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Lemon tart at Operetta. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
MagazinesGood Eating

Sweet summer: refreshing desserts that are perfect for the hot weather

Chefs Luca de Berardinis of Operetta and Conor Beach of 12000 Francs have created delicious new desserts for the season

Good Eating
Tracey Furniss
Tracey Furniss
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Luca de Berardinis, the new executive chef of Operetta, in Pacific Place, has created a refreshing lemon tart, perfectly light for the hot weather.

Chef Luca de Berardinis. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
“We wanted to create a lemon tart that is traditional, which, however, never fails to surprise diners,” says the chef, who was previously at Nicholini’s. The irresistibly moreish looking tart is topped with marinated Sicilian yellow peach, blueberry sago and home-made lemon juice on a crunchy base where the lemon and sugar flavours are balanced to perfection. The vanilla ice cream on the side gives diners a sweet finishing touch to complement the refreshing taste of the lemon tart. Berardinis admits he has a sweet tooth and he has his favourite summer dessert in the morning: “I enjoy Cornetto with gelato - vanilla flavour, for breakfast.”
Chef Conor Beach. Photo: Nora Tam
Chef Conor Beach loves strawberry shortcake with vanilla ice cream or a bowl of chilled cherries in the hot weather. And he’s created a refreshing dessert called Summer Berries at his restaurant 12000 Francs in SoHo, based on the strawberry shortcake his mother and grandmother used to make.
Summer Berries at 12,000 Francs. Photo: Nora Tam

“This dessert is a mix of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries on top of a buckwheat financier [a French brown butter and almond cake]. The berries are lightly dusted with icing sugar and accompanied by whipped unsweetened yogurt, maple syrup gel and our house-made six herb sorbet,” Beach says. “The dessert started out very simply as a strawberry shortcake on our lunch menu. But eventually it grew into something more exciting with the buttery and nutty buckwheat cake. The flavours and textures play off each other really well, plus our guests enjoy trying to guess all of the herbs inside the sorbet. The best part is, it allows us to offer a delicious dessert that is gluten-free.”

Tracey Furniss

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