Grapefruit Gala

Chef Jansen Chan is cooking

Floating island of grapefruit anglaise and Milk Chocolate Sorbet

Steamed Chocolate-Grapefruit cake

Tarragon-Grapefruit Soup with Mascarpone gelée and Dark Chocolate Sorbet

Chocolate-Grapefruit Tarts with Coconut Tuile

When you get an invitation with the Grapefruit Gala in the subject line, you can't hide your surprise. After the first few seconds of the unexpected email, you start wondering "what that can be". But if you stroll down, all your questions are answered. The Gala was sponsored by the TexaSweet Citrus (Aka a company promoting grapefruit from Texas) which wanted to impress and hopefully, convince everybody to eat grapefruit.

This amazing culinary adventure was held last Saturday at the French Culinary Institute where chef Jansen Chan, executive pastry chef at Oceana, worked up numerous treats combining the sweetness of the grapefruit with chocolate jubilation.

Guests had the tasty opportunity to see, smell and finally eat:

• White Chocolate Grapefruit Parfait with Honey Sabayon (one of my favorites, unfortunately no photo)



• Floating island of grapefruit anglaise and Milk Chocolate Sorbet (photo taken from blackberry)



• Steamed Chocolate-Grapefruit cakes



• Tarragon-Grapefruit Soup with Mascarpone gelée and Dark Chocolate Sorbet



• and another favorite, Chocolate-Grapefruit Tarts with Coconut Tuiles

Take a look at the pictures of those wonderful creations. Not only the desserts had the presence; their balanced taste was perfect for a cold, winter afternoon in NYC together with the grapefruit inspired cocktails!

(and as always, my camera batteries died after the third recipe so some are taken from my blackberry).