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Pastry chef isn’t sweet on sugar
Pastry chef isn’t sweet on sugar
Alejandro Briceño redefines the meaning of indulgence at South Beach’s afterglo restaurant with well-balanced desserts
Miami Beach, Fl – As far as pastry chefs go, Alejandro Briceño defies all confectionary logic.
The graduate of Barcelona’s Terra’ E’Scudella culinary school is a
pastry master with an aversion to sweets. These days, he is always
searching for ways to omit sugar from recipes instead of adding it.
The Venezuelan native chose to become a pastry chef because he considers it more scientifically precise than cooking.
“Desserts require a lot of technique and chemical-balancing,” he said.
But while science lured Briceño into the pastry-making profession, he
is effortlessly artistic, concocting indulgences such as this one: an
assorted selection of fruits and berries with champagne jelly, melon
sorbet and watermelon pop rocks.
“Champagne with the pop rocks makes you feel like you’re eating the bubbles of the champagne,” he said. “It’s a fun dessert.”
With the opening of afterglo, owner Tim Hogle has redefined the concept
of functional food by delivering inventive cuisine made from the most
natural ingredients the world has to offer.
Briceño, who joined afterglo just weeks before the beauty cuisine
restaurant opened its doors in August, is doing much the same, railing
against the conventional by removing preconceptions of what desserts
ought to look and taste like.
By manipulating their textures, infusing them with fragrant aromas and
incorporating color into each plate, Briceño builds unusual
combinations like onion-flavored sorbet, dark chocolate seasoned with
sea salt and olive oil, and ice cream laced with black pepper,
coriander seeds and lemon grass.
“With flavors, you only get five – sour, sweet, bitter, pungent and
salty,” he said. “You need much more to make a dessert complete. You do
it with more than chocolate and vanilla.”
Briceño admits his unusual approach to dessert can discombobulate most.
But sometimes, that’s what it takes to open minds to his unorthodox
creations.
“When your mind is confused, everything tastes better,” he said.
Briceño’s warm molten chocolate cake filled with an aromatic blue
cheese ganache, served with roasted pear compote, blackberry sorbet,
honey drizzle and black pepper is disarmingly decadent.
“When you eat this, you’re not going to feel like you are missing
something,” he said. “We’re trying to balance everything from what you
see, to what you smell, to what you feel in your mouth. It’s a perfect
composition.”
Even his garnishes are chosen with careful consideration and are designed to compliment Briceño desserts in both look and taste.
“I don’t just put something on the plate to make it look pretty,” he
said. “Everything is there for a reason. A piece of mint will bring out
the aroma, and it will make all the difference.”
As a general rule of thumb, sugar is the forbidden fruit in afterglo’s after-dinner indulgences.
Most pastry chefs would find the sugar restriction a barrier. But
Briceño, who has spent most of his culinary career creating sugar-rich
cakes, tarts and mousses, appears to be liberated by it.
“Before this, I was making desserts to please everyone else,” said
Briceño, who worked as a pastry chef at Coral Gables’ Cacao,
Intercontinental Hotels and Venezuela’s premier country club Izcaragua.
“Other restaurants play it safe. This is the first time I’m doing
desserts that I’m in love with.”
Located at 1200 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, afterglo serves
dinner from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Call (305)
695-1717 for reservations.
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Media Contact:
Krista Zilizi
Quantified Marketing Group
(706) 627-3204
(407) 936-1010
kzilizi@quantifiedmarketing.com
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