several shades of why

variations and evolutions...that is how most of my dishes find their way to the guest.  i admit i am not very good at conceptualizing and testing to find the perfect plate.  ideas hit and miss, components change and move like a game of chess.  it starts one way and before i know it, within a week the dish has morphed into something else and looks completely different, sort of.

it usually begins with flavors.  chef brought in some nice strawberries and our forager had an ungodly amount of wild sorrel.  so there it begins.  compressed berries and sorrel ice cream.  then elderflower told me that a nice floral perfume would be a great partner.  meringues of two types, dried and broken and soft, fluffy meringue show up.  a little more acidity with some lemon curd and a dry olive oil sable grounded the dish.
for a few days i was pleased, but kept thinking about strawberry shortcakes..
i had thought about frying cake, the batter or the baked dough.
of course at county fairs they do fried twinkies and such.  well, how could i do a less gluttonous version.
angel food cake would be great.  but i wanted to give it a crispy shell, and we had a big ass bucket of trisol laying around.  then tempura fried angel food cake introduced itself.  it's actually really good.
spongy inside, crispy outside, warm...but now i needed the "cream" that shortcakes offer.
so i infused vanilla bean into cream with white chocolate to sweeten and make richer.

then the dish opened up. plates changed, movement flowed, but the flavors stayed the same.
strawberries, sorrel ice cream (hidden under elderflower meringue), dried meringue, olive oil sable crumbs, fried angel food cake, vanilla bean cream.