Saturday Sweets: Hedy Goldsmith Returns to Miami for One Night To Collab with Devin Braddock & Mignonette Uptown
Just over two years ago, Miami lost of one of its most talented pastry chefs to the West Coast. Hedy Goldsmith left her executive pastry chef position with Michael Schwartz after two decades to pursue a new life in Los Angeles. The James Beard Award nominated published author, left our hearts heavy and our stomachs craving her Junk In Da Trunk cookies.
A few weeks ago we got lucky when Hedy came back to Miami and was in the kitchen at Mignonette Uptown for one hell of a delicious dessert focused dinner. The night was made extra special because Mignonette’s pastry chef, Devin Braddock is one of Hedy’s prodigies and they were reunited for the night.
The five course dinner wasn’t the typical dinner you’d imagine -- when Hedy is in charge, dessert is served first. At the start of the night Hedy explained that diners often start their meals with a salad and then move on to the heavier dishes of the night and many (not me) are too full by the time dessert comes around. So in an effort to change that we started the evening with not one, but two dessert courses.
First Course: Pear crostada + an ice cream trio, flavors including smoked maple, basil, and cookie butter
For a dessert lover like me, it was such a treat to start the dinner with something sweet and Hedy’s pastry skills were everything I remembered them to be. The crostada was warm and crumbled in all the right ways and the ice cream was just the right amount of creamy.
Second course: Caramelized black mission fig and lemon sorbetto with rosemary black pepper sable
This dessert had a great blend of tart and savory and it was so pretty. I’m a sucker for figs and I don’t have them nearly as often as I would like. The bed of meringue was so pillowy and soft, I could eat it for days.
Third course: Lemon tartlette with bittersweet chocolate, crispy spelt, salad, Meyer lemon vinaigrette
Can every salad come with a lemon tartlette and chocolate?! Yes please! In the third course we moved onto semi-savory foods with a salad, but Hedy made sure there was plenty of sweetness involved.
Fourth course: Halibut with chorizo, grapes, lima beans, and rainbow chard
This was our first fully savory course and it was delicious. Chef Danny Surfer of Mignonette had a hand in this course and it reminded me why it’s one of my favorite spots in town.
Fifth course: Manhattan filet served with gnocchi with reggiano cream, onion rings, 1000 island roasted brussel sprouts with lemon zest and red wine vinegar
Our last course was absolutely the most heavy and definitely my style. Hedy said it was a mashup of her favorites - the creamy gnocchi was so good that I was glad I had already eaten dessert, because otherwise I would have been too full from the mountain of gnocchi I was eating.
It was such a treat (pun intended) to have Hedy in town. Everyone who attended the dinner got a signed cookbook, Baking Out Loud and a goodie bag of even more dessert to take home. No wonder she’s one of my favorites! However, I will say - she’s taught Devin well. Anyone remember that red wine red velvet cake from Miami Spice? It was fun to watch them in the kitchen as they plated our dishes and enjoyed each others company. I’m hoping Hedy visits more often, because Junk In Da Trunk cookies.