Mississippi Delta Nights

It was a hot sticky Saturday with a few clouds and blue sky. The live music of Roseanne Cash filled the air along with the chatter of people walking up on the property and the ones standing in line getting an adult libation and or food. The crackling of the chicken frying had an aroma that filled the air. This was the perfect beginning of a Southern night in Mississippi for me and I was happy and grateful to be apart of it.

My view of the stage when frying up the chicken for the VIP event later that night 

The day started early for me. I was up with the sun and got to work finishing up my desserts I had planned for this VIP event at Dockery Farms in Cleveland, MS. I had pink peppercorn macarons with a Meyer lemon curd filling, s’mores cobbler, and a drunken banana pudding.  Three distinct desserts with a little bit of Southern charm and sass.

Top L-R: S'mores cobbler, Pink Lemonade Macaron. Bottom L-R: Drunken Banana Pudding, Table display at event

These desserts were a hit. Each represented something Southern. The macarons were my nod to pink lemonade. I wanted to do a little twist by using pink peppercorns in the cookies. Remind you of the heat of a Southern summer afternoon, then the refreshing taste of the sweet Meyer lemon curd to counteract the heat. I called them my "Pink Lemonade" macarons. 

Pink peppercorn macaron cookie for the Pink Lemonade Macarons 

The S’mores cobbler was a nod to childhood and being around a campfire. I made a chocolate cobbler with a graham cracker crust and topped with toasted marshmallows.  This was a favorite of the kids that night, and some adults, too.

Nom nom.... S'mores cobbler

The drunken banana pudding… I lightly soaked the wafer cookies with bourbon and in the whipped cream… I added bourbon to it as well. I had fun with this one since banana pudding is a popular Southern dessert; I had to make it different. So why not add bourbon? I put them in glass salt and pepper shakers... perfect individual serving size. 

These were fun to make... Drunken Banana Pudding

The VIP event was a lot of fun and getting to work with my chef friend, Chef David Crews, was a lot of fun. Getting a view into his world as a private chef really put an itch to get even more into that part of the food world. I love being able to interact that much with my clients and really getting to know them. The development of the relationships and building on them is something that I like to do. Know what they want before they even mention it. 

Full table display of the food for the VIP Event

Life as a chef can be hard, but I love the challenge. It challenges me to stay on top of my game and look at what is happening now and staying on top of the trends. In that way I can learn from the trends and be creative and make them my own. I am continuing to do that to challenge myself and to see what my peers think! I'll be posting sooner next time. Sorry for the lag in posts!

Happy eating!

Little Things

A couple of months ago I had a dessert/tweet shown on a tv show called The Kitchen on Food Network. 

Screen shot of the TV w/the picture of dessert and Sunny Anderson show the Cherpumple 

I did a take on a cake that one of the chefs, Sunny Anderson, had shown on the show. She made a chocolate cake with an apple pie baked in the center. 

My version was a pecan pie baked inside the chocolate cake. I then topped the cake with a bourbon chocolate ganache and toasted pecans. I called it The Two For One.  

Two For One. Dark Chocolate cake w/a pecan pie center, topped w/bourbon chocolate ganache and toasted pecans

The tweet of that dessert became very popular. So much so that it was shown on the show that the hosts shared what other viewers of the show had done with other recipes as well. 

It was really neat/cool to see that on national tv. It's the little things. But what was fun was hearing Sunny Anderson talking about it and then hearing the other hosts vocally mmm at the description of my take on the dessert. 

Sunny then showed another dessert that she called The Cherpumple. It's a cheesecake with a pumpkin pie in the center. 

I loved how Sunny said," I see your chocolate cake and I raise you The Cherpumple." So took that as a challenge. 

I made The Presley. It's a no-bake cheesecake with a fudge insert. The Presley is an homage to Elvis Presley's favorite sandwich; a peanut butter and banana sandwich with bacon on white bread. 

So what I did was to make the cheesecake (which I made banana), and then made a peanut butter fudge for the inside. I put it all together then I fried off some bacon. I crumbled up the bacon and garnished a slice with the bacon. It all sounds like it wouldn't be good together, but surprisingly it is delicious. 

The Presley. Banana cheesecake w/peanut butter fudge center topped with pan fried bacon 

I grew up less than an hour from where Elvis Presley was born and less than hour from Graceland. Knowing that Sunny Anderson spent some of her life in the South, I figured she would appreciate this nod to Elvis.

I find pleasure in the little things. It was no more than a minute being mentioned on TV but I got mentioned. Little things. I'm still a pastry chef that looks at all things for inspiration. You will always surprise yourself on what inspires you. Happy Eating!