Chocolate Cakes - Latest Shots

We have been very busy recently fulfilling chocolate cake orders, these are the latest shots of the most recent.

The Composition Of Milk

The above information is concerned with the composition of milk. On of the most common ingredients in the kitchen, milk is a versatile and delicious product. This is part of our continuing series of close up looks into the raw ingredients we use every day.

(P.S. The above image of milk was taken from http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/news/bct/tag/milk/)

Here Comes The Science Part!! - The Physics Of Whipped Cream

As you know, we at Burch & Purchese are always interested in 'why?' and 'how?' things work in the kitchen. We read a lot of books and conduct research of our own to try and improve all areas of our work. This is an interesting article we have come across from the NASA website explaining the physics of whipped cream. Click HERE to read the article. Happy researching!

Burch & Purchese Dishes - 17 Chocolate & Hazelnut Spread On Toast

This dish is meant as an amuse or pre dessert and was inspired by most kids' love of Nutella on toast. We have recreated this flavour sensation using modern techniques and ingredients. There are three components to the dish, toast pieces, chocolate & hazelnut spread powder and nitro frozen chocolate & hazelnut spread pearls. A spoonful of all three together leave an uncanny reminder of thick toast smeared with Nutella. The toast component was created by toasting one slice of bread and freezing it, we also froze a slice of bread (un-toasted) and then blitzed the pieces in the MyCook. The chocolate components were simple, we mixed tapioca maltodextrin into our own brand chocolate & hazelnut spread until powder was formed. This application was reserved in the fridge until serving. The frozen component was achieved by mixing a little hazelnut oil into our spread and dripping pearls into liquid nitrogen. These to were reserved but this time in the freezer. To serve we placed a spoon of the blitzed mixed breads and then spooned the maltodextrin powder on top, to finish we spooned the pearls and serve immediately. The frozen pearls melt upon contact with the tongue as does the powder, this leaves the sensation of a smooth spread in the mouth and the 'toast' connects the senses and brings us straight back to our childhood. Great fun and this light dish won't spoil your appetite!

Beautiful Desserts At Aria Sydney

We just wanted to say what a lovely lunch we had at Sydney's Aria Restaurant this week. The restaurant is stunning and we enjoyed all of our courses and the interesting wine matches. Obviously we made sure we had a special look at the desserts and we report that they were beautifully presented and packed with flavour. Well done the boys and girls at Aria, we look forward to returning very soon.

Guns For Show, Knives For A Pro!!

We just wanted to show you our new ceramic knives, which we just can't put down at the moment. These are quality and don't need sharpening. Made by Japanese company Kyocera Advanced Ceramics, these tools slice through fruits so effortlessly. The blades have been designed with such precision that we have noticed the cell membrane of fruits and vegetables have much less stress and damage to them after slicing with one of these. This is evident in apples, which don't seem to go brown once cut now! The knives are super light due to the lack of metal and they are our favoured tools for sashimi or fruit slicing (see above)! If a bad workman blames his tools, then we have no excuse now!!

Burch & Purchese Dishes - 16 Flavours Of Summer Trifle

With the great weather we are enjoying lately here in Melbourne, our attentions turned to utilizing the excellent summer fruits available to us. Although its still a bit early for cherries and other stone fruits, the berries are coming through beautifully. This dish encapsulates the essence of summer with a modern interpretation of the classic 'pud', trifle. Although this may look unlike any other trifle you may have seen or eaten, the basic essential components are all there. We still have custard for example, this is now in the form of a foam. Cats tongue sponge is still present in the form of an ice-cream and the classic sherry flavour is now made into a jelly. We had fun coming up with this dish and in many ways it reminds us of home, although I don't remember Mum with 20 litres of liquid nitrogen in the kitchen! This dish is enhanced with flavour packed seasonal raspberries, a dried meringue of berries, dehydrated raspberry sponge and aerated white chocolate. Hopefully you enjoy these pictures and if you want to try the dish out it is now on the degustation menu at No.35 restaurant at the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne where we have been doing some work.