A dessert-only menu sounds like a sugar-addict’s dream. And when I heard the concept – more common in Europe than the UK – was making its Scottish debut in Glasgow, alarm bells rang. After all, the city surely has the sweetest tooth of the entire nation, not to mention diet-related health issues like obesity and Type 2 Diabetes. Was someone having a laugh?
That irony, as it turned out, was precisely the point. Bearsden-born pastry chef and Great British Bake-Off Creme de la Creme winner Helen Vass’s first-ever pop-up, sweetly entitled Dulce, simultaneously addressed and curbed my qualms. Her three-course afternoon menu, with an amuse bouche and macarons to top and tail it, was expertly balanced.
Presented to 30 guests around the kitchen table of the stunning Studio93 in the city's West End, it contained olive oil, sea salt, mascarpone, sourdough, seasonal fruits and high-end 67.4 per cent cacao. It was light, well textured and bursting with flavour. Sweetness was checked with saltiness; fat with whipping, rather than double, cream. Helen's mastery of technique was evident. All dishes were her own creations, with influences from Europe’s finest pastry chefs.
A mango sphere, made in front of us and served on a spoon, kicked off proceedings. There followed a pretty-as-a-picture raspberry, marscarpone and pistachio entremet complete with pipette of Chambord, then a salt-sprinkled chocolate cremeux quenelle paired with an olive oil ice-cream and sourdough toast; and to finish an olive oil cake with white choc cremeux, caramelised muesli, tart mandarin foam and mandarin granita.
None of us felt bloated or sugared-out; rather, we were exhilarated. And proud the citizens of Glasgow had willingly supported Helen's bold move: at £45 a head Dulce had sold out within days of going online.
A few weeks ago, when I first met Helen – the pastry chef at Number 16 restaurant on Byres Road who trained at City of Glasgow College, worked in Barcelona for seven years, and still pays her own way to attend training courses at high-end pastry schools in Barcelona – she told me she too had reservations about mounting such a venture in Glasgow. Though for a different reason than mine.
She was worried people wouldn't pay that much, and fretted there wasn't a market in Glasgow for high-end (Michelin star?) patisserie like hers. Perhaps she should do it in Edinburgh?
She was frustrated Glaswegians seem unwilling to pay more than £2.50 for a pudding or pastry, and consider £4 extortionate for a stunning hand-crafted piece. She herself finds the desserts in Glasgow far too sweet, to the extent “all they taste of is sugar". With her pop-up, she wanted to show good patisserie “doesn’t make you feel your insulin levels shoot up”.
Even though Glasgow doesn't have a Michelin-starred restaurant, there's evidently an appetite for top-quality cooking like hers. The event last weekend was such a resounding success she’s now planning a second pop-up in October.
I'm pleased she took the plunge, and thrilled to have been in at the beginning of what I believe will be a massive success both for her and for Glasgow’s culinary reputation.
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