary resume is impressive. He got his start at the Capitol Plaza in Jefferson City and then headed to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where he became interested in the chemistry and artistry of world-class desserts. After graduating from the baking and pastry program, he returned to Capitol Plaza and then found his way to the Upper Crust Cafe. But the opportunity to work under a European pastry chef at Seattle’s Fairmont Olympic Hotel lured him away for two years before he returned to mid-Missouri to help Upper Crust’s owners open Encore.
In the process of designing desserts, Kelley is one part chef — taking taste and aroma into account — and one part commissioned artist — giving special thought to color, texture and height. He layers colors and carefully balances decorative and delectable ingredients one on top of the other until all the pieces come together to create edible artwork that feels almost — but not quite — too pretty to eat. Kelley is well aware of the many hats he wears as a pastry chef. “There’s no right or wrong,” he says. “It’s your own personal expression going into your desserts; pastry is left open to interpretation.”
Kelley keeps his goals for artful presentation and mouth-watering tastes unique from each other. “Your design and your flavor are two very important components in the composition of a dessert but have no relation,” he says. “They are two separate thoughts.”
It’s in melding the two components together where the challenge lies and the expertise comes in. To give his creations their wow factor, Kelley employs techniques such as pulling sugar – molding superhot sugar into hard candy shaped like spirals or blades of grass. But Kelley also ensures everything tastes delicious. “It can look stunning to the eye,” he says. “But if it doesn’t taste good, you’ve lost.”
To measure the success of his presentation, Kelley often sits at the back of the restaurant when desserts are brought out and watches diners’ facial expressions. When guests are presented with the various surprises Kelley has painstakingly designed for his desserts, he definitely gets the looks he’s searching for. Mouths gape, for instance, when served the enormous Chocolate Decadence. For this chocolate lover’s dream come true, Kelley takes a new angle on the standard slice of chocolate cake by tipping it up vertically and embellishing it with tiny sticks of chocolate.
As a chef, Kelley brings an impressive array of tastes to Encore dessert and wine bar, but his artistic eye and attention to decorative detail are what makes his pastries dazzle the other four senses.
