CUISINE
DESSERTS WORTH CELEBRATING
From edible artworks to the sweetest of treats, the Gold Coast is home to a delectable array of desserts.
Bam Bam
Goya
Harajuku Gyoza
JW Marriott
Kaffe Europa
Nineteen at The Star
Raijin
Rise Bakery
WORDS MARJ OSBORNE GREAT SWEETS SPEAK of skill mastery in composition, balance of flavours and textures, with impressive presentation. Whether you enjoy them in high-end restaurants, or purchase them from humble cafés or an industrial warehouse, here are some sweet treats worth celebrating. THE CLASSICS The iconic ‘Voronoi Little Cocoa Chocolate with flavours of Jaffa’ at Palette, HOTA, is one of our most photographed desserts. A collaboration between Executive Chef Dayan Harthill-Law and chocolatier Alicia Chapman of Little Cocoa, you will be eating a masterpiece, a white chocolate tumbler coated in the Voronoi pattern of the HOTA building filled with taste delights of miso ice-cream, layered toffee and banoffee. There’s more than a touch of illusion, too, in the ‘Citrus Illusion’, the realistic citrus-looking dessert featured at Citrique at the JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa. A perfectly formed citrus chocolate shell is filled with a light lemon curd, white chocolate, and citrus sponge, surrounded by myrtle meringue, giving its flavour profile a native Australian edge.
46 covemagazine.com.au
– Issue 93
The simply named ‘Beetroot, strawberry, yoghurt’ at The North Room is anything but simple. Instead, we find a stunning assemblage of beetroot meringue shards and freshly cut strawberries plunged into a base of sour yoghurt crowned with beetroot powder and accompanied by strawberry sorbet. A taste sensation, this dessert’s balance teeters between savoury and sweet. While lemon meringue pie is refreshing, the ‘Chocolate meringue pie’ from Nineteen at The Star is the indulgence you never knew you needed; a touch of luxe and a perfect way to end your meal. Also at The Star Gold Coast, Chase Gojima’s ‘Goma Street’ dessert at Kiyomi has been recognised as one of Queensland's top ten dishes. In this East-meets-West dish tempered dark chocolate and caramelised white chocolate mousse are served with black sesame ice cream on a bed of biscuit crumb. The cutting edge Asian-inspired bar and eatery Eddy + Wolff takes ice cream in a more savoury direction with their Soy sauce ice cream. Flavour bomb ingredients include soy caramel, chilli, garlic, Korean crumb and rose petals; quite the hypnotic mix.
THE CONTENDERS As dining trends towards casual venues, we also enjoy great desserts in bakeries, cafés and warehouses across the Gold Coast. Classic sweets are produced by chef pâtissiers at cafés and pastry shops such as the Pastry Emporium, 5B2F, My French Pastries, Kaffe Europa and Mark Daniel’s Patisserie. One of our favourite pâtisseries, Aux Fines Bouches, is situated in Burleigh’s industrial area. Highly awarded chef pâtissier Richard Le Deunff handcrafts every element of his pastry masterpieces. If you forced us to choose one pastry alone, it would be Delice aux Noisettes, Richard’s own creation, inspired by Richard Hawke, ‘a marriage between hazelnut (or Gianduja) and milk chocolate, the two elements presented in different ways (mousse and chantilly)’. The newly opened Rise Bakery at Sanctuary Cove makes an excellent hazelnut Paris Brest, a rich but not-too-sweet version of the French classic. Created in 1910 to promote the bicycle race from Paris to Brest in Brittany, the Paris Brest is a split doughnut-shaped choux pastry filled with crème mousseline, topped with a nutstudded praline.
