Winter in the Swiss Alps is slim pickings for fruit, so our chefs have quite a challenge when sourcing seasonal ingredients like apples, pears and, quince for the delicious desserts they prepare for our guests.
Clementine’s are the ultimate festive fruit, so when our Head Chef, Adam, was thinking of creating a new clementine tartlet for this ski seasons guests he thought back to the summer when he used fig tree leaf to flavour cream. Our Pastry Chef, Lizzie Waite, had previously cooked with clementine leaf in the winter so together the team came up with using the whole clementine, similar to “nose to tail” cooking with animals, to eliminate any waste.
Starting with the leaf, the team dehydrate the clementine leaves, blitz them in to a powder and infuse them into a cream to create the creme diplomat filling.
The peel curd is then used to create a savoury curd, made from blanching the skin of the clementine.
The tartlet is topped with the compressed clementine segments which have been vacuum packed in a syrup made with a Swiss Valais fondant wine.
To finish, an iced sorbet is made from the remaining juice of the fruit and of course some honeycomb, made with local Verbier honey, for added crunch!
Using the whole fruit is better for the environment as there is almost no wastage and aligns with our values as sustainability is at the heart of everything we do here at The Lodge. Any food waste, even if it’s biodegradable, is still filling up our food bin which is taken away by a fuel driven vehicle. Having more eco-friendly dishes like this on the menu helps to cuts down on our carbon footprint and puts sustainability at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Bon appetite!