Banana Test

I saw this recipe in a magazine that was doing a story on Michel Bras, and it looked so simple and rustic. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to choose a dessert to finish a meal when catering. When you are serving 6 courses it’s tricky to chose a dessert that will compliment your menu and please everyone. My first amateur instinct was chocolate, because I love it so much surely everyone else does too. But my catering guru Ang pointed out that this is not always the case and that she usually chooses something more neutral. Regardless, I was intrigued by the choice of the great chef Michel Bras to serve a rustic banana studded with small pieces of cinnamon stick, vanilla bean, candied orange zest, and coffee bean. Then roasted.

The plating in the mag was just a banana on the plate with some candied nuts and some spiced syrup. It looked quite stunning with the studded black banana, but I thought, “would this be awkward to eat? Would I have to get in there with my hands and fork to get to the sweet innards? Would the stuff stuck into the banana have to be pulled out individually?” So I did a test.

I had to use my hands a little bit but it wasn’t too messy and the studs all stuck to the peel so I didn’t have to pick them out. I like a sous-vide banana better. But it was still very good.