Welcome back to New Day Northwest
where we promised you dessert
and we do not disappoint.
At Ascend prime steak and sushi,
the views from the 31st floor
in Bellevue are heavenly,
and the pastries don't even get me started.
I got to create culinary works of art
with pastry chef Ariel Fernandez.
Alright, Chef Ariel,
the pastry program here at Ascend
has real whimsical wow factor right?
Like this dish?
Yes so this is our Skyfall here.
It's going to be a goat cheese panna cotta,
dessert and it's just whimsical.
It's a spectacle and it's like the
best show stopper to end dinner with.
Why is it so great?
So I'll show you here if you
want to pick up that hot water.
And if you want to pour it just right
in the middle and it's a huge show,
woo so we have dry ice in here
that comes down and makes a big.
Taking a smoke and that's
why we call it our Skype.
OK that is awesome and this is a pannacotta.
I'm sorry.
Yeah it's a goat cheese panna cotta.
It's topped with a purple Macron
as well as blue macarons.
Why I'm here for that.
Yeah, it's like a many days,
every day as I eat the rest of this because,
you know, I don't want to leave it here.
Tell me about the 31 lives program with
this because you kind of grew up here,
right?
Yeah, so I started at ascend when I was 17,
I graduated from high school and moved
straight here to join our internship program.
Wow.
I was the first one to do it where
I went around and did every station
for about a few months here.
I think 3 months and I decided that
that is where I wanted to be a chef.
It's a great program where they
fund scholarships and internships
for future culinarians like myself.
I love that and there were so many
creative things that you learned here
like this dish here. What is this?
So this is our magic mushroom.
It's a dark chocolate pogram
which is like the best chocolate
pudding you've ever had.
And then we have our cherry stem
and it builds a beautiful mushroom
terranium that we can do now,
if you're yeah, let's do this perfect.
So we already have our base with
our program because it's so much
and that would take quite a while.
So this is our chocolate espresso crumb.
If you would just wanna spoon a good amount,
a good heaping in there just one.
Ohh no like 3 or 4 all over yeah
all over I feel like it's OK just
in the hole and then we could
shake it up a little bit.
OK alright but a good few heaping's of
it and more heaping yeah so this is our
dirt component of our magic mushroom.
Now I gotta get on this side and
then I think that should be OK there,
OK and then we take it and then
this is the fun part and you
just shake it up a little bit.
OK so if you wanna grab it and just get
all the dirt everywhere that's perfect.
OK thing that I'm afraid I'm
gonna wow this is cool.
Yeah massive we'll just go like that OK?
And then here we have our matcha
cake and our basil cake and this is
basically our grass and our Moss crumb.
Wow so if you just want to grab a
little handful of each and sprinkle
generously wherever you'd like,
right now you're creating your
grass little patches where you're
gonna place your mushroom.
So this is the fun part because you
can get really creative with it and
build your own little ecosystem.
We'll grab our bourbon stem and we're
just going to place it right dab.
Yep, that is our mushroom stem.
It is a white chocolate bourbon Primeau.
It's squishy, is in the middle.
Yep, just right in the middle and
you're gonna press it in there to make
sure it's really rooted. I rooted it.
OK perfect. OK that's great.
And then we'll just make sure
it's super Firm in there.
OK, and then the fun part is
going to be our mushroom caps.
OK, so this is where it gets a little
interesting because you're gonna know.
Once the cap on or to the stem so we do two,
because this is a big mushroom.
OK, I'll let you do it.
OK, we have our little guy here and
we'll just plop him right there, OK?
And then our big guy you just put,
right?
Up there ohh look at him he's shaking
he's like a fun guy I have to take a
little bit of taste of this real quick.
I'm just gonna come back here
because I want to not disturb my
ecosystem and put my mushroom on top.
I put my mushroom on top here.
Oh my gosh. Crammed the what it's a
photogram. Yeah yeah for all of it.
While you're better descend, you've
actually created your first ever
menu item. Tell me all about
that. Yeah, so recently this
year I created my first item.
It's called the hive.
It is a huge show stopping dessert.
It's for about four to six people.
OK, and it is a big Baked Alaska
in the shape of a beehive.
Ohh well, let's go get it, yes, alright?
We light the whiskey here,
OK and then we're gonna just.
Pour it on top of our hive well, whoa.
I don't know. It might be hard for
you all to see the flames here,
but I can certainly see them.
Yes, they are very bright and so
this is gonna kind of re toast our
meringue that we have going on here.
And then we're gonna grab our Raspberry
sauce and kind of take it all out and
bring some more flavor into everything
and that puts out the fire doesn't?
It's a rose Raspberry sauce what?
So you get the flavors of the
Toki whiskey that we just ignited
it with and the Raspberry Rose.
And so you bring this to
someone's table and do this,
yes? So this is our live demo
that we do for big parties.
This is amazing. It's beautiful.
Yeah I I have got to try it but
I wouldn't even know how to get
in. Let me go ahead and open this up for you.
We're gonna take it off the stand
so that way it's not super wobbly
and we'll just set it down there.
Because I still am trying to
envision how you've gotten
everything you mentioned into.
Yes, it is a lot, but you'll
see as soon as I cut it open,
it's beautiful on the inside
as well as the outside,
just like you. And so we have.
I'll show you here as well as the camera.
Oh my God inside chocolate with a Jelly roll.
You see that and they can kind
of open it up a little bit more.
Seeing. That was,
it was so good that was so delicious.
I don't even really eat ice cream much.
That was amazing.
But this magic mushroom was unbelievable.
I'd never seen anything like it in my life.
And Chef Ariel says that people
just come in and just order this.
And it's meant to be shared.
That is for sure.
So if you have any,
you know you have family in town.
You know you want to do this,
but you know, for me, maybe I'll just,
I'll do this myself.
I mean, look at that.
I mean, it's just so beautiful.
And then you get a little mushroom here.
All right, bona petite.
I'm gonna eat this in a SEC.