Pâte de Fruits

Traditionally, pâte de fruits are fruit purees gelled with pectin, coated in sugar, and served as a type of soft fruit confection, or jelly, on the mignardise tray (the bite-sized treats that come at the very end of the meal). But we tend to serve them in the beginning of the meal as an early cocktail course. This part of the menu was conceived by chef de cuisine Joe Anthony, about three years ago. When the influx of gelling powders like agar and gellan—technically called hydrocolloids, but just think of them as thickeners—appeared with the Modernist Cuisine movement, he thought we should see how we could put them to use. Currently under the direction of sous chef William Cesark, the following recipes are primarily his creations, incorporating all of our input toward perfecting them.