 |
| Photo by Sigurjon Ragnar |
So during my judging experience for Food and Fun in Iceland, our favorite dessert was the deconstructed carrot cake. The first time I tasted Chef Even Ramsvik's (Oslo, Norway's Ylajali) version at Seafood Cellar, I thought it was a very creative idea. He made his version with sea buckthorns and carrots, cream cheese with pistachios, a lemon thyme meringue and sea buckthorn jelly paired with a Glen Carlou Welder Chenin Blanc. My other judge-mate, Chef Marcus Jernmark from Aquavit, disagreed with me and said, the dish had been done thousands of times and was in Thomas Keller's cookbook. We liked Chef Even's food so much that we picked him as the finalist out of our 5 different restaurant experiences.
At the finals, I realized he was right when we had to judge 2 out of the 3 desserts of deconstructed carrot cake. Even's was the best in Iceland, but for me, his still doesn't beat my Aunt Linda's Award Winning Carrot Cake. I'm going to try to play around with the original recipe to see if I can make my own version of the deconstructed cake to wow my friends in DC. This will be perfect for a spring soiree.
