summer fruit desserts, in London.

I'm back working in a restaurant after what feels like many years. Moving thousands of miles can do that-- separate you from what you know, and remove the ground from beneath your feet. What was a recent experience can feel far away in lieu of disorientation.

For the last 11 years, the ground beneath my chef feet has been seasonal, local, mostly organic fruit; and my moniker, 'fruit-inspired pastry chef,' has been my guiding force. I have picked fruit, worked for farmers at favorite farmer's markets and eaten my weight in citrus and stone fruit many times over. I said for years anad years that I stayed in California for its gratuitous fruit array.

But here in London, fruit is an afterthought. Besides apples and pears in autumn, and gooseberries, elderflowers and strawberries in summer, which few do better than Britain, fruit comes from very far away and few people know when to buy it at its peak. Most fruit and vegetables are here year round, but flown in from various countries and continents catchers-catch can style, making fruit buying confusing at best.

And because few fruits are grown in British soil, they arrive with a high price tag. Using fruit as a primary focus for a plated dessert, here in London, is a bad idea, cost-wise. But also flavour-wise, because seasonal fruit in South Africa or Spain, or even a country as close as France, is probably not picked and shipped as ripe as one would hope.

All this said, I have found trusted places to buy UK seasonal fruit. And the restaurant I work for is produce-centric and we use an amazing produce purveyor, so I feel infinitely grateful/lucky to have well-chosen product close by.

That said, what desserts are on the horizon?

I'm thinking about tahini, white chocolate, bananas, tamarind, black sesame seeds, grapefruit; Thai coconut soup sorbet; manouri, strawberries & pink peppercorns; gooseberries, mint, rosemary, elderflowers & corn; mango inspired gazpacho; buckwheat & chocolate; brown butter, raw sugar, frangipane & nectarines; young coconut, black rice, caramel. For our retail shop I'm contemplating sandwich cookies, chocolate bouchons, Lamingtons, real graham crackers, verbena profiteroles, tart lemon drizzle cakes, peanut financiers, and rich bread & butter puddings.

Moving to a new place means thinking different. Cooking and baking professionally for a new public means learning about their collective palates and historical connections to food, fruit, baked goods, salt. I can still bring me to the table, but I have to compromise too. I can't move forward: careerwise, dessertwise, bakingwise; if I do not take into consideration new soil, new people, new fruit, new seasons, new pace, new price-point, new retail environment, new attitudes about communication/confrontation, new communication styles, new everything, really.

I look forward to changing styles a bit. While I will always be a fruit-inspired pastry chef, I look forward to thinking differently, in a new way, to meet my new surroundings and continue to grow. One can get too comfortable/ too ghetto-ized/ too smug in one's niche/ geographical area/ style. Stuck.

If nothing else, it should be interesting.

Comments

[Alicia]

Didn't you just publish your great love's pictures? What happened, Shuna? Please keep us in the loop. After all, we were privy to falling in love, bedroom photographs. And then??? Souffle deflated? Please do not leave us hanging.

[Hareesh.]

Shuna! u gonna rock with every thing new around u. as always am waiting to get inspired by your fascinating ideas & am sure you'll share it here!!

Hareesh!! amazing to hear from you sous! I hear you're 'off the hook' as well! so so nice to get a comment from you! I expect to see you here before July is out. You tell your beautiful wife and baby to make a plan! xoxoxox shuna

[Jenny]

I beg to differ a little although I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse, but I remember fondly eating cherries from my grandmas tree, all kinds of berries from their fruit cage, plums and apples and pears. My grandmas summer pudding was really special, and its so surprising to me that nasty white bread can be transformed into the most amazing simple, cheap summer pudding (I think this would be a fantastic addition to your menu with a shuna twist).

Best fruit thing is rhubarb crumble with custard. mmmm

In other news I've finally scored an unpaid work experience at a local bakery and I'm doing my best not to gag at the imitation butter and I've been told that pastry pride will 'change my life' which I'm pretty sure it will only change my life in terms of trying to avoid it.

Jenny, this is not about how there's no fruit in England, it's about how restaurants & pastry chefs might find it difficult to work primarily with it. Summer pudding sounds lovely although I'm certain I will never look to 'nasty white bread' to be a component.

It's unfortunate to me that a land so rich in incredible grain has taken so well to commercially produced bread.

I want to say congratulations on your new position but it is hard to know what terrible ingredients you will be learning in lieu of really learning. But best of luck! I have taken many strange jobs and turned them into learning experiences. ~ Shuna

[linda]

Man that must be difficult coming from San Francisco-heart of amazing fresh fruit. Right now here in British Columbia we are enjoying all the early summer berries and rhubarb and looking forward to apricots, nectarines and peaches. I love to make apricot pit icecream and serve it with baked nectarines and cherries with a dryish almond Italian kind of almond cake. All of the juices from the fruit and the oozing gooeyness from the icecream balance out the dryness of the cake.Yum Yum

[angela bortone]

what is in that box labeled mancha? i keep thinking that maybe its in Spanish [meaning stain] but that doesn't make any sense really.

Good Eye Angela! You know, that's a misspelling for MATCHA, aka green tea powder. I finally re-labeled it yesterday because it was making me crazy. Thanks for noticing too. ~Shuna

[Joao Loureiro]

Hi there. Agree entirely with you on your thoughts... And it's really hard to work with fruits in London. Where do you work by the way, I might say a visit. cheers

Hello Joao, right this very minute I am not working anywhere, but as soon as I am, I'll let everyone know... shuna