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so good #15

Under the tree plated dessert by Eric Ortuño

Under the tree plated dessert by Eric Ortuño

The Hofmann School of Barcelona has several commercial establishments that allow pastry teachers and students to acquire a necessary versatility in the trade. In addition to the Hofmann School, there is the Hofmann Restaurant, Hofmann’s Taverna, Terraza La Seca and Hofmann’s Patisserie. Eric Ortuño  is the Pastry head teacher of the School and one of the architects of this small Hofmann universe in the Catalan capital.
Eric Ortuño, pastry chef and instructor at Hofmann BarcelonaIn this line five years ago, when Eric Ortuño and the director of the school, Mey Hofmann, launched Pasteleria Hofmann (so good #11), another world opened up to them. Contact with shop pastry has allowed the introduction of more pastry techniques in restaurant desserts with a differential value. For example, they have changed sugar decorations with chocolate figures influenced by the tradition of the Catalan Easter ‘monas’. The cactus and chocolate tree techniques of the new desserts in the Hofmann restaurant illustrate this change very well. An air of creative freedom is also breathed with proposals which are lighthearted and not as tied to the French tradition as it had been in earlier proposals. They are interested in the diner enjoying mimetic desserts inspired in ‘realities that have something fun and poetic,’ says Ortuño. Nevertheless, he says, the desserts of the new menu of the Hofmann Restaurant are based on very recognizable products, ‘in commercial tastes’, in a pastry that is easy to understand, ‘without too many extravagances’.

‘With this dessert, we start a series of more visual dishes which are usually served in front of the diner. Assembling these new amusing desserts in the dining room emphasizes the customer’s response and involves him in the game we propose’