Watch: How This Pastry Chef Makes Her Whimsical Corn Dessert at N.Y.C.’s Lysée
When Eunji Lee left Michelin two-starred Korean restaurant Jungsik, the pastry chef wanted to open her own sweets shop, but not one like New York had really seen. What she created in Lysée is—a “gallery of confections,” as she calls it—is a place where her delicious treats are displayed like the edible art they are. That’s especially the case with her signature corn dessert.
Lee is skilled in the art of trompe l’oeil desserts, where pastries resemble real-life objects (fans of Netflix’s Is It Cake? are well aware of the craft). But unlike other chefs who focus on deceptively lifelike pastries such as Thomas Raquel, formerly of Le Bernardin, or Paris’ Cedric Grolet, Lee’s creations have a bit more of a whimsical feel. Her signature dessert at Jungsik—and the cover star of her cookbook—was a little, lightly bruised banana. And at Lysée the headliner is a complex cake that looks like a comic book version of an ear of corn.
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In this episode of Culinary Masters, the acclaimed pastry chef shares the three-day process to make this beautiful and delicious dessert. It’s layered with flavors and textures from a crunchy corn cookie, to a soft corn cake, to a rich corn mousse that’s lovingly piped on top. Lee walks our Culinary Editor Jeremy Repanich through the painstaking steps, and shares the inspiration behind the creation of this popular pastry.
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