Verrine , the Art of food in a glass

Dessert in a pot

A Verrine is a beautiful,self contained masterpiece that gives you the opportunity to experiment with flavours,textures and presentation.The word verrine comes from verre , the french for a glass dish.

Verrines , or dessert in a pot...are the ideal entertaining food as most of the components an be assembled in advance so that you only have to add the finishing touches before serving.

It is a simple concept: Layered food, typically served as a starter or a dessert presented in a glass, but with a bit of imagination it could also be serve as a main course.This food is very trendy at this present time and it's called "pot" or "Dessert in a pot" in the UK as the words Verrine is French and not that easy to spell.

They are often filled with Mousses of fruit or custard and sold in supermarket in plastic glasses.

When you invent your own Verrines, consider how the layers will harmonise and textures will compliment.A Verrine can have many layers,my best advice is to aim for odd numbers, it's easier on the eye.

It is also fun to use kilner jar and steam the all content in the oven.

This is a fantastic party food (often called sweet in a pot),as it can be made in advance, just a little note if you don't want to feel silly..,.Depending on your glasses do check to see if a spoon or fork will reach the bottom of the Verrine to make sure that your guest can eat all the content.

I do sell some special glasses specialy design for verrine on my website on www.franckpontais.com.

Or buy my book "Terrines and Verrines" on line.        Enjoy and have fun!!

"Petit Fours"

or

Sweet delight

It is a small fancy biscuit,cake or item of confectionary. Petit Fours allow a chef to create pretty, intrigate and imaginative treats for their guest.they are often served in the banqueting and restaurant world. 

Petit fours are generally eaten in France with a short strong coffee at the end of the meal. They can also be a addition to dessert or used at a sweet canapes for your party.Savoury version also often called "Amuse geule" are served with Aperitif and cocktail at reception.

With a little care and attention, you'll find "petits fours" fascinating and very interesting.Their creation is endless and satisfying.Because they are small, I would recommend to buy the best ingredients available in order to produce some food full of flavour.

Simple Chocolates Florentin

Melt some good quality dark and white chocolate.In the kitchen,Iuse non stick sheets, at home you can use baking paper.Take about a tea spoon of dark chocolate and drop it onto the sheet, allow it to spread a little before adding a half tea spoon of white chocolate and use a small bamboo skewer to swirl the two together.Whilst still soft,set dried apricot,nuts or coconut shaving into the display.Cool down and serve with coffee.

Been a artisan charcutier and banqueting chef ,terrine making is one of my favorite subject , With a little bit of practice and great understanding of the utilisation of your ingredients, I can guarantee you some fantastic results and hours of fun.

The secret lie into the "Bonding ingredient" or the ingredient who will work as a "glue" and allow your terrine to stand firm and be easy to cut.

Extra virgin olive oil for example,if you leave a small bottle of olive oil on the bottom of the fridge overnight,the oil will set in the bottle and you'll have to immerge the bottle in hot water to liquified the oil and extra the oil.That just tell you that if you make a terrine using olive oil and store it in the fridge,it will set!

Mash potato, as another example, set also at cold temperature.I am sure that some of you made some mash one day and kept the left over in the fridge overnight, the following day the cold mash was set.This is not depending only on how much butter ( wich is also a bonding ingredient ) or cream you used making the mash but simply that the starch set at cold temperature.Once again if you use potato into your pressed terrines, it will set.

See bellow a Smoked Mackerel and trout terrine using potato and butter as a bonding ingredient.

Hello, Hello dear foodies.

Welcome to my blog where you'll find a lot of tips and recipes for your next culinary venture, I am always in my bubble of creativity and I am delighted to share and discuss with you all the endless possibility in terms of creation, production and service within the all food industry.

I am a Artisan Chef with a twist between a Butcher, a Charcutier, and a Traiteur chef. I find my job absolutely amazing and interesting, the subject is so large then I would need a least twenty life time to cover and learn all the food culture of the world.

If you wonder (And I know you do...) from where the "Kitchen Artist" cames from, it simply appears when I received the first feedback from my selfpublished book "Terrines and Verrines". I have to admit, that was a little bit strange as I had never consider been a artist in any form,but after consideration and advice I think it could be the right term and definition of what I try to acheive after all.

I really hope that you'll find my work interesting.

let's create together.