PASTRY CHEF SHOWCASE 2012

The Pastry Chef Showcase held at the Ranchmen's Club 

Clark Adams (left) and Andreas Schwarzer members of the pastry chef guild of Albert which organized the event

Fundraising from the event benefits L'arche Calgary and scholarships for Baking and Pastry Arts students

Brulee Patisserie Chefs Rachael Holly and Niki (not pictured)

Ginger pecan torte with espresso mascarpone cream and pecan crackle

Crave's Ashley Daoust

Crave's Peanut butter Adventure - cornflake and graham crumb base layer, chocolate truffle made with Valrhona chocolate and Crave chocolate cake, peanut butter cream cheese mousse salted whipped cream, candied peanuts handcrafted caramel sauce topped with honey tuiles and signature Crave-o-licious Callebault chocolate shavings

The creation from Manuel Latruwe Belgian Patisserie and Bread Shop

NOtaBLE's Bryan Low

NOtaBLE's Mousse Duo: Sweet meets Savoury.  White chocolate tonka bean and spiced golden beet.  Cherry Cassis Chocolate Mousse and Flourless Chocolate.

The Ranchmen's Club's Katelin Bland

Halloween Treats Revisited: Tootsie Roll Chocolate Fudge Sauce, Crunchie Bar Gelato Truffle Caramel Apple Mousse Cake, and Raspberry Pop Rocks Lollipop

A closer look at the dessert

The Ranchmen's Club Second Offering: Deconstructed Pumpkin Pie

A closer look at the Ranchmen's Club second offering

Mona, Jesse and Lindsey of SAIT Polytechnic Baking and Pastry Arts Students

SAIT's Spiced Plum Verrine, Pear and Apricot Fruit bomb, Lindt Ecuador Chocolate with Spiced Rum Ganache and Chili

A closer look at SAIT's dessert

Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire Pastry Chef Bishwa Pati (right) with chef Alanna

Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire's Duo Passion Fruit Dome and Opera Parisienne

A closer look at Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire's dessert

Pastry Chef Tracie Zahavich and chef both of Silver Golf Club

Silver Springs' Chocolate Beet Cake - white chocolate goat's cheese mousse, raspberry beet sauce, candied pecan crumb, glass beet chip

A closer look at Silver Springs'dessert

Gary Dong of Teatro's passion fruit white chocolate cheesecake

Alison LaFrance of Whippt Desserts and Catering

Whippt's New Age Apple Pie

Wilde Grainz's Pastry Chef Karen Schoenrank (right) and Chef Glen

Wilde Grainz's Chocolate Hazlenut Slice with Salted Caramel Sauce

A closer look at Wilde Grainz's dessert

Winner of the People's Choice Award: Alison LaFrance of Whippt

 

Winner of the Professional award Pastry Chef Bishwa Pati of Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire

The 2012 Pastry Chef Showcase featured some of Calgary's finest Pastry chefs who each put meticulous detail into desserts, ready for the eager crowd (with equally large sweet tooths) at The Ranchmens Club in Calgary on a cold Sunday afternoon.  As sponsor of this year’s event, City Style and Living Magazine was proud of the talents that Calgary has to offer, with proceeds in support of L’Arche Calgary, SAIT Baking & Pastry Arts Students, and the Pastry Chef Guild of Alberta.

Qzina and Lisserto, showcased fine pastry products for the avid baker to the most advanced pastry chef including Kakao Berlin chocolate, maple syrup butter from Quebec, to macrons silicone moulds and icing sugar decorations while wine and cheese stations helped to cut some of the richness from the sweets.

Chefs competed to win the coveted profession prize and people's choice award. This year's winner of the People's Choice Award was Alison LaFrance of Whippt and winner of the Professional award was Pastry Chef Bishwa Pati of Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire.

Giddiness exuded from the crowd and adults turned to children complete with sugar highs and resounding ‘wows’.  The organization, quality and passion that was involved in the Showcase was and continues to be outstanding and the must attend sweet event of the season!

www.pastryshowcase.ca

You may visit the NEW Fall 2012 digital edition of City Style and Living magazine (also available in print) at the following address (follow the three simple steps to access the full magazine, online) :

1) go to http://www.citystyleandliving.com
2) click on the 'front cover' image, on the left hand side of your screen
3) to flip through the e-magazine, click on the bottom right hand corner
of the magazine, just as you would our print magazine!

