Desserts

Spanish restaurant desserts today often offer an exhilarating ride on the wild side. El Celler de Can Roca’s pastry chef, Jordi Roca, makes sweets that reproduce the aromas of popular fragrances. It’s uncanny! First, diners are handed a paper swatch scented with perfume. Then comes Roca’s composition of loquats, apricot sorbet, and warm peaches, layered with notes of honey, roses, lilac, and mallow, which perfectly matches the flowery fragrance of the Lancôme Trésor on the paper swatch. A mélange of eucalyptus, orange blossoms, nutmeg, and mint tastes like granita from heaven and smells like Ralph Lauren’s Polo. At Arzak restaurant in San Sebastián, a strawberry shake explodes in an extravagant cascade of pink bubbles, thanks to dry ice that chemically reacts with the milk. At El Bulli I ate a dessert that smelled like a pound cake, looked like a pound cake, and arrived in a loaf pan. One bite revealed a tromp l’oeil: a cake fashioned from frozen “air” that dissolved on the tongue—pastry station meets chemistry lab meets performance art.