PASTRY chef Alain Guillet has a wall full of postcard-sized, glossy colour photographs of mouth watering, waistline-menacing desserts. Under each one is a typed caption, with such exotic names as warm, peach quark strudel, seasonal fruit terrine on rum sabayan and armagnac bavarois served with prune.
But his favourite is that good old standby - a name easily recognisable on any pudding menu and one of France's most popular desserts - creme brulee. It might be tempting to think of it as a classic dish, but modern classic would be nearer the mark. Anyonewho thinks creme brulee has been around since Marie Antoinette said of the breadless poor, 'Let them eat cake', would be wrong.
In fact the custard-based dessert has only been around for two or three decades. Nor would it be right to assume that it first came into the world when a burning kitchen roof came crashing down on a bowl of cream. Rather, it developed out of something called petit pot de creme when one of those strokes of genius that are wont to occur in the kitchen sent a new star shooting into the firmament of delicacies. Someone, who like the Lone Ranger will remain forever nameless, decided to sprinkle some sugar on the top of a little pot of sweetened eggs and milk, and burn it.
The result is well known: the culinary equivalent of ice frozen on the surface of a pond.
The basis is simple and standard, but the variations many, for a pudding that has been described as a passion, an obsession and even an addiction. Catering to such powerful emotional drives, chef Guillet is currently offering the traditional vanilla version, together with four derivations, in the Lobster Bar at the Island Shangri-la. These comprise Californian orange chocolate creme brulee, a pear version with William sherbert, another with Mocca and one flavoured with ginger.
Gerard Dubois, one of the three former Hong Kong Hilton chefs who recently joined forces to produce the lavish book The Cutting Edge, reckons the mystery inventor might have been one of the Bocuse family of French chefs who have been so influential down the years. (The family first established restaurants on the banks of the Saone river in 1765 and the current holder of the nickname primat des gueules, primate of the palate, is Paul Bocuse, a worldwide ambassador of French gastronomy.) 'One thing is for sure,' says the Swiss-French Dubois, who with Hilton executive chef Winfried Brugger is presenting recipes from the book for the rest of this week in the Hilton Grill, 'creme brulee is totally French.' Here's his recipe for creme brulee gently spiced with ginger.