Verrines

They are all the rage in France. They’re just beginning to hit the US. Will verrines become the next foodie trend Down Under?

A verrine is an appetiser or a dessert, artistically arranged in layers in a glass. It can range from a complicated collection of ingredients through to a small masterpiece elegant in its simplicity. “Verrine” refers to the glass and means “protective glass.”

While verrines are the rage on French menus and indeed on home dinner tables in France, the rest of the world has been slow to latch on to this culinary delight, though the cynics will say these sorts of dishes have been around for decades but known by other names - trifles, parfaits and the like.

Writing in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times, Betty Hallock says  American chefs are just starting to catch on to the verrine.

At L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, diners are intrigued by a verrine called l'oeuf en cocotte, an egg steamed in the glass on top of a parsley puree. Once the egg is cooked, it's topped with sauteed mushrooms and a mushroom foam.

One of the signature dishes at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas is a verrine, one that Savoy calls "colors of caviar." The first layer is caviar suspended in a vinaigrette, topped with creme caviar, a puree of haricots verts, and finally a sabayon of golden osetra caviar from Iran.

So far, reports Hallock, only a few verrines have been spotted in Los Angeles. Chef Christophe Emé at Ortolan has done some; one has layers of puréed potato, ratatouille of escargot, chorizo and a lettuce emulsion. Another verrine has popped up at Opus in Los Angeles. "I didn't know what it was called," chef Josef Centeno says. "I was inspired by a dessert panna cotta," he says of a tiny verrine he serves as an amuse - celery panna cotta, celery root puree and pureed Okinawan purple potato with tonburi, the dried seed of broom cypress (also known as land caviar).

In Paris, however,  verrines are hotter than ever. Books have been written about them (so far only in French) and home cooks are also rising to the challenge.

Verrines abound in French blogs where people enthuse about the ones they’ve sampled, create their own masterpieces at home and photograph the evidence. Here are some I gathered in a quick trawl round France. Some contain several layers of complicated ingredients arnd are probably more suited to a restaurant assembly line. But others are well within the scope of a host looking for some pretty dinner party fare for eight.

Clockwise from lop left: A selection from a bakery in Rouen; strawberries, cream, maple syrup and meringue; mango, yoghurt and a crumble made of rolled oats and coconut milk; cheesecake and raspberries.

From left: Cream of asparagus, smoked salmon and parmesan; dried winter fruits, almond mousse, praline cream and nut crumble; tricolour verrine of tomato jelly, mozzarella mousse and basil pesto made by a blogger to be consumed while watching Italy play Germany at soccer.

Weblink: LA Times photogallery of verrines

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