The best of both worlds

Recently I found an old picture, let's say about two to three years old, of a cake I made for a Column that I was writing for a Dutch pastry magazine back in 2009.

In the column I was Talking about the importance of having an open mind for everything that crosses your path as a chef, because with an open mind this job can take you anyplace, anywhere at any given time, far away or close bye does not matter, it takes you to places that broaden your horizon, places that can change your vision, you meet new people, learn new things and at the end the only thing that matters is that you became a better chef along the way. Actually It's all about the philosophy of the more you see, the more you learn, and the more you learn, the more you will know. I strongly believe in that philosophy, Just to give you an example. Back in 2008 my life changed drastically, I was working in my dad his pastry shop, for the fun of it I entered the dutch pastry award, just to see where I was standing in my life. I won the Dutch pastry award and from one thing comes an other and suddenly I'm cooking my ass off in the kitchen of the French Michelin star goeroe Joel Robuchon in London. A whole new world opened up for me...and I embraced it as much as I could. Now 3 years later It brought me to different places, made me work with different chefs and gave me good as well as bad experiences, but at the end I learned and got better, and that's what I will keep doing until the day I die.

To get back to that cake, It kind off represents what I was just talking about. the philosophy of the open mind. It's a cake like you would find them in a pastry shop I used to work in back in Belgium , full of refreshing flavours like fromage frais, pink grapefruit and basil but it has restaurant techniques in it like I learned in London. The cake that gives you the best of both worlds and for the readers under you who speak and read Dutch (I know it a minority under you) here is the link to the PDF from the website were you can find the column and recipe. But feel free to email, comment or ask a question about the recipe and I will translate the recipe in English. Enjoy!!!

http://bakkersinbedrijf.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Recept-06_2010.pdf