Description

Cosmopolitan Cafe's Craig Bero dresses up an all-time summer favorite at Taste of Tribeca. This Corsica-meets-America Strawberry Shortcake is ripe with organic strawberries, chestnut honey, Eau de Vie and a hint of Absinthe.

Transcript

Divya Gugnani: Hi! I am Divya Gugnani and we are at Cosmopolitan Café in New York City in search of some comfort food with international flair. So let's go behind the burner and meet the chef. Hi! I am here with Craig Bero, Craig what are we making today? Craig Bero: Today we are making a classic American Strawberry Shortcake. Divya Gugnani: One of my favorites for the summer. Craig Bero: Oh great! It's influenced by what I grew up with my mom's strawberry shortcake and then we are blending in some Corsican influences of marinated eaux de vies with the berry. First we are taking a classic strawberry biscuit that will be butterflied open, we start with a génoise, a strawberry mousse. This can be done with a butter milk biscuit or any type of a short bread that you want to use, they are just coming into season, so of course we like using all organic and -- Divya Gugnani: It's got that strawberry summer flavor and so what did you put in there. Craig Bero: Okay, this is a marination influenced by the marquee and the wild flowers in the Mountains of Corsica, we were up there couple of weeks ago picking alpine strawberries. Divya Gugnani: So of course it meets America. Craig Bero: It's a chestnut honey, we are using a little bit of a home-made absinthe, an eaux de vie, and there is vanilla bean, a little cardamom, little bit of cinnamon, we love that macerate for a couple hours, so I will just spoon that over, the emphasis is always on seasonal berries. I am going to give it a little dash of a sauce which we just stick into little bit, this is a wild strawberry sauce, gives a little bit of texture, just to dash a sweetness. I don't like using any sugars, we just use a natural wild chestnut honey, it's going to get a dollop of fresh cream. We start off with the vanilla bean. So this is macerated, okay in an aged rum and this is Madagascar vanilla. Divya Gugnani: Oh yeah! Craig Bero: So you can really see that. You can pick up the incredible, it mellows out the flavor, so that's what thickens it up and gives just the slightest hint of the vanilla, just a little bit of a fresh garnish or fresh berries, take a nice fresh strawberry, just butterfly that open, it will be beautiful to give it a fresh sprig of wild mint. Sharing strawberry shortcake with a beautiful woman on a spring day, right? Divya Gugnani: It's really beautiful, it tastes great. Thanks so much Craig for having us. Craig Bero: My pleasure! Divya Gugnani: Stay tuned to behind the burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.