This is the way to make this weird year a bit more sweeter. Let’s focus on the creativity of the top pastry chefs of the most luxurious hotels and take a tour around the world spotting some of the best Christmas desserts 2020!
From delicious frosty yule logs to decadent chocolate cakes, and from elaborate galettes to spectacular desserts this is the time of the year that the most talented pastry chefs try to reach the zenith of sweet cookery.
The Peninsula Paris’s Michelin-starred Executive Chef, David Bizet, will mark the season by revisiting the most iconic of French holiday desserts: La Bûche de Noël. Chef Bizet’s interpretation of the Yule log, La Bûche, will amaze diners with its originality and its deliciousness. La Bûche is made with a crispy base of grilled vanilla and roasted buckwheat, a soft biscuit, and a vanilla-white chocolate ganache. Inside this creation, however, is a salty-sweet surprise that is sure to delight: A creamy heart infused with the flavours of kiwi and caviar.
Anouar Ait Abdelaali, Executive Pastry Chef of Four Seasons Resort Marrakech, has re-imagined the iconic holiday dessert by pulling inspiration from Moroccan craftsmanship, or more precisely the art of wood carving with its distinct arabesque design that can be found in Moroccan architecture. An exclusive collaboration between Four Seasons Resort Marrakech and Four Seasons Hotel Casablanca, this year’s Yule log offers a gourmet yet surprising dessert for holiday meals. The Bûche Ar{t}abia features a chocolate moucharabieh concealing a cake made with nut biscuit, a crunchy layer of three types of pralines, and a walnut mousse filling.
Michael Bartocetti is once again shaking up the scene with inventive culinary concepts, creating an exceptionally creative and flavoursome Yule log that will please the most discerning of gourmands. Echoing the curved shape of a cazette, a variety of hazelnut from Burgundy, this exquisitely roasted chocolate hazelnut is one of the chef’s most prized sweet delights. The Yule log of Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris recalls the art of quilling, one of the Chef’s much-loved childhood hobbies that is popular during the festive season in the region of Lorraine.
The dessert features a fine layer of dulce de leche icing, encasing a cold brew coffee mousse with a delicate, subtle flavour. Like the multi-layered encasing, the heart of the log is composed of several layers with complementary flavours and textures. A creamy coffee and green cardamom with lemon notes add a zesty bite, while a melting praline with hazelnut flower and coffee beans gives a rich, natural flavour on the palate. Adding to the myriad flavours is a hazelnut crisp with fleur de sel, while a delicate gingerbread cookie lends a crunchy texture, recalling a warm and crackling fireplace in winter.
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The London hotel’s emblem has been reimagined as a chocolate hazelnut cake and is available at The Connaught Patisserie.
Le Bristol Paris’ Head Pastry Chef Julien Alvarez introduces yet another spectacular confection with his Yule Log cake for Christmas 2020. With a natural, autumnal aspect that evokes the glisten of the forest, the cake is inspired by the beloved chestnut dessert at the hotel’s triple Michelin starred restaurant Epicure. For his Christmas creation, Chef Julien Alvarez chooses a sea salt shortbread base to dress in walnut flavoured meringue and vanilla cream, enrobed by a light chestnut cream infused with wood essence and finished with chestnut nibbles.
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The new version of the famous sweet Rubik’s Cube by Cedric Grolet at La Meurice
For the festive period, Maxence Barbot, Pastry Chef at Shangri-La Hotel, Paris, has designed his own spectacular, gourmet yule log: The Garden in the Snow. Reminiscent of elegant formal gardens, like the one nestled at the heart of the Parisian establishment, a botanical nod to the passion of the previous master of the house, Prince Roland Bonaparte, its sleek, seductive shapes combine with contrasting textures, creating a mouth-watering masterpiece that is as eye-catching as it is appetising. Dreamed up by Maxence Barbot, but also intended as a cultural tribute to the Prince’s former home, this yule log brings to mind a winter garden dressed in its snowy coat. A marriage of tradition and innovation, this creation features a sweet chocolate cake base, then layer upon layer of sweet treats: a chocolate crisp, topped with a delicate 73% Altapaz chocolate cream, and a light, creamy mousse flavoured with Guatemalan cacao nibs. A smooth vanilla-infused caramel offers the final flourish, adding an extra touch of texture. Dainty candy spheres are sprinkled over the garden, like little Christmas decorations dusted with snow.
Pastry Chef Florent Margaillan, crowned French Dessert Champion 2010, has created a Yule log inspired by local Meyer lemons, highlighting the importance of citrus fruits in the area. Florent uses sustainably sourced lemons from Joëlle Etienne’s farm in the Var department. His log brings out the fruit’s delicate, juicy taste, featuring a shortbread, cream, biscuit, and smooth and silky mousse, all made with lemon, complemented by a centre infused with icy mint that is freshly picked from the Hotel’s herb garden.
Pastry Chef Jean-Marie Roger’s sweet Christmas creation is a traditional yule log with subtle notes of pineapple and Madagascan vanilla on a light coconut meringue.
Christmas is around the corner and in Italy, and Panettone is the main symbol of the Festive Season. Honoring this tradition, Four Seasons Hotel Firenze is happy to announce a collaboration between the Hotel’s Michelin-starred Chef Vito Mollica and the awarded Master Baker and Pastry Chef David Bedu, who worked with him for months looking for the perfect Panettone. “Panettone della Gherardesca” is made with a mix of top-quality ingredients, such as marrons glacées, oranges, raisins and dried figs macerated in Vin Santo, chocolate drops and vanilla beans. A crunchy frosting made with sugar, hazelnuts and almonds enriches the taste
Pastry chef Yann Brys. Best Craftsman of France in 2011, known for his emblematic swirl cakes, he leaves his signature on the sweet creations of the hotels Evok, Nolinski, Brach, Sinner and Cour des Vosges. For Epiphanie 2021, Yann Brys has created a floral Galette des Rois which consists of a puff pastry with Charentes butter, an almond cream flavored with flowers orange tree and raspberry jam.
The Chocolate Yule Log consists of a Chocolate biscuit rolled with dark chocolate butter cream while the White Chocolate and Berries Yule Log is made of White chocolate mousse, wild berries compote and crunchy biscuit.
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TheHotelTrotter.com is curated by greek journalist and fanatic hotel lover Eleni Stasinopoulou. With the eye of a fashion and lifestyle editor, Eleni hopes to inspire all connoisseurs of traveling, focusing on stylish hotel moments around the globe.
