Pierre Herme – Desire

This is the second of my Pierre Herme series. As I mentioned in the first entry, I plan to eat all of his creations, or whatever is deemed worthy for sale at his Tokyo Aoyama store, one at a time. What I didn’t realize was how complicated it was to time these tasting events. Several factors are in play. First, I must not choose a day when I have homemade dessert waiting in the fridge (very rare these days since I’m taking cooking lessons twice a week). Second, I must purchase the PH dessert at a reasonably early hour to have ample natural lighting so I can photograph these pieces or edible art under optimal conditions. Third, it must be on a sunny day, for the same reason mentioned above. When you combine all these factors, and throw in the days when what I’m making for dinner simply doesn’t measure up to PH’s caliber, we’ve got an almost three-week gap between the first and the second tasting. But alas, the perfect day for another PH masterpiece finally came.

This time, I bought a piece from his 2005 Spring collection called Desire.



Don't you feel the desire just by looking at it? I love how the silky dome of lemon cream glistens under the light and oozes fresh flavors of spring before you even taste it. Hidden underneath the milky white cream is a layer of bright red strawberry jelly. The combination of strawberry and lemon is heavenly enough, but to tame the tartness, a layer of sweet banana cream is added for good measure. Then, to counter all the soft-textured creams and jelly, a flaky tart crust on the bottom provides a welcoming contras. It’s the perfect harmony of flavor and texture.

Oh, and let’s not forget the cut strawberry laid at an perfect angle on top of the creamy dome of desire either. A masterpiece in the art of dessert presentation indeed.

Jason was very impressed with it and kept on asking if I could reproduce it at home. Oh honey, while I am immensely flattered by your confidence in my patisserie skills, I regret to tell you that the closest I could get to this tour de force was probably putting the lemon cream, the strawberry jelly, and the bananas in a bowl and stir in some cut strawberries. Now that just wouldn’t be the same, would it?