Sweet Matter/Materia Dulce: No Rules Plated Desserts

Tropical flavors and theatrical presentation distinguish this collection of more than 30 plated desserts by Angel R. Betancourt, a Venezuelan pastry chef now at The One&Only Palmilla in Baja California. 

Instructions are written for experienced professionals and assume access to equipment including a Vitamix and VersaWhip. These are not recipes to attempt casually.

Three desserts suggest the range. The Aztec Calendar layers chocolate cremeux, a peanut-amaranth-cinnamon faux mole, passionfruit and mango sorbet, chocolate mousse, and chocolate-almond sable beneath a sheet of flash paper imprinted with Aztec symbols; it requires practice before service (and flash paper is illegal in some U.S. states). 

The Catrina is more manageable: mango gelatin, creme fraiche cheesecake, and vanilla sable dressed with microgreens and edible flowers. A pineapple upside-down cake suspends a round of cake affixed to a chocolate disk at the top of a glass, above a slice of 24-hour roasted pineapple resting in a pool of maraschino cherry jelly.

Obviously the work of a very accomplished chef. The book makes comparable demands of its reader.

Paperback. Color photographs throughout. In English and in Spanish.