Cold reception: how they experiment with ice cream in restaurants
An ice cream ball in the heat is beautiful on its own. And even better, when it complements some light summer dessert. But restaurateurs don't just stop at sweets and are increasingly adding ice cream and sorbets to a wide variety of dishes. Izvestia found out in which positions this combination works best and which new flavors of our favorite delicacy are gradually becoming familiar to us.
Cooling element
Ice cream and sorbets are no longer perceived as an independent dessert today and have become a culinary technique with which chefs can enhance the taste of various dishes and add visual appeal to them.
Okroshka on birch kvass with cream horseradish ice cream
—If you work with the product correctly, ice cream can be appropriate everywhere," Viktor Shaidetsky, chef of the Siberian cuisine restaurant Manul (Moscow), told Izvestia. — It is perfect as an accompaniment to tartars. With it, the meat does not overheat, retains freshness and gets an interesting texture. We served mini potatoes with onion ice cream, where it essentially acted as a cooling component. It's delicious, unusual, and helps you avoid getting burned.
Vinaigrette with cabbage ice cream
In the seasonal update, Manul has okroshka with cream horseradish ice cream, as well as a vinaigrette with sauerkraut and baked cabbage sorbet. The expert stressed that in such experiments it is important to preserve the recognizable taste of ice cream, otherwise the dishes will not cause understanding among the guests.
Sorrel ice cream with fresh strawberries and white chocolate mousse
"Ice cream of completely unexpected flavors has been added to dishes from the main menu for several years now," Elizaveta Stakhanova, a restaurateur at Garum Oriental and Wine Region (Moscow), shares her observation. — Filet mignon began to be combined with dark chocolate ice cream with spices, scallop tartare with sorrel sorbet, and Greek salad with olive ice cream. We also came up with interesting combinations — for example, ice cream made from black sweet and sour Riga bread and sprats or sorbet made from Riga balsam with black currants. Now, with the growing trend for comfort food, this fashion has subsided a bit, chefs are experimenting more with desserts and developing interesting ice cream options with the taste of elderberry, rose or lavender.
Beetroot salad with Kamchatka crab and strachatella ice cream
According to the interlocutor of Izvestia, one of the favorite dishes of Garum Oriental guests is beetroot salad with crab. Unsweetened strachatella ice cream gives this soup a pleasant chill and an extra touch of flavor. For dessert, the restaurant offers sorrel ice cream with fresh strawberries and white chocolate mousse.
Beef tartare with mustard ice cream and jerusalem artichoke
—Ice cream in modern restaurants has become a universal ingredient for various dishes," says Oleg Kolisnichenko, brand chef of the Italian restaurant Pinci (Nizhny Novgorod). — For example, we have developed mustard ice cream that can be used as a sauce. We accompany them with beef tartare with smoked pink tomatoes, shallots, olive oil, freshly ground pepper and white truffle oil.
Mushroom ice cream with raspberries and salted caramel
According to the expert, the combination of ice cream with olive oil and sea salt has already become a classic. He also considers refreshing combinations of strawberries with basil or raspberries with tarragon to be promising. Ice cream options made from products such as pickled artichokes, jerusalem artichoke, asparagus and chanterelles are sure to become popular in Mediterranean restaurants.
Potatoes with truffle ice cream
— Ice cream made from bread or kvass is perfect for fried pork neck with baked apples, and the Ryzhik cake will be interesting to combine with sea urchin ice cream, — says Andrey Matyukha, brand chef of the Vladivostok Grand Hotel & Spa (Vladivostok). — At the Benuar restaurant, we present a gastronomic pair of crispy potatoes and truffle ice cream. In it, you can feel the balance between the crunch and salt of the root vegetable and the creamy fat content with the "earthy" aroma of noble mushrooms.
A matter of taste
In recent years, gourmets have become accustomed to mushroom ice cream, carrot or cucumber sorbet. The gastronomic experience of visitors to Russian restaurants has grown significantly, and the boundaries of the familiar have expanded significantly. Therefore, the search for new, unexpected tastes continues in haute cuisine.
Cherry sorbet with yogurt and tarragon
— There has been a noticeable increase in interest in experimenting with vegetable flavors of ice cream, as well as options with algae or other non-standard products. — Maxim Lyubimov, the brand chef of Leo Wine & Kitchen restaurant (Rostov-on-Don), remarks. — But it is worth noting that such non-trivial positions are more common in restaurants with set menus, where the gastronomic approach is bolder. In establishments with a regular main menu, as a rule, everything is more restrained.
Ice cream made from fresh fennel with physalis and olive oil
Our interlocutor also noted that cold desserts with spicy spices and nuts are gradually becoming familiar. He sees combinations with fermented foods with bright sour notes as promising. At Leo Wine & Kitchen, ice cream in dessert is treated as a key element of the entire composition. One example is a dessert of tangerine granita with pumpkin seed ice cream, pickled pumpkin slices and cream. All the ingredients together make the delicacy richer and more layered in taste.
Dessert "Spectrum of perception" with pistachio ice cream with the addition of jalapeno pepper brine
"When trying desserts with ice cream, many people are now waiting for an "understandable strangeness," says Polina Antonova, pastry chef at Manul restaurant. — For example, we make a sorbet from lemonade based on St. John's wort and licorice — it is sour, herbal, but at the same time familiar in taste. And such moments on the edge of the familiar and experimental are now resonating, because people are looking for new sensations with a touch of nostalgia.
Prague cake with sturgeon caviar and sour cream ice cream
The pastry chef of the Beluga restaurant (Moscow) uses ice cream in all his desserts, as, in his opinion, this component allows you to emphasize the unusual taste of a sweet dish. In a new dessert with the promising name "Perception Spectrum", pistachio ice cream is prepared with jalapeno pepper brine. This product is listed as part of the menu item, and many guests are surprised when they do not immediately feel its sharpness. The feeling of a slight burning sensation comes a little later, and this gives you the opportunity to experience an interesting gastronomic experience.
A Song of Ice and Fire
In some desserts, ice cream can be used to emphasize the temperature contrast. One example is fried ice cream, which appeared in 1893 in the USA and was presented for the first time at the World's Fair in Chicago.
Fried ice cream
— In fact, this is ice cream in dough, deep—fried, and we cook it using classical technology, - said Yuri Kryuchkov, chef of the More Seafood Bar restaurant (Vladivostok). — Wrap the ice cream in a thin dough greased with melted butter and refrigerate at -60 ° C in the freezer. Then, for a minute, the dessert is fried so that the shell becomes crispy, and the filling remains frozen and does not leak out. After that, sprinkle the delicacy with powdered sugar, and for extra piquancy, serve it with chocolate sauce and sea salt.
Flambe peaches with vanilla ice cream and pistachios
Another interesting variant of the contrasting dessert with ice cream appeared recently in the Moscow neobistro Geraldine, where sweet items from flambed seasonal peaches, strawberries and cherries were introduced to the menu. This is a traditional technique of French cuisine, when a small amount of strong and aromatic alcohol is added to the dish and set on fire before serving. The "degrees" completely evaporate, but the refined taste nuances of the drink are transferred to the treat. "The flambering technology stabilizes and even beautifies the taste of peaches and berries. And creamy ice cream gives the dessert the right balance and adds softness to the taste, especially if you let it melt into a cool sauce," explained Evgeny Utkin, the chef of the restaurant.
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