The Grand Desserts of Pan Pacific Hotel Group
It’s D-Day at PARKROYAL COLLECTION on Pickering. And the people I am watching are hard at work, making sure that they are serving nothing but perfection. These sweets aren’t things you can easily make every day. These cakes take time, effort, a good understanding of flavours, and the artistic skills of someone who has been practicing art every day. This is exemplified when Chef Edina Si presents one of her creations: a blue metallic delicate chocolate eggshell that, when opened, reveals a rose shaped cake within.
The entire dessert is inspired by Russian Faberge egg, but with a Peranakan twist. The middle of the eggshell is decorated with individual beads reminiscent of cross-stitch embroidery seen all over Peranakan clothing and art, and the marketing team has helpfully informed me that Chef Si took around 20 hours just for the beading alone. The reveal is not one to be sniffed at either: the blue of the rose-shaped cake is painted in a way you only see in porcelain ceramics, in deep, dreamy water colours. The entire sequence is meant to be both showpiece and consumable, and a tribute to both the inspiration of Russian Faberge eggs and Peranakan flavours in desserts.
This is not just a tribute to desserts that are showpieces, though. Hotels are more capable of other styles of dishes. Chef Christopher Eng of PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay presents two cakes that are meant to be sliced and shared: a tribute to the carrot patch garden in a carrot cake with cream cheese filling, and a chocolate mousse that has elements of fruit and styled into a garden. The tree is the standout, with mint cotton candy acting as the foliage of the tree. It’s a reference to the hotel’s rebranding into a more eco-friendly, sustainable hotel. Chef Ken Tan of PARKROYAL on Kitchener Road showcases his work: rumballs and chempedak crumble, two cakes that are popular in the buffet restaurant Spice Brasserie housed in the hotel. Both are a tribute to the Southeast Asian street food and flavours that are readily available. Chef Candy Lu, of PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering, presents cakes that can be plated desserts as well as sold on the dessert counters: a vegan coconut chocolate cake, and a raspberry Earl Grey Mousse Cake. They are made using the eco-friendly, sustainable ethos that Pickering is best known for. All the cakes, as made by each of the chefs, are created with the identity and heavy branding of the different hotels in mind, yet still retaining the aesthetic and talents of the individual chefs.
But how do cakes get to that stage? How heavy an influence is the hotel’s marketing and branding with what the chefs choose to make? Funnily enough, not as much of an influence as you may think.
To find out more about what and how chefs in hotels create the desserts they do, pick up a digital copy of Cuisine & Wine Asia’s May/June issue, available on Magzter or on our own portal! What’s more, get access to all our magazine issues for free on digital until 30th June 2020! Read stories from local and overseas chefs, read new recipes from appetizers to desserts, gain access to exclusive YouTube videos and learn more about the Food & Beverage scene! All these activities will ensure that you make the best use of your time to learn new information!
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