aside 7 Dec

Brulee Quest – Episode 3 – Hey Amarena!

It’s a song from the 90s and it’s come back to haunt you. Well….  not really. The folks at CinCin put together a crème brulée with a type a cherry that sounds kinda like it. What’s better is the crème brulée is pretty kickass and when the food is kickass, through some mystic power, my thoughts get published in the Friday edition of Vancouver’s 24hrs newspaper. This week we’re talking about the Amarena Cherry Crème Brulée prepared by Thierry Busset.

You can download this week’s version in PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

24hrs Vancouver - December 4, 2009 - Page 31

Episode 3 – Hey Amarena

Brulee Quest - EP3 - Amarena Cherry Creme Brulee

If hearing the name ‘Amarena’ isn’t cause enough to get up and dance to a familiar and similarly named 90’s tune, the tale of this crème brulée will.

On a recent pilgrimage to France, seeking to discover the Country’s nascent cocktail culture, what consistently evaded me was a drink composed of the world’s finest sweet vermouth – the Italian made Antica Carpano. What I discovered was that the highly nationalistic French don’t necessarily look outside their borders for excellence, even if you are drinking at what’s supposed to be an authentic Italian spot.

When I heard that French pastry chef Thierry Busset from CinCin Ristorante was using Italian amarena cherries in his crème brulée, I thought of the move as an enlightened one. These wild cherries, soaked in amarena syrup using a secret 80 year old technique, have made them the most sought-after cherries in Europe, and for good reason: the small, dark, slightly sour cherries, grown mostly in Bologna and Modena resemble olives in texture and are addictive, delicious and bursting with flavour.

Back to the brulée, Chef Busset undoubtedly experimented long and hard to get the right mix – three halved amarena cherries, masterfully inserted into the dessert gives ample opportunity for all good things crème brulée to stand out – a crisp caramel crust, the perfectly consistent custard and the cherries, the sweet sweet cherries, will make for you to want to kick your chair back and yell “Hey Amarena!”

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Image cutline: Pastry Chef Thierry Busset’s Amarena Crème Brulée is so popular that he’s seeking to open up his very own bake shop on Alberni Street within the next year. The crème brulée will definitely be on the menu.

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Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media thought leader and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’

  • http://www.follwomefoodie.com Mijune Pak

    Thanks for taking me out on your brulee quest… here’s my rendition of the meal:

    Taking crème brulee to the next level CinCin Ristorante + Bar introduces me to their Amarena Cherry Crème Brulee. Forget about Okanagan cherries, these are cherries from another planet…or country. Imported from Italy CinCin’s pastry chef Thierry Busset uses the Amarena cherry as the gourmet ingredient in his crème brulee. It’s the texture of an olive or rehydrated prune. It’s quite tart and it comes preserved in sugar syrup so it’s very sweet at the same time. It’s the kind of ingredient that stimulates your saliva glands to start reacting immediately. It definitely made the crème brulee an exotic masterpiece. There’s the creamy cool custard, a sudden bite of juicy plump cherry, and then a little crunch from the burnt sugar crust. The crème brulee itself had a jelly like texture and turned creamy as it warmed up in my mouth. They serve it with chocolate gelato and what I could best describe as an almond crusted marzipan fritter stuffed with an Amerena cherry. This fritter actually beat out the crème brulee for me. For $12 this dessert is worth a visit and cheaper than a ticket to Italy.

  • Shelley McArthur

    THIERRY BUSSET TO OPEN SHOP IN VANCOUVER

    Alberni Street atelier will offer a window into the art of fine chocolate and pastry

    Vancouver, B.C. – Chocolatier-Pâtissier Thierry Busset is preparing to open his atelier in partnership with the Top Table Group later this year.

    Under a bright awning that recalls the storefront pâtisseries of his native France–and simply reading thierry–the 220 square metre space will be dedicated to the creation of classic chocolates, pastries, cakes, and a variety of that Parisian icon: the macaron.

    With the lease just signed and plans advancing rapidly for an Autumn 2010 opening, thierry will be located in Vancouver’s downtown core.

    “The shop will realize a longtime dream of mine,” Busset says. “Everything will be made on the premises and we will work in the style of the atelier, with our work space open to the retail area.”

    Marc Bricault, who has worked with Top Table on projects at CinCin and Araxi, and who designed the wine room at Blue Water Cafe, will be designing the space featuring clean, modern lines, and with both indoor and outdoor seating.

    All items will be hand-crafted daily using only premium ingredients: fresh seasonal fruits, artisanal dairy products, maple syrup, and the finest chocolates.

    Busset learned his craft at the hands of the masters, including notable chocolatier Bernard Sicard in Auvergne, and later at Pilati Patisserie in the Loire Valley. He was pastry chef at two three Michelin-starred restaurants in London: Le Gavroche (Albert Roux and Michel Roux Jr.) and Marco Pierre White. Recently, his former colleague, chef Gordon Ramsay called Busset ‘one of the finest pastry chefs in the world’.

    Upon moving to Vancouver, Busset opened as pastry chef at West, and then headed the pastry program at CinCin, where his breads, desserts and chocolates, according to Vancouver magazine, saw him ‘widely regarded as one of North America’s finest pastry chefs’.

    “This is a wonderful progression for Thierry and, I think, for Vancouver,” said Top Table Proprietor, Jack Evrensel. “I’m thrilled that we were able to find such an accessible space, so now we can share his talent with everyone.”