Consider the strawberry: its familiar flavor and texture;
its fresh, sweet smell. Now imagine the same fruit distilled
and carbonated for a refreshing soda, slow-roasted for a
reinvented strawberry shortcake, made into a creamy
strawberry ice cream and a chewy strawberry leather, and
combined with coconut cream and crisp chocolate pastry.
Alone, each dessert is a taste of paradise, but together
this βfourplay,β or tasting, created by Johnny Iuzzini,
superstar pastry chef of the celebrated four-star restaurant
Jean Georges in New York, is a sophisticated explosion of a
familiar flavor that begins with the taste of strawberry
rich on your tongue and ends with an effervescent tingle in
your nose.
Far from the conventional slice of cake at the end of a
meal, Johnnyβs seasonal creationsβfour mini desserts in a
quartet of complementary flavors and texturesβare a culinary
adventure. In Dessert FourPlay, he shares his secrets and
inspirations, delivering standout recipes for incredible
desserts that can be served alone or combined into his
signature fourplay groupings, creating the perfect sweet
finale for any meal.
With the home cook in mind, Johnny offers tips on
simplifying professional recipes and provides basic recipes
for transcendent cakes, cookies, tuiles, ice creams,
sorbets, granitΓ©s, and more. These building blocks can be
used to create magnificent multifaceted desserts, or they
can be perfect desserts by themselves. Some recipes have
surprising versatility: the shiny smooth chocolate glaze
Johnny uses to ice cakes doubles as the ultimate hot fudge
sauce; a lemony madeleine batter becomes a layer in a cake.
Iuzzini pairs cool with hot, crispy with creamy, sweet with
spicy, and the expectedβchocolate, strawberries, and
cinnamonβwith the unexpectedβchiles, beets, and chocolatey
puffs. The result: desserts that refresh, inspire, and
satisfy beyond expectations. Dessert FourPlay invigorates
all the senses and inspires home cooks to create innovative
desserts of their own.
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