Essence: A New Way To Make Ice Cream (Una Nueva Manera de Cerar Helados)

Building on a career which includes work in the pastry kitchens of elBulli and The Fat Duck, Jesús Escalera, now the proprietor of Postrería in Guadalajara, Mexico, delves into a rigorous new approach to making and flavoring ice cream with an emphasis on aroma.

Escalera begins by offering an explicit paradigm for crafting formulas for quantity production, which draws on ingredient tables which detail water percentages, fat values, sweetening power, and other crucial values for common ingredients. This is followed by an ice-cream specific discussion of the theory of flavor, taking into account factors such as temperature and texture.

Most unusual is Escalera’s classification of aromas (e.g., green, floral, warm) and their impact on flavors. In more than 300 pages of recipes, he offers combinations which range from familiar (salted caramel) to intriguing: cucumber and peppermint, Camembert and Sherry, roasted wood. 

Many of these are employed in plated desserts which incorporate other elements to striking effect. One called The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, inspired by the painting of Hokusai, uses green apple ice drops, matcha yogurt ice drops, an effervescent kombucha foam, candied kumquats, sake jelly, kumquat cremeaux, matcha tea cotton cake, and a white chocolate canvas.

Ambitious and inspiring.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout. In English and Spanish