Darren Purchese - Sweet Studio

FOREWORD

Sponge Monkey! Thats probably one of the least rude things that Ive heard Darren Purchese called, but then pastry chefs are a breed apart in the professional restaurant kitchen and get treated accordingly. They often work different hours, spend far too long in the cool room and even occupy a different corner of the kitchen the corner where there are plump, crimson-red velvet Chesterfields, cups of Prince of Wales tea in bone china and air conditioning that works. Well, at least according to some head chefs.

Well, OK, the last bit is a slight exaggeration but it does all breed a certain disdain, distrust and even jealousy from the ordinary bloke sweating at a bench chop, chop, chopping carrots all day long as he develops the sort of humungous knife-callus that could have its own national flag and be invited to enter a team in the Olympics. By contrast pastry chefs hands are usually pale pink and as soft as kittens. Im just saying

Having seen first-hand how devilishly difficult some of Darren Purcheses creations are, however, I now understand why pastry chefs are often seen as the French Legionnaires of the kitchen too. Mysterious characters with an uncertain past who spend endless days and nights in this Dark-Arts world of sugar, cream and more chemicals than at a Gold Coast hairdressers convention. They are a group who do almost superhuman things with the basest of ingredients the alchemists of the modern kitchen.

These days even the bolshiest chef in the hot kitchen will acknowledge that the pastry section has its uses and its not just using the smallest member as a meaty chux to clean out the greasiest brat pan. If the cooks standing in the firing line of the pans are the shock troops going over the top every service, then the pastry chefs are the Intelligence Corps all soft hands and smart ideas. This is something that becomes immediately apparent flicking through the pages of this fine volume.

Where once pastry was all froufrou, chichi and far too much ice sculpture, now modern pastry is sexy; modern pastry is cool; modern pastry spends as much time playing with salt as it does with sugar. Its as much advanced chemistry and engineering as it is pie crusts and pavlovas.

In Australia this whole modern pastry is so hot right now thing is not all to do with Darren Purchese no matter how many cream buns he promises me if Ill write that but hes certainly part of the reason. Thats why you need to read this book, own this book, even throw this book across the kitchen when you realise it expects you to do eight, yes eight, different processes to create the best dessert youve ever made. And thats before you traipse shamefacedly across the kitchen to retrieve it because you wont shrink from a challenge and wont shirk from pushing your cooking skills to Olympian heights with Darren to guide you onwards to pudding glory.

I promise, all this you will see, if you can tear yourself away from this riveting foreword OK, not so fast now there are still a couple of paragraphs of my clumsy prose for you to wade through before the good stuff!

Tear away you must, however, because awaiting you in the following pages is an edge-of-your-seat adventure in a world where the bacon is maple cured, things are seldom as simple as they seem and butter isnt a dirty word. This is not one of those celebrity chef books promising simple, easy, quick dishes and loaded with tired retreads of recipes for hummus or beer-can chicken. In fact complex, complicated and infuriatingly wonderful is a better strapline for the recipes and the advice that follow. And you are unlikely to have seen many of Darrens ideas before well, unless its that delicious dessert with caramelised white chocolate that he did on season three of MasterChef. Interestingly the eventual series winner, Kate Bracks, who cooked that Darren Purchese dish in that Immunity Challenge, had a bit of a Damascene moment doing it and went on to win the whole competition. The more romantically inclined (and indeed, the marketing team behind this book) might like to suggest this might easily happen to you. I shall make no such claims unless it is a warning that this sort of cooking can be addictive and life changing. At times it might be difficult but youll also pick up tricks and tips along the way that will help you jazz up even your old stalwart desserts.

I think thats perhaps why so many of us love Darren Purchese and what he does seldom compromising, like Darren, this is a book all about technical exactitude and the search for amazing flavour. This book will challenge you; it will at times confound you; but it will also reward you with desserts that are as much a work of art as they are a riot of texture and flavour. Cook from this book and youll understand why the mantle of a sponge monkey is as much a badge of honour and pride as it is an insult from some bloke whose knife-callus is bigger than his IQ.

Matt Preston

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my first book, Sweet Studio. I am extremely proud that you are reading this, as it has been a long-held ambition of mine to share my work with you through my own cookbook.

This process is the culmination of 20 years of hard work and good fortune in the kitchen and I have enjoyed every minute of it. All of the long hours and lack of social life early on have paid off now, as my Sweet Studio continues to delight my customers.

Ever since I was a child Ive been fascinated by food and have fond memories of Mum cooking for my dad, my younger sister Emma and myself. Mum is a fantastic cook with an innate food-pairing streak, which resulted in some unusual (for the time) but delicious dinnertime creations. I remember in particular one meal for Dads birthday when I was very young, for which Mum cooked lobster tail and fillet of beef. I could not believe the treat we were having, and this was the start of my passion for food.

After working my way up from dishwasher to commis chef in a Greek resort, then a winter season in a small restaurant in the French Alps, I returned to my home in the United Kingdom to find a serious job in a serious kitchen. I now wanted to be a pastry chef this world seemed to have order, extravagance and a particular skill set that appealed to my nature.

I started in the pastry department at the Savoy Hotel in London, which was where I really fell in love with my trade. My chef Anton Edelmann became an inspirational figure for me, as did William Curley, who later joined as head pastry chef. William inspired me to become better at my work; he had worked for many great chefs and I had never met anyone with such dedication and skill.

It was during a trip to Australia in 2005 that I fell in love with this country. I also had the great fortune to meet my wife Cath, who has also been an inspiration to me in my cooking. Cath was a chef as well and owned a number of successful restaurants in Australia at the time. She is now my business partner at Sweet Studio and she has taught me invaluable lessons in the savoury side of the kitchen and in business. She has a great passion for food and an excellent palate and food knowledge, which helps me bridge the gap between sweet and savoury.

I started my blog www.burchandpurchese.blogspot.com a few years ago, and enjoy recording news and the results of my research. The blog and feedback from readers have really helped me shape my business concept into what it is today.

Sweet Studio was always a dream of mine and I am thrilled to have finally opened the doors to an amazingly creative world of cakes, desserts, chocolates and ice creams. I am a perfectionist and strive daily to achieve extremely high standards. It is my wish to exceed the expectations of every customer who visits us here on Chapel Street in Melbournes South Yarra.