Pass the Homemade Cranberry Sauce, Gravy and…Marshmallows?
So about now maybe you’re in your kitchens, sweating over pies, or at the grocery, maneuvering your heavy shopping cart through hordes as you try to get to the fresh cranberry bog. Or perhaps you’re still at work. Hey, me too!
It’s safe to say most of us have Thanksgiving on our minds, even if you won’t be doing much cooking tomorrow. But how many of you are making your own marshmallows?
You can make them at home, and it’s not that hard, but who would bother? It turns out marshmallows are enjoying a bit of a renaissance lately. The handmade and artisan movement has even got a hold of them, and they’ve been quite en vogue in Paris patisseries. Ooh la, la!
But I did a double-take this week when I noticed an ad in Tuesday’s Journal for Thanksgiving dinner at WS/Prime, the resident restaurant of the downtown Marriott. A prix fixe meal includes turkey not once but twice (in gumbo with crab and the usual oven-roasted), cornbread stuffing, pumpkin pie with spiced cream, baked sweet potatoes with pecans…and “petite artisan marshmallows.” Boy, that caught my eye. Housemade marshmallows at the Marriott?
So I called the executive chef there, Tim Grandinetti, to get more information. According to him, the Marriott’s been making marshmallows for about two years now, sending them up to VIP’s room along with other sweet nibbles. And they don’t just don’t make vanilla - the Marriott’s kitchen has made cocoa-dusted, lemon and even raspberry marshmallows. Tim sent along a photo of a recent batch getting cut. I haven’t had Tim’s marshmallows and I haven’t been to WS/Prime in a long time, but in terms of restaurants, I think housemade marshmallows are the kind of detail that separates the wheat from the chaff. It would be so much easier to open a bag or a box, especially in a big, industrial hotel kitchen.
So what if I think marshmallows should stay far, far away from sweet potatoes? That’s a can of worms I’ll try not to open entirely today.
Happy Thanksgiving!
