COVER STORY
C hef Jason Horton still thinks about the time he made a mango tart crème patissière for George Clooney’s Oscar party. Before his life as corporate executive chef for HHS (Healthcare Support Services), the now Richmond Va.-based Horton lived in L.A. and worked as a private chef when Pacific Rim cuisine and Roy’s Restaurant were in their heyday. “We’re talking late ’90s early 2000s when everything had pineapple and soy sauce and mango and passionfruit,” he says. He learned a few recipes from his head chef at the time and the mango tart stuck, not only because it was Oscar party-worthy, “everyone loved it because it’s fresh, it’s cold, it’s got great zip, zap, zing and it’s not too sweet,” says Horton. He starts with a classic French tart shell, adds a pastry cream and tops it with a swirling rosette of fresh mango. “Mango is one of those fruits that doesn’t bounce back. So once you put it into a form and shape it, you can keep it on a sheet tray and dab it with any kind of preserve like mango to keep it glossy, and keep it from drying out or getting brown,” he says. He tops the floral-like tart with a bright orange lilikoi (the Hawaiian name passion fruit) sauce studded with black seeds, a quenelle
Tropical fruit desserts with the ‘zip, zap, zing!’ Floral and feisty, tropical fruits, from pineapple to passionfruit, brighten (and lighten) up spring dessert menus in C&U, senior living and more.
BY LIZ GROSSMAN
20
QUARTERLY | Q2
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARTWELLS HIGHER ED
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