Sea breeze: Bonhomme Exec Pastry Chef Shannah Primiano heads to the beach for this Porto dessert
Swimsuit not required.
When looking for inspiration for her desserts at Michelin-starred Porto, Shannah always tries to tap into what her savory counterparts are doing in the kitchen, whether it’s weaving in an ingredient or two from the dishes that come before, borrowing a culinary technique or dipping her toe (pun intended) into the West Town restaurant’s emphasis on the pristine seafood it gets from the coast of Portugal and Spain’s Galicia. Her popular Playa dessert manages to do all that and more.
“It is one of the desserts that, to me, most signifies what Porto is in regard to our dessert program as it utilizes many of the restaurant’s concepts, including conservas, seaweed and our wood-fire oven. I wanted to have a dessert that pushes the boundaries of what a typical dessert typically contains but have it balanced in story, composition, flavors and textures.”
When creating this dessert, Shannah began thinking about the way in which the sand meets the ocean. From there, she added components that specifically emulate those two things separately on the plate but in unison while eating. The “sand” is made with brown butter and honeycomb candy, which ironically is sometimes also referred to as seafoam candy. The “ocean” derives from nori seaweed and green tea gelée. Brine from La Brújula razor clam conserva offers a salinity as close to the natural ocean as one can get without actually being in it. Foam mirrors the foam of an ocean wave, which beautifully ties the entire concept together. It is then married by the other components — allspice confit acorn squash, wood-fired sweet potato ice cream, toasted barley foam, local wildflower honey, and a garnish of dried sea lettuce and sea beans — to make a lovely dessert that is light, sweet and salty.
To eat this dessert, Shannah recommends getting a little bit of each component in one bite. That way, she says, you really get the mix of sweet and salty where they complement each other versus overpower each other.
“At the beginning of my career, I wanted to be the reason someone finishes their meal with that smile you get when you eat a great dessert,” she says. “But as I’ve grown in my career and my passion, I find myself also wanting to create experiences and flavor profiles for people that may catch them off guard in a sweet item, opening up the world of pastry beyond just the basic staples and ideals.”
