From CODA to Berlin, chef René Frank serves a 6-course tasting menu, just dessert. Without using sugar. This and other addresses for those who do not resist sweets
From CODA to Berlin, dessert is the star, they make a six-course tasting menu, to be eaten for dinner. In place of dinner. And soon this will be a trend in the restaurant world.
Behind the restaurant (not confectionery!) In the super trendy neighborhood of Neuköllin in Berlin there are the award-winning confectioner, the chef René Frank, and the creative Oliver Bischoff, managing director of the "ett la benn" communication agency. Their idea is that dessert is no longer the conclusion of a journey, but the beginning of a new experience, a real one full meal with lots of drinks in combination, completely different from the usual. And they are not the only ones, dessert desserts have sprung up since 2016, almost everywhere in the capitals of gastronomy.
In 2016 CODA is born as a bar in which to conclude the evening in front of a mini-dessert tasting and develops in the current project, that is a real six-course tasting menu plus the combination of drinks and snacks at 98 euros, served at 7.00 pm.
At the third edition of the festival Gastromasa, which brings together international and local chefs every year in Turkey, explained on stage how "It is not the presence of sugar to define a dessert. There are many different natural ingredients that add sweetness, such as ripe fruit, grape juice, maple syrup or honey. And then there are innovative techniques with which to develop the inherent sweetness of the ingredients". Meanwhile he mentions the baklavaecucina of Japanese fermented rice conkogi from which to extract a caramelized sauce for a dessert based on ripe bananas and pear vinegar …
The dessert is modern
The dessert as we know it today, like all pastry, is the result of tradition, techniques and the French approach. Modern.
The dessert at the restaurant is that dish that arrives at the end, from the French "desservir", that is all that is served after having cleared the table: cheeses, fruit and desserts. It is a recent invention, which is affirmed at the end of the eighteenth century when it stops serving all the food at the same time on the table (in French) and introduces the service to courses, to the Russian. The sweet dessert as we know it today is then synonymous with aristocracy, then high middle class and only in the last century of popular food – before the industrialization of sugar production, sweet taste was luxury for few and the pastry a chapter of the gastronomic art.
CODA: a new idea of dessert not sweet
Frank was born a cook and became a pastry chef, arriving at the top of the Michelin-starred restaurant La vie di Osnabrück. From CODA he realizes his idea of a new dessert kitchen that does not compromise with industrial products: here everything is artisanal, without sugar for a trip to the origin of taste and a global experience for techniques and inspirations.
From CODA the dessert it is not sweet, is a taste experience that works on all five tastes and the five senses, with a pair of cocktails designed to accompany the dishes. Sugar is sought from ripe fruit, honey, maple syrup. Artificial flavors, colors, additives are obviously a taboo. Even white flour, dairy products, fats and white sugar are not used. In the kitchen you get the natural sweetness of fruit and vegetables, the flavor of ingredients such as anchovies or cheese, the bitterness from plants and herbs, the acid from citrus fruits or tamarind, the umami from foods rich in protein.
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