Friedrich Rinner

“If you can read a newspaper through a sheet of freshly rolled-out strudel dough, then you know you’ve made the dough properly,” advised Friedrich Rinner, a pastry chef from Austria, the home of both the dough and the rolled-up pastry it becomes. And, just so you know, thin-enough-to-read-through is 1/10-millimeter thick. Friedrich made his first strudel at home when he was just 8-years old. The fact that he burned that strudel did nothing to stand in the way of his becoming a master of the national sweet, as was evident when, after the rolling the dough to get it moving, he threw the dough pizza-style with the nonchalance and grace of someone who knows a movement to its core. We were treated to three strudels, apple, of course, chocolate and quark, a fresh cheese that, depending on its fat content, can resemble ricotta or cream cheese. This would be the first, but not the last, taste of quark we’d have during the Retreat and for many it was a new ingredient that presented new possibilities.

Wolfgang Ban

Wolfgang Ban

Biting into one of Wolfgang Ban’s soft, chubby, sweet and comforting dumplings it was easy to understand not only why the sweet has had enduring appeal, but why the word “dumpling” has become a term of endearment. Wolfgang, the pastry chef to the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York City, prepared two very traditional poached dumplings and served each with a sauce of a type currently much in vogue. The apricot dumplings were based on a starchy potato dough flavored with lemon zest and vanilla but, as is usual with Austrian dumpling dough, devoid of sugar – the sweetness in a dumpling comes from the filling and the sauce, in this case an elderflower sabayon. Equally delicious was a quark dumpling served with a cabernet-sauvignon syrup, cassis berries and a spoonful of lightly sweetened sour cream. The dumplings were simple and homey, but their simplicity suggested they could be prime candidates for re-interpretation and a little dressing up.

Oriol Balaguer

With the wildly innovative food of Barcelona very much in the news these days, it was a thrill to see and hear Oriol Balaguer, a pastry chef who is making some of that news. Oriol, 33-years old, is the chef-owner of Estudi Xocolada (the Chocolate Studio) in Barcelona. An art-school graduate, he worked at the Michelin three-star Restaurant Martin Berasategui and with the now almost-mythic Adria brothers, Ferran and Albert, at El Bulli before opening his studio three years ago and taking center stage in the Catalonian city’s culinary avant-garde. In many ways the concept of Estudi Xocolada is as innovative as the sweets that come out of it. While a full line of cakes, pastries, desserts, ice creams and chocolates are available from the studio, enter the boutique and the only thing on display is the chocolate bonbons. Whatever you want is yours for the asking, but you must wait – each sweet is made to order, usually within hours, but never within minutes. The concept, as Oriol described it, is the same as that of a restaurant: You make a reservation and you get your food. In this way, the chef ensures that everything is delivered when it is freshest.

And about those chocolates: They caused a sensation at the conference. The chocolates are beautifully finished – you can just about see yourself in the high-gloss shell; elegantly shaped; and potently flavored. We tasted three chocolates – black truffle, saffron and one made with the equivalent of Pop Rocks – and each was so surprising that as we were sampling you could hear gasps and sighs and giggles.

Oriol Balaguer with Interpreter Daniel Olivella

During this same presentation, we were able to learn a little more about the kinds of desserts the chef offers at the his studio, first, through a film made for Spanish television that showed the pristine, modern studio in action, then through a demonstration of the chef in action. What Oriol demonstrated was a dessert called The Seven Textures of Chocolate in which, in one spoonful, you were able to taste and, in this case, very much feel, frozen chocolate, chocolate in its liquid state, a light, airy mousse, a slip-though-your-teeth gelee, a ganache, a cookie with some crackle and the snap-at-a-bite sheets of tempered chocolate that encased the other elements. “Tour-de-force” was the verdict.

On Saturday, as the assembled chefs were preparing their offerings for our grande finale tasting, Oriol Balaguer did another demonstration and had the chance to speak more informally with participants. Telling us that he is “motivated by simple things,” he presented a very simple dessert based on the traditional after-school snack his grandmother would give him – bread and chocolate. As a child, the treat would be a piece of bread moistened with local olive oil and topped with chocolate. What Oriol served was a quenelle of dark chocolate cream surrounded by a little Catalan extra-virgin olive oil and crowned with a slice of crusty country bread, which he had frozen, sliced on a meat slicer and toasted. Like many of his desserts, this one was finished with a few grains of Maldon sea salt, what the chef called “the spice of life,” and, like all of his desserts, it demonstrated something Oriol had said about himself: “I always respect tradition, but I have fun with it.”

Oriol’s three other desserts were just as startling. His Strawberries and Cream were offered in a sugar box that was spiced and speckled with black pepper. Inside were a balsamic reduction, sugar-macerated strawberries, vanilla whipped cream and blood-orange granita. The chef described his Dessert from Cordova as a partnership between the sweet and savory sides of the kitchen, its elements a brunoise of lemon confit, Pedro Jiminez gelee, honey gelee, olive oil, a balsamic reduction, orange sorbet and, naturally, Maldon sea salt. “The salt ties the dish together,” the chef told us. Finally, there was the stunning Sydney Opera House Cake, a dessert inspired by Oriol’s love of the building’s shape. The main flavors of the cake were yogurt and raspberry, a bright, fresh and not-very-sweet combination, and the undulating curves of the famous Opera House, which so inspired Oriol, were represented by quenelles of thick Greek yogurt and white chocolate.

After this demonstration and particularly after the tasting, it was not surprising when he confided, “I am addicted to my profession – I think about pastry 25 hours a day."