Chef does a play of geometry, color and flavor
SOPHISTICATED CUSTOMERS were hesitant to express their craving for sugar; requests for sugar-free, flourless or eggless were frequent.

That was before the dessert shakeup, when Mandarin Oriental’s executive pastry chef Roberto Molleman transformed demure pieces of desserts into delectable sculptures that have become the coup de grace at the end of the meal.

At Mandarin Delicatessen, the new dazzling desserts are just right for sharing. But unlike the traditional pastries that are capped with thick lathers of frosting, or sprinkles and drizzles, Molleman’s desserts play with contrasting colors and geometric shapes. And, they taste better than they look.

He dreamed up desserts which are dense, luxuriant and not cloyingly sweet, baked with liberal amounts of butter cream, sugar, rich chocolate, fruit and nuts, all oozed into fillings, spread onto ethereal cakes or tucked into sweet pastry pockets.

Molleman’s statement is about geometry and color. The pastries are all established flavors with new look and new design.

“I play with shapes and flavors. When you look at the counter, the dark and light colors play against each other. Everything has to be funky but the infusion of flavors is important,” says the 6”6’-tall Dutchman.

Tour de force

Molleman thinks in several dimensions. The Crispy Praline Chocolate Cake comes in several layers—milk chocolate cream over a tier of dark chocolate icing, over a bed of Rice Krispies mixed with praline paste and brownie base. He sets the whole fabrication into a modern art piece, buttressed with contrasting flavors and colors of chocolate and almond macaroons juxtaposed with cylinder of milk chocolate with cream. The layers and toppings come flurrying into the palate—a mix of textures.

“This is my favorite,” says the chef. “We use half cocoa butter, half chocolate and a bit of red. It has four distinguished flavors— meringue, chocolate cream, chocolate ganache, then the Rice Krispie praline and brownie at the bottom. It’s filling but light.”

Although largely visual, taste is still everything to Molleman who doesn’t hesitate to experiment with out-of-the-box flavors. His tour de force is the Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse Cake, which is given a whimsical play of shape. The infusion of this English tea, with its signature bergamot flavor, is blended with cream. The tea-flavored cream is then combined with chocolate ganache, which also gives the dessert more body. Hence it eschews gelatin which usually binds mousse cakes.

The chef explains that the crispy chocolate sheets thrown in with granulated sugar evokes a New Wave feel.

The Mocha Hazelnut Cake has a luscious base treated to a final covering with sweet dough, glazed with chocolate and then drizzled with zigzags of contrasting icing. An intensely flavored truffle, wrapped under a delicate chocolate ribbon, gives this dessert more amplitude.

Modern classics

Consider something as conventional as Coconut Dacquoise Cake—a coconut-based sponge cake with mousse containing the de rigueur gelatin at the bottom. It is topped with coconut dacquoise under cylinders of meringue mixed with butter cream, intersected by a triangle of white chocolate. For depth, the top is sprayed with red cocoa butter.

“It is velvety and smooth. The coconut goes with meringue. The mousse is not very sweet. They complement each other,” says Molleman.

The Pistachio Dacquoise is a pistachio mousse sandwiched between layers of pistachio meringue and butter cream. For pizzazz, it is crowned with white chocolate circle punctuated by a swirl of chocolate ganache.

The Strawberry and Rhubarb Dome is a dome glazed with fresh strawberry jam, with macaroons on the side, and half glazed strawberry atop chocolate swirls.

Molleman’s treatment of classic desserts gives diners a new perspective. Baked between sheets of sweet dough and chocolate glaze, the Cinnamon Pudding is a dense sponge cake perked with cinnamon, chocolate powder, almond or hazelnut flavoring.

The Lemon Tart resembles the Japanese flag with a mound of raspberry mousse for contrast. Adding geometry is a white chocolate triangle, again dusted with gold. The Pecan Chocolate Tart is a richer version of the pecan pie with chocolate cake and golden syrup over a pastry shell of sweet dough. Molleman adds a surprise by putting a dollop of praline cream hidden underneath a square white chocolate, dotted with chocolate ganache.

The classic cheesecake is enclosed in walls of jagged chocolate and smothered with rich blueberry topping and red berries for a dash of color. The jagged pieces of dark chocolate keep the edges of the cheesecake nice and straight, but they also give it a funky look. “The cheesecake is the bestseller with the shell of graham crackers with brown sugar and butter and topping of blueberries, which give a fruity taste,” he says.

If you’re still worried about calories, carbs and cholesterol, try a mere 60-calorie truffle. The quiet allure of the gold-flecked green tea truffle and the strength of its bittersweet flavor will seduce you.