Solaire at 10: World’s Best Pastry Chef 2022 René Frank to hold a series of contemporary dessert degustations this March 16-19

How did you fall in love with desserts?

Dessert is the most emotional part of the menu, it takes you back to your childhood. But not everyone talks about desserts in a good light—it’s high in sugar and full of calories. I wanted to take the most emotional part of the menu, the part of the menu where you have the most fun,  and turn it into a full menu.

One of my most-loved desserts was always tiramisu: you have some umami from the mascarpone; you have, of course, sweetness; bitterness from the coffee and cacao; acidity also from the coffee. It’s an all-around dessert, which is unusual for a traditional, sweet dessert. Something very complex, yet simple.

Coda is the first and only dessert restaurant in Germany, and the first progressive dessert restaurant to be recognised by the Michelin Guide. What inspired you to create such a unique dining concept?

I had worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, so with Coda, the idea was to create a casual place where guests could experience desserts at par with Michelin-starred restaurants. The idea was never to create a Michelin-starred restaurant, it was just how we developed. 

What was the reception like when you first opened CODA in Berlin?

It was really interesting because it was something new, so it was difficult to name. What is a dessert bar, or dessert restaurant, or dessert dining? It needs some explanation because the experience is very unique.

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Please tell us about your desserts at CODA. How do you conceptualise such unique dishes? What is your typical thought process like?

In general, with food, it doesn’t matter what kind of food, it’s important that you have umami on your dinner menu—the fifth taste. You have sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and of course umami, or savouriness. That’s very important because otherwise, you may have desserts for dinner, but then you still crave something savoury afterwards. So we always use savoury ingredients, and can even create dessert dishes that are not sweet but are in fact on the savoury side. And from there, we start to think about ingredients and techniques used in pastry.

What would you consider to be your signature dessert or one that you are most proud of?

One of our signature dishes, which we will probably do at our dinner at Solaire Resort, is the caviar popsicle. Hen eggs are used all over the world in pastries and desserts, so we thought, why not use fish eggs or caviar? Now it’s in our popsicle, and it gives a very savoury aspect to the popsicle. 

It’s an ice cream of Jerusalem artichoke and vanilla, covered in 12 grams of Oscietra caviar from Sturia. It’s a very light caviar with a nutty flavour, so we combine it with some pecan nuts, and lightly cover it in homemade pecan nut chocolate. The ice cream inside is frozen and very creamy, and the caviar outside isn’t frozen at all. Then you get that salty, sweet, savoury combination which is very interesting.

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What are the unique challenges you have to overcome when designing a dessert-only menu?

The challenge is definitely in communication. We call [Coda] dessert dining, we don’t call it a dessert bar or dessert shop because we’re not a pastry shop; we are a restaurant, and can be compared to other restaurants, a place where you go for dinner.

Another challenge in our case—because we don’t have fish or meats, and we use fruity and sweet vegetables—is to incorporate the savouriness that you usually get with traditional menus. For example, we have one dessert that consists of mascarpone and caramelised Savoy cabbage, so it gives a very interesting savoury touch to the dish, without being savoury itself. 

You also see the inverse in Asian cooking, where you have savoury food which is a little bit sweet or sour, and this is something that we have in our desserts: a combination of umami and some sweetness. There’s also an interesting dish in the Philippines which I’m very much looking forward to tasting—champorado. Chocolate served with dried fish.

Your career has taken you around Germany, and to Spain, Switzerland, France, Japan, the USA, and many other countries. What is one dessert that you have encountered throughout your travels that sticks with you today—maybe the most interesting, or your favourite?

The interesting thing is that in every country and every culture, desserts are very different. There are some dishes like pizza or sushi that are known all around the world. Local desserts are not very well-known. Of course, everyone knows tiramisu, or crème brûlée, or chocolate, but not the local, traditional sweets and desserts. 

There are so many interesting ingredients used in sweet dishes around the world. For example in Turkey, there is a very traditional dessert from the time of the Osmans called tavukgöğsü. It’s a milk pudding made with chicken breast and cinnamon, lightly caramelised at the bottom. It’s not fancy at all, it’s super traditional. So it not only has a savoury flavour, but also a really interesting texture. It was an eye-opener for me where I started to get impressed and inspired by traditional desserts, techniques, and ingredients from other cultures. 

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What will you be presenting to diners through this collaboration with Solaire? What can guests expect?

A holistic dessert experience that shows dessert is much more than just the final course. Dessert is not just the little brother among all the other dishes. Traditional pastry is more about technique, but at Coda, it’s really about the ingredients—not just technique and presentation. It’s about different textures and unconventional flavour combinations, something you’ve never experienced before.

Even our drinks pairing—how we do it is really unique. The desserts and drinks are created together, from one mind. We think of the pairing drink like the sauce on a dish. Normally in a kitchen, one section preps the vegetables, one section makes the garnish, one does the protein, and another makes the sauce and everything comes together in one plate. For us, we have the dessert, and the bar is an extension of our kitchen. It’s different from the usual wine pairing because we see the drink as part of the whole creative process.

To learn more about Gastronomic Indulgence, please visit this website, and book your seats here. For details and more information, you may email restaurantrevents@solaireresort.com. Follow Solaire’s social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @solairesort for more updates.

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