David Vs Goliath

Sunday I was one of the 22 guests putting my feet under the table at restaurant L'epicerie du cirque in Antwerp for what is already the 4th edition of Pieter Declercq's dessert battle's. Basically a straight forward David vs Goliath type of concept where Pieter, the man behind Hot cuisine de Pierre, amateurfoodie and dessert enthusiast challenges the top pastry chefs from around the country in a four course dessert battle.

Today's battle will be themed as "A trip around the world" with dishes taking us from Africa to America and Oceania to our very own Europe. And with Sander Goosens as his opponent, Pieter is not only challenging a chef with a steady michelin background such as Pierre Gagniere and Saturne in Paris, but also with dessert restaurant Espai Sucre in Barcelona under his belt. So all sympathy aside, I wasn't expecting David to put down Goliath today. But all battles need to be fought so of we went for our first course.

We would be starting with 3 little pastry amuse bouche relating to the continents of Oceania, Africa and North-America. Pieter came with a pistashio "Lamington" cake with lime and chocolate, a combination of Kenyan coffee, chocolate and orange and a mini burger of sweet potato, cranberry and almond. All a bit disappointing in the sense that an amuse bouche should be sort of a light small appetiser that showcases the chefs style of cooking, something small thats fires up you're appetite for what's to come. In my opinion that was not completely the case, since all of them were heavy and very sweet. Sander came with green apple, lime and an infusion of ginger and lemongrass, a whisky cream with popcorn powder and a combination of apricot, confit lemon, carrot and saffron. And then we saw he is playing ball in a different league, although I was convinced that the first one was a good combination, it was still a bit disappointing cause the lemongrass was very overpowering. But the other two were well balanced, and solid dishes he clearly had pulled of before and became part of his repertoire. And for a reason, because especially the whisky and popcorn was a superb little dish. That made it round one in the books with a clear leader, Sander.

Next up would be Asia in combination with a wine pairing. Sadly enough I didn't pay that much attention to the wine so I can't really say a lot about it. First up, a crumble of oatmeal and ginger, mango, mint, coconut tapioca and Kampot pepper presented in a glass by Pieter. A whole lot going on flavour wise but it all seemed to be working well together. The crispy white chocolate square with Kampot pepper and lime on the top was very tasty and the pinch of salt in the crumble was a good but important touch. Only one negative aspect was that there was a lot of gelatine in all the layers which was not necessary because it was build up in a glass. Apart from that this was a solid dessert.

Sadly enough for Pieter, Sander came with was maybe the best dessert of the whole afternoon. A combination of mango, yoghurt and Indian spices. Topped with a curry crumble and coconut ice cream. Clearly something he did before cause the spices were balanced out perfectly against the refreshing coconut. The dessert was combined with a "Geuze" beer from Brussels, which gave a bitter note to the whole thing. Result 0-2 for Sander.

The third dessert brings us to South-America and started of with a tonka bean cremeux and chocolate mousse ball with marinated pineapple and chilli sorbet from Pieter. At first sight a weird combination but in the end not really a bad one. We know that chilli and chocolate works, and the tonka bean ended up fitting well in there. I think it could have been better executed but it was a solid combination. But of course Sander still had to come with his dish of Jamaican spiced pineapple, cacao nibs sablé, molasses ice cream and ginger foam. A very pleasant dessert, which brought me straight back to the spiced pineapple sorbet I made on the Christina O. I don't remember tasting or seeing ginger foam on the plate but nevertheless it was a superb dessert to finish off with. After voting the result is 0-3.

Finishing of we did with European truffles. Pieter has truffles with tobacco infused Scottish whisky who where good but a bit on the strong side just like the Swiss people would like it. Sander his truffles with chicory where visually very nice I thought, but extremely bitter. In my opinion the last point could have gone to Pieter but after voting I think it went to Sander, 0-4.

Eventually, four hours later we come to the conclusion that it was a great afternoon between chefs, foodies and enthusiasts with great conversations and some amazing desserts. So our hats off to Pieter for starting this event last summer and bringing it to what it is today. Even the local tv station come over so for all those readers who understand Dutch, this is a link to the video. For me it was a first, but it was definitely not a last. There are three more battles planned at the moment and a London themed battle against myself is under construction, so plenty to look forward to the following months.