“My own version of tiramisu” This is how the Ibizan dessert chef Mariana Rey Tur defines her dessert ‘Invierno’, with which she has won third place in the ‘Pastelero Revelación’ contest at Madrid Fusión. A creation that is a sequence of ‘Otoño’ (Autumn), with which just a few months ago she won the award for best restaurant dessert chef in The Best Dessert 2021, and which falls within what is known as comfort food (homemade dishes made with high quality products and that point directly to the emotions and memory).
A dessert composed of mascarpone ice cream, hazelnut praline with muscovado sugar and vanilla, chocolate and tonka bean textures. “Everyone asks me about the tonka bean,” laughs the Ibizan pastry chef. And the fact is that the marketing of this product – “with a taste similar to vanilla, it gives very good flavor” – but not its use, is prohibited in Spain.
To participate in the contest she took practically everything from Ibiza, where she lives at the moment, for which she recently bought a cold box, she explains moments after packing everything back to the island, where this summer she plans to repeat in the kitchen of the hotel Destino, where she will head the dessert department.
When she conceived ‘Invierno’ and it was clear to her that she wanted to include ice cream, the Ibizan did not think twice and went to Asturias to learn how to make it at Le llamber, in Cangas del Narcea. “I spent a week with them, learning about the creation of ice cream, the formulation. Making a good ice cream is very complicated and they have been runners-up in the Spanish Artisan Ice Cream Championship”, explains Rey Tur.
The aesthetics of the dish is supposedly reminiscent of winter. “The bark of a tree, the white of the snow…”, comments the pastry chef, who emphasizes the importance of textures in all her creations “so as not to bore” the diner. “It was delicious”, Rey Tur assures before confessing that the last week before the contest she worked “against the clock” to finish polishing the recipe, with a combination of flavors that she loves and comforts her: “Chocolate, coffee and mascarpone”.
She tried to bring almost everything to the Madrid Fusión pavilion. She didn’t want to risk running out of time. “There was one mixer for six contestants,” he says. So she prepared everything she could at the home of a friend, a former classmate at the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, and she admits she invaded their kitchen.
At the verdict, the jury said they loved her entry. “But it must have had flaws because otherwise it would have won”, reflects the Ibizan, very happy with the victory of Ausiàs Signes. Mariana Rey Tur plans to include ‘Invierno’ in the menu for this coming summer. She also does not rule out continuing the sequence with the two remaining seasons.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.