Crumbs in my 'Stache: Cioccolato’s Ortega readies for international dessert battle

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

By Planet User

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Oscar Ortega has not gotten a decent night’s sleep in weeks.
Ortega, owner of Cioccolato, Jackson’s premier maker of gourmet chocolates, cakes and other confections, recently worked long into the nights, practicing with an assembled team of pastry chefs in preparation for the International Confectionary Art Competition, happening this weekend in Paris.

Ortega is captain of the Mexican Pastry Team, a group of Mexican-born chefs and confectioners occupying high positions at some of North America’s tonier resorts and restaurants. He has also helmed an American team at the World Chocolate Masters.
“We’ve been preparing for almost a year and three months,” said Ortega last week, his left hand temporarily dyed orange from colored confectioner sugar. “Developing a recipe for a dessert can take six to eight months.”

This year’s contestants in the International Confectionary Art Competition – or Mondial des Arts Sucres, in French – represent 12 countries around the world, with a number coming from Asia and Western and Central Europe (the U.S will not compete this year, but Canada will).

Over three days of competition, teams will produce a number of desserts from tartlets to chocolate bonbons, petit fours (small cakes), decorative chocolate pastillage work, and, of course, the elaborate creations that turn colored sugars into soaring artistic works of confectionary design. Those showpieces are judged on aesthetics and are not usually eaten. An international panel of judges – all either master chefs or former world champions themselves – will officiate the competition.

Using an adopted theme of “tropical flavors,” coupled with chocolate, which is, after all, indigenous to Latin America, the Mexican team should have to their advantage some flavors central to the Mexican diet and culinary identity.

For a plated dessert entry, Ortega and team will prepare financier, a light cake similar to a sponge cake, finished with browned butter ice cream and pears poached in cabernet sauvignon, while a banana crème brûlée, served in a glass, will vie for honors as a “drinkable dessert.”

Ortega perfected a petit fours recipe using goat milk chocolate, ganache (made from heavy cream and dark chocolate) and mango. The team’s chocolate bonbon entry is infused with saffron and filled with caramel. Mexican-style cinnamon and vanilla will be used in a number of the desserts.

In an expensive feat of logistics - the team has sponsors, but does not receive money from the Mexican government - the team must travel with a heavy payload of mixers, bowls, torches and other tools necessary for world-class dessert making.

Ortega feels – more than he ever has, he said – that this year’s Mexican team and its menu of sweet creations have a shot at placing high, perhaps even at winning the exalted competition outright.

“I believe we could be in one of the first four places,” he said. “We have a great team and everybody’s been giving 100 percent. But you never know; Japan is pretty good, France is pretty good.”

Photo by Andrew Wyatt
Oscar Ortega puts the finishing touches on a sugar statue that he will build again in France while competing in the Culinary Olympics.

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Crumbs in my 'Stache: Cioccolato’s Ortega readies for international dessert battle | Planet JH News Article: Restaurants And Dining

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