Chef Marc Verite _320
With Marc Verite, chef director at Warehouse Brasserie, Southport
MARC Verite is a chef with a very sweet tooth - which means he knows what people want when it comes to dessert.
Marc says: "Dessert is definitely the highlight of a meal for most people. It’s naughty, it’s tasty, people crave them, and we often find both men and women skip starters in favour of dessert.
"For me, creating desserts is fun time; it’s a chance to be playful with food as people tend not to take it seriously as a course."
He believes he has saved the pièce de résistance to a meal for his final week of recipes.
But, as always with Marc, he has opted for two of his favourite classic desserts but given one a modern twist.
This week he has taken the longest- standing recipe on the Warehouse Brasserie’s menu, sticky toffee pudding and decided to share his secret.
A traditional British dessert, sticky toffee pudding was created by a Lake District chef. Over the years it has kept its popularity and become one of the most sought after puds in the UK.
Marc says: "Sticky toffee pudding has stood the test of time on my menu. A bit like Marks & Spencer underpants, everyone keeps asking for it and it will never go out of fashion."
"I usually like to experiment and play with traditional recipes to bring them into the here and now. However, sticky toffee pudding is an exception to the rule. Play with this dish and you find you will be disappointed with the results. The key is to stick to the traditional recipe for the pudding and only experiment with the accompaniments like caramalised bananas and the butterscotch sauce."
For his other dish, Marc has demonstrated how some traditional desserts are perfect for experimenting with. He has created a dish with a contemporary twist with his vanilla pannacotta with pink Champagne rhubarb.
He says: "I have taken the old classic, rhubarb and custard, and made a dish that people just can’t get enough of."
Marc insists on using Yorkshire rhubarb for this dish: "It is grown in tunnels with cold soil and a warm environment giving the shoots a gorgeous red colour. This is a stark contrast to the bitter, green rhubarb that some people grow in their gardens which needs a bag of sugar to sweeten."