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2010-03-30
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Etienne was formerly the Consultant Pastry Chef for EPOCH, but nowadays he has returned permanently and been upgraded to the post of Head Pastry Chef, as well as being a partial Owner! What good news! I was here to try mainly one thing - Chef Etienne's AWARD WINNING cake that won a 1st prize in France. Its called the MARIKE. As anyone who has eaten true Parisien -pastry desserts will know, a lot of the offerings there border on being heavy and quite very sweet, definitely not something I
I was here to try mainly one thing - Chef Etienne's AWARD WINNING cake that won a 1st prize in France. Its called the MARIKE. As anyone who has eaten true Parisien -pastry desserts will know, a lot of the offerings there border on being heavy and quite very sweet, definitely not something I envisaged before trying them! Paul's Lafayet and La Maison du Chocolat are prime examples of this! However, the Marike defers from the norm as it is super-light, spongy and most of all incorporates many layers of complex flavours beneath. No wonder it won the golden prize then! Apparently the Marike is made with a mixture of flavours including Coconut, Passionfruit as well as some Greenish Herb (Cilantro I believe), the latter seemingly a trend in French desserts nowadays. This was very enjoyable. The MOUSHOU cake in comparison was much simpler, it being more of a sponge wrap topped with some Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries. The sponge seemed a bit over-refrigerated hard in my opinion. Other cakes I've tried in both Epoch's are hit and misses, some are excellent whilst some can still be improved just slightly! ; )
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Coffee seems to have improved a fair bit in both Epochs compared to a few years ago too, albeit still inconsistent enough to be detectable in the palate!! My Espresso was mildly satisfying but it seemed like it had passed its prime drinking state, I think its more to do with freshness than the blending? Classifying everything 'imported' as being unfresh like some people love to is a bit of a blanket statement though, especially when you're assuming rather than trusting your own tasting sense. Afterall, people like Dane's fly in their freshly roasted coffee from Sydney ASAP from the roasting warehouse barely 1-2 days after roasting (don't forget, they're brothers), then, when it has landed in HK it is rested for 2-3 weeks to develop their full flavours and body before being sold or made into drinks. After that prime state, Dane's will not hesitate to throw away all of their passed Prime-State beans, even though they're still drinkable and some of them end up being used in Training courses usage. That's why Dane's is very ethical - and they also roast better than anyone else locally for the time being, plus Dane's actually have multiple blends so again, its a blanket statement to write off someone's efforts by referring to them as a whole rather than to the blend. To suggest anything otherwise is undermining that importer's ultra high ethical standards as well as roasting capability, no matter which camp of Coffee taste you're into. Unfortunately however, ILLY are great roasters too but their beans go stale way too soon (this part I agree with!) and local ILLY distributors don't seem to notice or realise the prime dates for their Coffee Cans before they should be discarded. Sometimes, if Epoch thinks about it deeply, how many people have really written positive things about your ILLY coffees? Nearly none. TO ME, EPOCH AS I MENTIONED BEFORE, HAS ON AVERAGE ONE OF THE BEST AND MORE TRUSTWORTHY TEAMS OF BARISTAS, AND I THINK THEIR SKILLS ARE BEING LET DOWN BY ILLY'S INCONSISTENT PERFORMANCES! ;-)
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*As a side note, some coffee loving friend of mine once told me that some Runner-up Barista works for Epoch and I trusted him completely! But it seems like we were wrong after I found out more about it.... That's why you can never trust anyone else, including yourself! I wonder if their latest Calm or Crazy Pudding's name has anything to do with my mistake ! * Its funny though!!
张贴
