You know my admiration and respect for chefs so I wanted to introduce you someone I really admire… Jurgen. He’s a chef, a pastry chef to be more precise. So basically he’s the kind of guy who mixes ingredients until reaching the perfection (pastry is all about perfection).

We met at the Arts Club where I spent a lot of time in the kitchen talking with chefs and I had the chance to try a few of his desserts, just before he left to open ‘Oblix’ restaurant 1 year ago.
Jurgen is not a pastry chef only, he also writes a blog, a perfect blog, well written, clean, organized with very beautiful pictures. His world must be all about perfection, perfect desserts, perfect blog, perfect chef’s white, perfect, perfect, perfect… but that’s how we reach excellence, no ? And that’s why his desserts are pure masterpieces.

He also has a wonderful project, he wants to organize an evening to raise money for brain tumor research. Please read and be involved, it’s a massive project and the more we are in the more money we will raise.

http://theroadtohellandsweetness.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/a-dessert-state-of-mind.htmln

He also challenged me one year ago, asking me to make a French dessert that he could then customize and make it more ‘Jurgen’s way’… I didn’t forget and still waiting for you Mister ! And don’t think I will be nice with you, I have in mind a recipe of my grand-mother, a cake I had all my childhood which, maybe, will give you some hard time… maybe…

Here is one of his post :

’50 Shades of Pavlova’

 ‘Oblix has finally opened it’s doors to the public, so I’m a free man again when it comes to my blogging. There are hundreds of pictures I’d like to show and plenty of stories I want to tell, but I want to start of with a very special one in particular…the pavlova.

During my time in the test kitchen the pavlova became my Achilles heel. In other words “the pavlova” became my weakness, my vulnerable point in spite of my overall strength as a pastry chef. Not because I didn’t know how to make one, but because I couldn’t get it right according to the ground rules that were set out for me.

The game plan was simple…Create desserts that are rustic, look bold, are easy to execute and fit within the style of the restaurant that we are creating. And first and foremost in the words of Rainer Becker himself “keep it simple”. That’s it!
Well, in all honesty that’s not it. With costumer expectations higher then ever before, Creating something which is simple, bold, rustic and blows people’s mind away when they see and eat it, is not simple at all. Especially when the restaurant is not even properly build yet but your boss has a clear view about how everything has to look and you don’t!

Basically a pavlova is not really a sexy dessert to start with. Look it up and you only find pictures of big crumbly meringue bases with chantilly and exotic fruits on it and when its served, everybody just digs in, it’s a real messy affair and that’s fine cause it’s tradition. But I was quite excited to break the tradition and make it a bit more individual and different at the same time. And what would life be without challenges, so I ended up making hundreds of different pavlovas before I ended up with the “one” my boss liked and loved. It’s on the menu now and everybody’s happy. I have put pictures of some of the different pavlovas on here so you can imagine how different everybody’s vision and interpretation of a pavlova is.

Lucky for me that the development of the other desserts went more smooth, but I have to say this pavlova was a good learning curve on how to adept to other peoples vision and put aside your own to get where you want to be all together. I’m sure there’s gonna be more bumpy rides in Oblix but after these fifty shades of pavlova I’m ready for anything that comes my way’.