Bosphorale….bergamot-scented tea from the Black Sea sweetly paired with delicately dried Malatya apricots and Valrhona chocolate were the winning combination for “Bosphorale,” a cake created by master chocolatier and executive pastry chef of Çırağan Palace Kempinski İstanbul, William McCarrick. Bringing a taste of Turkey for the entire year to Kempinski hotels around the world, this eclectic dessert was selected among recipes submitted from Kempinski’s top pastry chefs as “Dessert of the Year 2013.”
“With our focus at Çırağan Palace Kempinski to use local culinary products as inspiration, my cake is symbolic of a trip to Turkey,” states William McCarrick, Çırağan Palace Kempinski’s executive pastry chef. “I combined the best of these regional flavors for my creation, as Turkey produces 80% of the world’s dried apricots and it is among the world’s top five tea-growing countries.”
Several of the ingredients used in the cake are ingrained in Turkish cultural traditions, highlighting the dessert’s connection to the country. Dried fruits, such as the apricots, are usually served at village festivals, weddings and other celebrations while tea has become a culture of its own, with specific brewing techniques and drinking customs. Offering tea and drinking it together is considered a gesture of friendship and hospitality throughout Turkey.
During the Kempinski Dessert of the Year 2013 competition, pastry chefs were invited to submit original recipes with specific guidelines: the key ingredient had to be chocolate, the dessert had to be presentable both as an individual cake and as a platable dessert and it could not be a soufflé, dessert à la minute or ice cream. Bosphorale was chosen as the Kempinski Dessert of the Year in a blind tasting by 80 judges from recipes by 50 other executive pastry chefs and will be offered in all Kempinski properties worldwide throughout the year 2013.
Bosphorale is available in Çırağan Palace Kempinski İstanbul’s Gazebo Lounge as well as at all other Kempinski properties, bringing a taste of Turkey to guests in more than 30 countries worldwide.
Jessica Festa is the editor of the travel sites Jessie on a Journey (http://jessieonajourney.com) and Epicure & Culture (http://epicureandculture.com). Along with blogging at We Blog The World, her byline has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Gadling, Fodor’s, Travel + Escape, Matador, Viator, The Culture-Ist and many others. After getting her BA/MA in Communication from the State University of New York at Albany, she realized she wasn’t really to stop backpacking and made travel her full time job. Some of her most memorable experiences include studying abroad in Sydney, teaching English in Thailand, doing orphanage work in Ghana, hiking her way through South America and traveling solo through Europe. She has a passion for backpacking, adventure, hiking, wine and getting off the beaten path.
