Texturally stunning, creamy, bright, balanced, and a thrill to behold, this chocolate dessert is by far my new favorite.

Walking the line between sweet and savory can sometimes be a delicate dance, with the right movements, shifts of flavors, a little control, it’s possible that one can almost taste the rhythm. Incorporating a sourdough starter into two cakes while keeping them on the sweet side, infusing savory herbs into sweet gelees, crisping slices of cake in olive oil, sprinkling dark chocolate with crisp crunchy sea salt, are all part of the underlying excitement of our lemon rosemary chocolate dessert.

When constructing this dessert Ronna was
initially inspired by wanting to serve a snack,

It’s obvious that
we would not serve only that as an entire dessert to our
guests…

so a base has been created on which to display this rustic bite.

The bottom layer of the dessert is a chocolate sourdough cake that has
been chopped up and made into a “cabinet pudding” which is like bread
pudding only with cake.

The next layer is a bright lemon cream with a
tempered chocolate disc on top.

The next layer is a deep chocolate
cream.

The round disc is another sourdough cake but this one is lemon
scented and it has been made into a crouton by sauteing it in a fruity
olive oil.

It is put into the oven at serving time with pure chocolate
on it in order to melt the chocolate and then it is topped with more
lemon cream, a bit of flake sea salt, a drizzle of the lovely olive oil
and some olive oil powder.

The crystals to the left of the crouton are
icy cold lemon gelee.  There is also a slice of a rosemary gelee
there along with shiso micro greens.

The sticks

coming from

the dessert

are a

sugar stick

made with

lemon oil

a cocoa stick

and a

lemon

rosemary

tuile

cookie.

The two cylinders in the front of the dessert
are dark chocolate truffles infused with fresh rosemary and then rolled
in lemon powder.