What Makes a Great Dessert?

The philosophy of what makes a great dessert is a simple one:To capture great flavors you must use fresh ingredients as they come ti to season. Every great cook/chef/pastry chef/baker works with the seasons, just like every great culinary chef. This means using certain fruits when they're at its peak, not because they just happen to be available. Working within the Seasons will make the job a lot easier. The flavors are already there-so making the most of it by matching complementary flavors. Having slight variations in a presentation that combines textures and temperatures. Along with a great dessert plate comes, begins marrying simple presentation with incredible flavors. With this also comes lots of hard work, which is the key to great success.

When creating these great delicious sweet treats I believe that using only as many ingredients as are necessary and no more, keeps the dessert not only simple, but also great tasting. If I am making Dark Chocolate covered Roasted Edamame Beans with Fleur De Sel for example, the secret is to find the best chocolate with the highest quality in cocoa beans (one that I currently use), then I would find the best flavored roasted beans available in the world from the market to represent it's flavor in the best possible way, accenting it with the finest Fleur De Sel. Melting the chocolate to a thick creamy consistency, while layering my molds with sprinkles of the Fleur De Sel and pieces of the roasted edamame, then topping them with warm sweet creamy dark chocolate.

Though I may present my Dark Chocolate covered Roasted Edamame Beans with Fleur De Sel with other elements on the plate and a fine wine to complement the flavors, its still all about the chocolate.

I've seen chocolates presented with lots of flashy elements on the plate, but they tend to forget about how flavors work together or whether not they add to the overall theme-too much show and not enough substance.

What makes a great dessert? For me its the subtle combination of flavors, texture, temperature and a streamlined presentation conceals its complexity-to me, thats wha makes a great dessert.

Let me hear from you on what you think?