Red fruit: nature's delightful sweetness
Powerful colour
Defined by their powerful colour, red fruits make for colourful and indulgent desserts.
They are now probably the most highly prized fruit flavour, with their promise of sweet, fresh and tangy taste sensations. Their deep flavours come in infinite varieties based on their type, the season.... and the combinations created by pâtissiers.
Strawberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, cherries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and blackberries for the more traditional, but also blueberries, cranberries, wild cherries and elderberries can be employed in many ways in desserts. Chefs have been adding more original flavours, such as those of certain vegetables, to classic desserts: cheesecakes, panacotta, crèmes brulées, mousses, tarts, financiers, ice cream and fresh fruit with Chantilly cream.
In his Parisian restaurant (France), Pierre Gagnaire never thinks twice about preparing red fruit with peppers and serves a "Red pepper soup with Tahaa vanilla, Gariguette and wild strawberries".
In London (England), Gordon Ramsay serves them with fennel and violets - the result: a subtle "Blackcurrant fennel and yoghurt génoise with violet sorbet".
This floral blend also inspires Eric Ripert, the chef of Le Bernardin in New York (USA), who himself matches the flavours of red fruit with that of the rose in a delicate "Raspberry-rose-lychee gelée, rose emulsion and raspberry sorbet".
Finally, for Gaston Acurio at Astrid & Gaston in Lima (Peru), it is pepper that best brings out the flavour of strawberries, as shown in this amazing dessert: "Tumbled strawberry, Tumbo granité with strawberry and pepper soup".
