Today Ray showed me several of his desserts in the early stages of development for his winter dinner dessert menu.  The first dessert we discussed calling white out which is a coconut froth with a meringue sphere.  The sphere is filled with yuzu curd, crisp Asian pear and Turkish pistachios.  It reminded me of cracking a geode open as a kid and being amazed at the colors and textures within.  This is without the coolest version of a lemon meringue pie that I have ever seen.

 

The next dessert Ray showed me was quite a different visual and textural effect from the white out.  I’m not sure how Ray will describe this dessert on the menu.  It features multiple textures and multiple browns and earth tones through the dessert.  Some of the ingredients are a dehydrated chocolate sponge, tonka bean foam, date paper and several soil-like textured treats garnishing the plate.  This dessert had incredible flavors and it was a bit like playing in the sand box as a kid.

This photo is of Ray’s date paper.  In today’s world of stabilizers, starches and proteins, it was cool to see this unique product made from just dates.  Ray took dates fresh from the farm, pitted them and rolled them in the sheeter in between sheets of acetate.  It created these cool marbled sheets.

 

The last dessert we tried late in the day had a very cool tropical fee again with great flavor and texture.  Coconut rice pudding with a currant film, toasted sesame ice cream, mango pearls and green tea cake are the components of this dish.  I’m not sure how Ray made the green tea cake but it is very cool.  These desserts have a bit more refinement and I’m sure Ray will continue to adjust them before the menu kick-off December 1st.