French Lesson
World Pastry Cup winner Christophe Michalak confides his championship-winning techniques and innovative presentations at a master class in New York City.
Gary Tucker reports.
Valrhona, the menu name-dropped French chocolate manufacturer, invited Christophe Michalak, Team France captain and winner of the prestigious World Pastry Cup in 2005, to conduct the first master pastry class the company has ever held outside of France. The two-day hands-on "Prestige Plated Desserts & Mignardises" class, held at the Valrhona Center of Education in New York City, gave 11 pastry chefs plus myself, a senior editor at this magazine, step-by-step instruction in the creation of a dozen dessert compositions, including Michalak's championship-winning Oréade. Named for the mountain and woodland maiden companions to Artemis of ancient Greek mythology, in compliance with the World Pastry Cup's designated theme of nymphs, the Oréade comprises the classic trilogy of raspberries, chocolate, and whipped cream.
"I wanted to express beauty, charm, delicacy, and softness," says Michalak, "to create something both feminine and unreal at the same time," describing the multilayered concoction that harmoniously conjoins raspberry gelée, praline croustifondant, kirsch/vanilla crème glacée, raspberry sorbet, marbled Tanariva and Guanaja chocolate chantilly, and confit of raspberries, anchored by an arcing thread of red pulled sugar.
Although I'm a graduate of The French Culinary Institute and have a strong background in the pastry arts, I was thrilled at the privilege to join the class, elevate my skills, and learn new tricks. It was my first chance, for example, to sculpt with chocolate. After working Couverture Pur Caraibe pistoles in a mixer until they formed a smooth mass, we fashioned a miniature landscape of baobab trees, a Proustian activity triggering memories of Play-Doh, albeit pursuing higher standards of proportion and beauty. The main trick with chocolate, I learned, was, when rolling it, to keep it warmer than one's hands. Otherwise, it doesn't acquire a smooth surface. We glazed the trees, dusted them with cocoa powder, and then set clusters of rochers Suisse (rice puffs mixed with melted chocolate, caramelized chopped almonds, and cubes of crystallized orange) on the ends of the branches and festooned them with gold leaf. To complete this idealized tropical African tableau, we piled additional rochers Suisse around the baobabs' bases.
More revelatory regarding chocolate, though, was learning Michalak's ganache making technique. Rather than adding hot heavy cream to the chopped chocolate all at once, he recommends adding the cream in thirds, each time whisking to blend the mixture thoroughly. This method builds a stronger and denser texture, with a more rounded mouthfeel.
I shared with Sandro Micheli, at the time executive pastry chef at Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in New York City, the joyful ease of fashioning decorative fans and roses as whimsical garnishes. "Just bring tempered couverture to 45 degrees Celsius [113°F], slather it in a thin layer over the bottom of an upside-down sheet pan that also registers the same temperature [45°C] in order to maintain stability, then refrigerate it overnight. The next day, let it stand at room temperature for two hours, and you can scrape the chocolate into fan or rose shapes easily with a palette knife," says Micheli. "It's the absolute correct balance, and now I do it every day and it works like a charm every time."
Because Michalak, like many French pastry chefs, is enamored of American candy bars, he's inspired to re-create their textures and flavors. Which explains why we set about making "Snickers" macaroons, piping classic Italian meringue for the cookie base, followed by sprinklings of roasted chopped peanuts, and then allowing them to dry out for 30 minutes before baking. Once the baked meringues were sandwiched with a filling of caramel, cream, butter, peanut butter, and a touch of pastis, Michalak shared a truc he learned in Paris at Ladurée, where macaroons are the trademark confection: to render them moist and tender, macaroons must rest in a refrigerator for a full five days, slowly absorbing its ambient moisture, before they are ready for display and sale. Final touches were a brush of coffee extract on top and gold powder blown across the surface.
"When we were about to beat egg whites in a mixer to make meringue," recalls Christine Beard, pastry sous chef at The Fairmont Washington (Washington, D.C.), "Christophe lifted the stainless-steel bowl off the mixer and held it up in one hand; with his other, he guided a propane torch flame all around the bottom of the bowl. Slightly warm egg whites whip to greater volume and develop more stability. It made me stop and think about all the little steps I take automatically. Because the final product is so dependent on all the little things that go into it, each step must be thoroughly understood to achieve the best result."
Michalak also uses an inventive technique to make tuiles of such exquisite gossamer delicacy that they belie the simple method he divined to create them. He cooks fondant and glucose to 100°C (212°F), then pours the mixture onto a Silpat nonstick pad. Once hardened, he breaks it into chunks and pulverizes them in a food processor. This powder can be sprinkled in a thin layer over rectangular-shaped templates set on a sheet pan, then heated for mere seconds to melt and form a paper-thin translucent sheet. He lifts the tuiles with an offset spatula and shapes them around a dowel where they harden in seconds and can be eased off. An extra fillip to desserts, they can be colored with vegetable dyes or given a matte patina with gold powder. Or they can be striped: sprinkle a second coating of a contrasting color over the template before baking. Nicole Kaplan, executive pastry chef at Del Posto in New York City, adds freeze-dried strawberry powder (for red color) or dehydrated corn powder (bright yellow) or pulverized coffee beans (mahogany) to her tuiles. "You can create a million different variations—some for the color and some for the flavor. You can make the tuile in whatever shape you want, as a dessert component or just as a garnish. They also look and taste great on their own."
Jay Lampart, pastry chef of Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland, intercepted the fondant/glucose technique and ran with it, using it to make edible mini straws for mini milk shakes and other dessert beverages. "It surprises people to find a tiny straw that actually works in a tiny drink and that you can eat when you're done. That's what I find most interesting about classes like the one held by Valrhona. It's not so much the recipes or the desserts themselves, but the clever techniques you can discover in the process."
Morgan Larson, executive pastry chef at the St. Regis hotel in New York City, had recently attended the Valrhona workshop in Tain L'Hermitage, where he had first worked with Michalak. "Christophe's solid background gives him license to play and gain new outlooks. Out of his classical techniques come nouvelle presentations, like his deconstructed milk shake."
Since July 2000 Michalak has worked with world-conquering chef Alain Ducasse as executive pastry chef at the Michelin three-star Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, gaining recognition for inventive spins on menu classics such as Pêche Melba macaroons, Tagada strawberry macaroons (made with France's popular soft strawberry-flavored marshmallows), and chocolate religieuses with thyme or salted caramel. Michalak's core philosophy? "Never follow the trends. Instead, create the trends and let others follow you." Great advice, as long as you have keen technique to whack a new path.
