The Last Course - The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern
The Last Course - The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern
By Claudia Fleming
Claudia Fleming has worked at some of the top restaurants in New York. Her creations caught the eye of Tom Colicchio, host of Top Chef and a respected restaurateur, who made her pastry chef of his Gramercy Tavern restaurant.
The chapters in The Last Course are divided by the type of fruit (such as berries, stone fruit, citrus and trop-ical fruits) as well as vegetables, nuts, herbs, flowers and chocolate.
The recipes are surprisingly accessible for the skilled home cook - other than the chapter on signature composed desserts (which have multiple components), there's not much in here that's too difficult. Many of the desserts are classic: there's apple tarte tatin, prune armagnac ice cream, nectarine-blueberry cobbler and spiced red wine and fig compote. But then there are some with interesting flavour combinations: pumpkin clafoutis, maple-glazed squash and apple compote, butterscotch custards with coconut cream, honeydew melon soup with figs and orange flower creme fraiche, and candied fennel with Pernod-orange sorbet and Pernod whipped cream.
