The Terminal City Club is one of the world’s most respected private business clubs. The members have a multitude of facilities at their fingertips – a full-size pool, fitness facilities, snooker room, grill, wine bar, fine dining and more.

The Club’s Pastry Chef, Fumiko Moreton, recently gained some notoriety by competing in the International Culinary Exhibition aka the Food Olympics in Erfurt, Germany, as part of the team which placed third overall in the World and gained three gold medals.

As usual, I’ve contributed my thoughts relating to Creme Brulee and featuring a creation by Moreton in Friday’s edition of Vancouver’s 24hrs. You can download this week’s version in PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

Episode 4 – The Private Business Crème Brulée

Image cutline: Pastry Chef Fumiko Moreton likes her crème brulée simple – no fillers, no fruit, no fuss; it’s all about the creamy and smooth texture of the sweet sweet custard.

The search for Vancouver’s undiscovered crème brulée can sometimes be a daunting one. Secretly plotting against Vancouver’s food community, standing in alleys hoping to get a glimpse of the kitchen, recording every intimate account and photographing the evidence certainly lives up to the name of cloak and dagger.

My toughest assignment yet was to infiltrate the guarded walls of the Terminal City Club in the heart of the financial district – the private business club founded in 1892 features an admirable wine bar and some of the city’s finest dining all built for the sole entertainment of members and their very lucky guests. Deep within its luxurious recesses, Fumiko Moreton, Pastry Chef Extraordinaire concocts her next great dessert. Convincing Moreton, part of the crack team that recently earned a Gold Medal and third place in the world’s most important cooking competition, the Culinary Olympics, was no small feat. I had to look the part, talk the part and even smell the part.

After some smooth negotiating (begging), Moreton imparted to me, a taste of her Christmas-inspired Citrus Crème Brulée. Topped with a raspberry, some blueberries, a couple orange slices, a snowflake-like sugar garnish and a mini cranberry and pistachio biscotti, the crème brulée’s presentation  was elaborate enough to make me feel like a giddy youngster, all excited to unwrap a new gift.

Below the delicately caramelized top crust lay simple elegance. The uncomplicated custard infused with lemon and orange zest and lightly flavoured with real vanilla bean invoked the kind of euphoria that is usually incited by illicit substances available on the other part of Hastings Street, far from the club.

It’s no wonder that if you want to join the Terminal City Club, two members in good standing have to vouch for you. It’s just that good.

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Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media thought leader and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’

It’s a song from the 90s and it’s come back to haunt you. Well….  not really. The folks at CinCin put together a crème brulée with a type a cherry that sounds kinda like it. What’s better is the crème brulée is pretty kickass and when the food is kickass, through some mystic power, my thoughts get published in the Friday edition of Vancouver’s 24hrs newspaper. This week we’re talking about the Amarena Cherry Crème Brulée prepared by Thierry Busset.

You can download this week’s version in PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

Episode 3 – Hey Amarena

If hearing the name ‘Amarena’ isn’t cause enough to get up and dance to a familiar and similarly named 90’s tune, the tale of this crème brulée will.

On a recent pilgrimage to France, seeking to discover the Country’s nascent cocktail culture, what consistently evaded me was a drink composed of the world’s finest sweet vermouth – the Italian made Antica Carpano. What I discovered was that the highly nationalistic French don’t necessarily look outside their borders for excellence, even if you are drinking at what’s supposed to be an authentic Italian spot.

When I heard that French pastry chef Thierry Busset from CinCin Ristorante was using Italian amarena cherries in his crème brulée, I thought of the move as an enlightened one. These wild cherries, soaked in amarena syrup using a secret 80 year old technique, have made them the most sought-after cherries in Europe, and for good reason: the small, dark, slightly sour cherries, grown mostly in Bologna and Modena resemble olives in texture and are addictive, delicious and bursting with flavour.

Back to the brulée, Chef Busset undoubtedly experimented long and hard to get the right mix – three halved amarena cherries, masterfully inserted into the dessert gives ample opportunity for all good things crème brulée to stand out – a crisp caramel crust, the perfectly consistent custard and the cherries, the sweet sweet cherries, will make for you to want to kick your chair back and yell “Hey Amarena!”

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Image cutline: Pastry Chef Thierry Busset’s Amarena Crème Brulée is so popular that he’s seeking to open up his very own bake shop on Alberni Street within the next year. The crème brulée will definitely be on the menu.

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Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media thought leader and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’