How classically sweet it is, the range of frozen desserts from Northampton, England-based Classic Cuisine. It latest offerings include a raspberry ripple meringue roulade, a chocolate and caramel short cake, a white chocolate parfait with raspberry, a retro trifle cheesecake, a hazelnut roulade, and an apple, cherry and lemon sharing sponge pudding.
“Our clients are very accustomed to ordering a range of starters and main dishes as well as desserts all in one go, which not only saves time but makes transportation and ordering simple and easy,” said Mark Dean, the company’s sales director. “Our ready-made desserts allow ease of preparation. And all our products are hand-finished, which means we can create unique products for every operator we work with.”
Classic Cuisine, which bills itself as “created by real chefs for real caterers,” has been producing a wide range of ready meals for the home-shopping market, pubs and bars since 1990. Five years later it expanded into the hotel, high street branded restaurant, department store restaurant, travel and retail sectors. Then in 2012 it entered the artisan desserts segment in earnest, following the acquisition of Jon George Ltd.
Banoffee kits, which enable foodservice operators to easily serve up tasty, eye-appealing Sundaes such as this, make for goof-proof presentations. This offering features creamy banana custard, rich toffee caramel sauce and a crunchy biscuit topping conveniently supplied in disposable piping bags by Classic Cuisine.“Our predictions for desserts in 2014 include the usage of vegetables in sweet desserts such as pumpkin, sweet potato and beetroot. Herbs like basil and mint are making more of an appearance in puddings too,” said Paul Hunt, Classic Cuisine’s new product development chef. “Salted caramel and green tea flavors still continue to be popular, and classic nostalgic dishes like trifle and crumble are also making more of a reappearance on menus. Scientific methods, molecular gastronomy and texture such as fruit pearls and tapioca are also in demand and are being used within desserts or as decorative elements.”
Dessert kits presented as separate components to clients have been growing in demand among clients, reported Hunt.
“For example,” he said, “we currently have a Banoffee Sundae kit containing two piping bags: one filled with banana custard the other filled with toffee and a biscuit crumb component. All the customer has to do is pipe it into layers in a sundae dish and add some garnish. These dessert kits are very popular as they give ownership back to the client and provide them the flexibility to serve the dessert as they wish.”
Meanwhile, the company recently launched a line of ‘Freezer to Table’ desserts, which allow customers to serve desserts straight from the freezer, thus eliminating waste. The range includes after dinner mint terrine, raspberry and white chocolate terrine, and a lemon meringue parfait.
