'Lemon Meringue Pie'

We thought this dessert was worth a special mention!

It featured on our last dessert degustation, but it was such a star, it deserves it's very own blog post.

We started our menu development meeting talking about "classic" desserts, and how we might apply the experimental  and inspirational new thinking that has gripped our chefs today.  Very exciting times, indeed!

We took the 3 elements of your stock standard lemon meringue pie and gave them the 'rochelle adonis' treatment.  

So here is what we consider the ultimate LMP to be comprised of...

1 Buttery, vanilla-y, crumbly golden pastry

2 Rich, tangy, velvety lemon curd

3 Light-as-a-feather meringue

Then we threw tradition out the window!

We started by enveloping our lemon curd with a firm, yet light Italian meringue.

We then poached these little parcels of deliciousness for precisely, yes - precisely 8 minutes, after which time we kissed them with the blue flame of our blow torch.

Of course, we took to them with spoons and reckless abandon in the name of professional development ...."try the one that was poached for 6 minutes....now taste the one that was poaching for 13 minutes......compare the 8 minute one with the 9 minute one".... and so on.

That's how we got it just right!

Oh, the things we do in the name of perfection [hips, thighs, bums and double chins - please forgive!]

Next, the pastry component...

Well, what else would you do but crumble it into a beautiful vanilla bean ice cream?

To pull it all together on the plate, we smeared [love that word] a citron creme chiboust along the centre of the plate then gently - and i do mean gently - placed our poached meringues at one end.

We criss-crossed the chiboust with a trail of crumbled vanilla sablee positioning a perfect scoop of the ice cream at one end.

Elegant dollops of lemon curd were the perfect cushion for tiny jewels of pomegranate.

A little micro mint 

et...

Voila!

Lemon meringue pie.