FLAVORS
OPEN Season
The National Culinary Review | March 2011
With spring comes a host of
tantalizing ingredients with
which to craft desserts.
By Karen Weisberg
WITH SPRING in the air, pastry
chefs are ready to turn their backs on heavy,
hearty brioches of parsnips and beets and
run to the farmers market to gather rhubarb,
the first of the season’s bounty.
VACHERIN, CALIFORNIA-STYLE
At Paley’s Place in Portland, Ore., where
Pacific Northwest bistro fare is served in
the elegant setting of a Victorian home,
Sweet Sally’s offers traditional sweets
for the spring Jewish holidays, including
a selection of hamantaschen filled with
raspberry, apricot or nutella.
pastry chef Kristen Murray aims to let
Oregon’s local and seasonal produce shine
while highlighting the base ingredient.
Typically, Murray adheres to French
technique, but her Southern California
roots assert themselves in her sensitivity
to seasonality, as evidenced in her
Rhubarb/Celery Leaf Vacherin ($9), now
one of her spring signatures. “Rhubarb and
