Inspiration: JiSun Shin

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JiSun Shin. Photo: Laura Lajh Prijatelj

We have visited JiSun Shin at the Ampersand hotel in South Kensington for the first time a few months ago for an interview (you can read it here). She has opened the doors of her beautiful world of desserts and created a special dessert just for us (the dessert was featured in the interview). This time I have visited her with my photographer to get to know the new beautiful dessert she created and to present it to you. She told us: Chocolate is precious to me. Eating chocolate is always a treat, but for me as a pastry chef I can’t imagine a world without chocolate. My dessert world would be much smaller and less interesting without it. This is my new dessert at Apero. It is a nicely balanced blend of popular, common flavours brought together to make something unique and unusual.

Dessert by JiSun Shin. Photo: Laura Lajh Prijatelj

I wanted to make something for summer with flavours that almost everybody would enjoy, but at the same time I wanted it to be a bit different. I have chosen banana, peanut, almond and chocolate as the basic flavours. I added to all this whisky jelly to sharpen the nutty and creamy tastes and a Jack Daniels woodchip infused ice cream, plus a dome full of smoke to make it extra special!

The main challenge was to balance all the ingredients and flavours, while keeping it nice and light. The smoke was the easy part with the smoke gun … The dessert is composed of banana cake, banana and white chocolate ganache, peanut and almond praline milk chocolate mousse, dark chocolate glaze, whisky jelly, and Jack Daniels woodchip infused ice cream. The mousse is served at 5C and the ice cream at –11C. The dish is presented beneath a glass dome filled with smoke, which adds drama, but also enhances the smoky flavours.

I used Cacao Barry Elysee (Lenotre) chocolate for the almond and peanut praline milk chocolate mousse. I really like the wonderful milky flavour with a hint of caramel taste which characterizes this milk chocolate couverture and goes very well with the peanut and almond praline mousse. I wanted to create a great blend of all flavours!

Dessert by JiSun Shin. Photo: Laura Lajh Prijatelj