“This is a simple dessert. You’ve not catalogued a dessert yet, right? This one’s delicious.”
Andrew Vella’s approach to his restaurant is not much like other local Chefs. He sees things in a very different way, I can’t quite put my finger on it; but it surely must stem from the fact that he’s highly intelligent.
It comes across through the ease in which everything is presented at Rebekah’s, making a highly robust dish look so simple; or a simple dish developing highly robust flavours. Rebekah’s Catalogue Entry No. 1 is a personification of this skill, and is modestly called; apple tart and ice-cream.
The Story
Inspired by Chef Mickael Viljanen’s Apple Tart Tatin, this dish is a celebration of childhood memories. For Chef Vella, interpreting a dish by the 2-Star Chef at Chapter One in Dublin is all about honouring the industry. The heart of this dish is elevated nostalgia.
Drawn to the simplicity of the dish; Chef Vella utilises similar technique while adapting the flavour to the Rebekah’s story. A timeline of texture, from the flaky base of the brique pastry to the unctuous thickness of the white chocolate chantilly pumps along the circumference; every layer holds its own personality texturally and in flavour composition.
The star of the dish, the apple, is manipulated in two ways. First as a pressed apple, cut into rounds after being sliced thin on a mandolin, dusted in icing sugar and baked for 1 hour at 140°C, then glazed in caramel. The second process makes use of the baked apple trimmings that are further manipulated into a sauce with additional caramel for textural elevation. This dish is brought together with a Glenmorangie seasoned egg-based ice-cream with an accurate gluey viscosity and tonka bean nuttiness.
Chef Andrew Vella’s 1st entry into The bajtra Catalogue is apple tart and ice cream.
Tasting Notes
This dish was chosen to be added to The bajtra Catalogue because it captures the heart of Rebekah’s kitchen: memory. In tasting the dish, you are taken back to a cosy Sunday afternoon, the distinctive smell of cooked apples making its way to your blanket-covered lap in the form of your mother’s homemade apple tart. This dish is all about emotion and surrender.
Even though it seems a simple enough dish; the pressure in creating this is agitated by Viljanen’s primary reinterpretation of the memory; but still more poignant in pressure: your mother’s; or worse yet, your grandmother’s version. This dish is all about reliving something pure through the humble apple.
Playful texture in the brique pastry’s crisp contrasted with smoothness and bite; gives this dish an elevated mouthfeel with further enhancements in flavour through the tonka bean’s warm nutty vanilla notes, the richness of the buttery caramel and the seasoning of premium whiskey and rum; all contrasted with the delicate sumptuousness of the white chocolate chantilly embellishing the tart.
