Heat wave: when chefs find ways other than ice to cool us down

The granita-snow

This is the refreshing feeling of this summer. In Paris, Jade Genin, the daughter of the great chocolatier Jacques Genin, was inspired by Japanese kakigori to revisit the texture of granita. If in the land of the rising sun, this dessert is prepared with crushed ice that is soaked in syrup, the chef has chosen to serve recipes using only plant products, including milk and containing no eggs. His knack is to very finely grate ice cream with very little sugar. The sensation is super light and highlights only the flavor of the chosen fruit. For lemon or unsweetened fruit, Jade Genin adds meringue to find a perfect balance with acidity.

The summer blue latte

Since the opening of his coffee shop in Paris, which is a new benchmark for savoring the delicious éclairs that have made him successful, Christophe Adam has also demonstrated how “porn food” – these foods that drip and rely on the profusion of ingredients , can also be successful in terms of taste. A gourmet flower that opens when you pour the hot chocolate, a tiramisu that can be eaten and drunk in an edible cup… And for this summer, the former chef of Fauchon is deploying the most beautiful assets of the latte in recipes super aesthetic. This summer, the milk drink takes on a blue color in support of an infusion of butterfly flowers, a variety from Southeast Asia that is said to have soothing properties. The chef adds green tea, oat milk and a little honey to obtain this glass with a sculptural content, served with lots of ice cubes.

Pastry drinks

At the counter of the Ritz, the pastry getaway of the chef of the prestigious palace on Place Vendôme in Paris, invented pastry drinks. His idea: to reproduce all the sensations of a dessert, from crunchy to fondant, while promising to use only a straw. Le Bressan composes its recipes with a smooth and biscuity whole milk, an ultra-light whipped cream on which is placed a dash of chestnut, vanilla or plain caramel. You can also add toppings such as nougatine chips, depending on the recipe chosen. Last year, we enjoyed the revisited strawberry pie which was certainly not lacking in freshness. This summer, we’re going back to the basics of the chef’s pastry, in this case his signature dessert, the marbled cake. The recipe that helped establish François Perret as a reference is reproduced entirely in a liquid version. To offer this sipping experience, the drink incorporates a crispy cocoa crumble into its biscuity milk. Count 15 euros per drink.

The soft serve

A traditional American frozen dessert recipe, the “soft serve” is a very airy ice cream in which air is injected. Impossible to form a ball with this type of recipe that is served by pulling the handle of a machine down. The soft serve is very similar to Italian ice cream, which is also prepared using this cooling device, but the American recipe contains more sugar. In Paris, we melt for the recipe from across the Atlantic. At Petit Bao and Gros Bao, the soft serve is savored sweet and savory in a peanut flavor and pimped with chili oil. On the left bank, the Meshuga deli, which takes up the codes of American delicatessens to serve lobster or pastrami sandwiches, prepares a milk ice cream topped with a caramel or chocolate coulis and topped with a few roasted peanuts.

The rectangle of ice cream from Armenia

Do you know spitak? It is a piece of frosted cream that is wrapped in paper and eaten in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. It is compact enough to be grabbed. At Mantchouk, in Paris, you can vary the pleasures by tasting this specialty prepared with pistachio, milk, rose, strawberry, chocolate or even orange blossom. Count 5 euros the spitak.