After the success of The Miracle Meal at Gran Torino, Gourmet Traveller and La Mer have partnered together once again. This time, with acclaimed pastry chef Gareth Whitton of Tarts Anon.
The two-day collaboration is a showcase of Whitton’s obsession with detail, brought to life as an ode to the craftsmanship and rich textural experience of Crème de la Mer via one of his signature tarts.
The Crème Creation
Served as a bespoke takeaway experience, the Crème Creation includes a trio of treats.
Whitton wants you to “feel a good mixture of intrigue and discovery” while enjoying the experience, but most of all, the pairing is “made to be delicious and something that you really want to sit there and take in”.
While enjoying the Crème Creation experience, Whitton informs us that the flavours and notes you can expect include “a lot of balance and a lot of contrast with savoury and sweet” aspects involved.
The tart includes notes of caramel, malt, fruit-leaning miso, milk chocolate and is topped off with a bright, hand-piped yuzu Chantilly cream for a little bit of sweetness and acidity.
Then the malted barley and yuzu cold brew continues the flavour story with a contrast: “they’re two flavour profiles that are so similar yet still so different because of their form.”
And finally, guests will also receive La Mer’s Mini Miracle Moisturisers valued at $99 to indulge in.
The pursuit of perfection
While to Whitton perfection may be a tall order, his beautifully presented and self-proclaimed “real food” comes from giving each tart a level of rusticity, personality and character. This lets the collaboration represent a shared understanding of the importance of craftsmanship, refinement and attention to detail both of which Whitton and La Mer founder Max Huber have in spades.
For Whitton, this shared understanding is reflected in his passion for crafting and “an obsession with aesthetics, clean lines” and a “love for precision and little fine points of detail.” An instinct that finds an unexpected parallel in La Mer’s own approach, where even the smallest details matter.
As a hands-on person, he finds himself wanting to “understand how things work but also make things that look good.”
When asked how different the first concept of the Crème Creation was from the final product, he shared that they were “light years apart”, a testament to his commitment to refining and balancing ingredients as a matter of course and highly reminiscent of Huber’s own journey to perfecting La Mer’s Miracle Broth, which took 6000 tests and 12 years to perfect. Both knowing when to “go back and assess, work out the reasons why [something might not be working] and then continue to evolve those things to obtain one step closer to perfection.”
Whitton’s initial inspiration for the Crème Creation came from seeing La Mer’s deep understanding of the transformative nature of fermentation. Which became a challenge (one he was willing to accept) to be able to explore those flavour profiles and incorporate them back into his signature style.
“We wanted to reflect some of the core pillars of the La Mer and having those fermented notes throughout the pastry as a nod to the importance of fermentation in Crème de la Mer, I think was really important to me.” – Gareth Whitton, Tarts Anon
The ingredients that he was initially drawn to, to mirror the fermented notes, didn’t lend themselves naturally to the world of pastry. Fortunately, Whitton is a master of flavour association, a skill he picked up during his tenure at Dinner By Heston.
To acknowledge the flavour profile, Whitton refined the ingredients to include notes of malt and miso. “Both have amazingly fruity flavours after the fermentation process, which works well in the way that we’ve put them together, both in contrast but also in harmony.” The collaboration is a study of balance. The balance between not only sweet and savoury but also between Tarts Anon and La Mer. As Whitton says, “there’s a semblance of elegance and sophistication that both our tart and La Mer have as a brand.”
Experience the Crème Creation
Gourmet Traveller and La Mer’s Crème Creation is available for two days only: Friday 9 October and Saturday 10 October, at Tarts Anon in Richmond, Melbourne. You’ll be able to enjoy the exclusive takeaway-only experience for $20, but be sure to get in quick, as there will be limited quantities available.
La Mer is a brand that represents hope, healing, and one man’s deep respect for the power of the living sea. It all began over fifty years ago when Dr. Max Huber, a physicist, embarked on a healing quest after a lab accident. Twelve years and 6,000 experiments later, Miracle Broth – the legendary elixir – was born. Since joining The Estée Lauder Companies in 1995, La Mer has become the most coveted skin care brand in the world.
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