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WHAT WE'RE EATING AT CSL

Photography K&S Media

We decided to try some chocolate bars from Dylan's Candy Bar, available at Holt Renfrew. Dylan Lauren, (daughter of Mr. Ralph Lauren himself) always had a penchant for candy, and in 2001, she opened her first boutique in New York. Now, with over 5000 candy choices and several locations, Dylan is the female Willy Wonka.

The flavours: "the it bar", Dark Chocolate with sea salt, and Dark chocolate iwht strawberry and champange

The Verdict: Texture wise, the smoothness of the chocolate is not overwhelmingly smooth or creamy, and does not have the noticele crack, when broken, often found in high quality chocoalte. The sea salt bar was noticeably "salty", as opposed to more delicate fleur de sel chocoalte bars we have tasted. However, all in all the it bar will do in a crunch. Speaking of crunch, the strawberry and champagne was fruity, in a sour candy, chemical kind of way, with only a slight fizz in the pieces of interspersed strawberry candy in the bar. Again, the chocolate was nothing to rave about but ok.

Overall, though not our favourite chocolate of all time, the bars are beautifully packaged, and a nice snack. You could well cut the bar into pieces and put into your chocolate chip cookie batter for a bit of a surprise.

www.dylanscandybar.com

JUST BACK FROM...GRENADA, WEST INDIES

An aerial shot of Grenada and surrounding Eastern Caribbean islands

CSL was lucky enough to sail (quite literally) this beautiful yacht

A rum tasting at Fish Friday in Gouyave. Careful, even the tiniest tasting of a few of these will have you light headed.

Rivers Rum- here, the cane sugar is processed

A heap of dried cane

The national flags flying in the wind

What else, but nutmeg, mace, bay leaves, cinnamon, allspice. No wonder Grenada is called the spice isle.

The Grenada chocolate company. Absolutely small scale production with an amazingly high quality chocolate

Bars, being wrapped by hand no less.

A view of the beach on Carriacou

CSL visited the islands of Grenada, Carriacou, and Hog Island in the Eastern Caribbean.

The gorgeous luxury hotel, The Spice Island Resort overlooking Grand Anse beach, was our base, and what a special place. CSL had dinner with a knight (Sir Royston Hopkin), owner of the property - a highlight of our stay.

Visiting Port Louis, CSL sailed on a yacht, even having a chance to steer (with an impromptu lesson from our fellow passengers (British Oyster yacht crew) - what an experience.

Other highlights of our trip included a visit to the Rivers Rum factory, The Grenada Chocolate Company, Belmont Estate, a hike to the Seven Sisters (waterfalls) with local Indiana Jones (Mr. Telfor Bedeau - a man of 70 years who did not break a sweat, while CSL was huffing and puffing); a city tour of St. George's, and much more.

Along the way we picked up a slew of fragrant spices (Grenada is the spice isle), and tasted some wonderful food.

Grenada is a unique destination with beautiful people, warm hospitality and a wealth of activities.

Read more on CSL's trip to Grenada in the Fall 2010 issue of the magazine at (forthcoming):

http://www.citystyleandliving.com/

WHAT WE'RE EATING AT CSL

GRANDBOIS...is what we’re eating

We first discovered Genvieve Grandbois chocolates on a trip to Quebec City. Hotel le dominion, seved them for turndown service. We were presented with two squares of chocolate - one milk, the other dark. It was possibly the most delectable chocolate we have tasted at turndown. Creamy, melt in the mouth and satisfyingly rich. We later learned that Grandbois is an entrepreneur, with an intense passion for chocolate. She uses chocolate with 63 to 75% cacao content produced by some of the best chocolatiers in Europe, including Amedei (featured in CSL Winter 2009), Domori, Valrhona and Cacao Barry.

We were able to sample a selection of chocolates including the collection classiques, le rocher, and Carré Fleur de sel.

Collection Les Classiques Included are 9 small squares of intriguing flavour combinations such as: Safran;Chai ; Gianduja; Extra-vierge;Framboise
Piment ; Érable ; Le 9 ; and Caramel à la fleur de sel.

As Grandbois declares, “in 2003, I launched a new store called Les Chocolats Geneviève Grandbois. And so the love affair continues, filling each day with uniquely delightful moments. I would like nothing better than to share them with you....I’ll always choose a well-crafted, traditional chocolate over an imaginative recipe that fails to achieve a perfect blend of ingredients. I hope you get as much pleasure out of tasting my chocolates as I do preparing them."
http://www.chocolatsgg.com/

Read more (coming soon) at:
http://www.citystyleandliving.com/food

Photography K&S Media copyright 2010