NOBU ND Station Two - Pastry: Writing in Chocolate

At ND the Salad station also (wo)mans the Pastry station on Sundays and Mondays. That's TWO stations to prep and work for service (plus the evil raw bar). A lot of work, but also a chance to play with sweets, which is rare for a hot kitchen chef.

The real pastry chefs create the dessert menu and produce the items, so at service it's more an assembly of pre-made items in a pre-designated plating arrangement. There are usually about 10 dessert items that change seasonally. These are the ones I remember...

Pastry Station
Pineapple Trio
Bento Box
Coconut Jasmine Bomb
Japanese Beer Ice Cream Parfait
Fuji Apple Harumaki
Kabocha Mascarpone Torta
Chocolate, PB & Banana
Mochi Ice Cream
Fresh Fruit Plate
Ice Cream and Sorbet

The one skill I'm grateful to have learned in Pastry is writing in chocolate. It took me a few weeks to get the hang of it, but later I actually enjoyed it. It forced me to slow down and make a focused effort to artistically move melted chocolate across a cold plate. And you gotta love those tiny conets.

Standard chocolate greetings: Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Bon Voyage, and in one instance...


...Testicles (seriously).