Let’s face it – great desserts are the domain of professional chefs and restaurants. It’s all about economies of scale. The home cook, as good as you are, is normally constrained by time. It’s hard to prepare five delicate components in an hour, and kind of pointless for six people. Restaurant chefs, on the other hand, have all day to prepare fastidious pastries, sorbets, gels, sauces, syrups and foams, and then spread them out efficiently over 80 plates. It makes sense.
Good home cooks excel in simple desserts – and there are endless combinations of butter, sugar, chocolate, spice, fruit and cream from around the world. Although, to be honest, the European countries still have the edge – there are only so many times you can play with food colouring and gelatine, and get away with it.
As much as we’d like to serve Christine Manfield’s desserts at Pinetrees, we know our strengths, and keep our desserts relatively simple. A typical Pinetrees menu will have two desserts. You might try the chocolate tart, poached apricots, coconut panna cotta, or blood orange sorbet. Our repertoire is long, diverse and very tasty.
