Flight of Fancy
New chocolate/wine pairings make for a decadent digestif.
Photography: Timothy Thimmes
The next time you’re looking for the perfect ending to a day on the slopes, visit the luxurious Vista Lounge at the Montage Deer Valley and experience Chef Raymond Lammers’ way with two of life’s finest things. Named one of the top 10 pastry chefs in America by Dessert Professional Magazine in 2009, Lammers is delighted to share his passion for chocolate—and some well-chosen wines—with guests.
Lammers carefully selects his chocolates and combines them with flavors that are “fun but balanced in a lingering, mellow way.” For the 6,000 luscious nibbles he creates every week for the hotel’s nightly turndown service, guests enjoy delectable bedtime combinations such as green apple–ginger, Irish caramel, and cinnamon-pear, their shiny chocolate shells cocooned in decorative boxes. “We come up with different flavors to keep it interesting and fun,” Lammers says, “so that every night the guests have a little surprise.”
For chocoholics not staying at the hotel, Lammers has introduced the Housemade Chocolate Flight dessert ($12) for the lounge menu. The three samples include a Cacao Barry chocolate with a lactee caramel filling; Amano Madagascar dark chocolate; and the ultra-rare Maranon Fortunato No. 4 chocolate (until recently, thought to be extinct) from Peru. Each delicate flight features a square of the pure chocolate Lammers used to concoct his finished product, and of course the melt-in-your-mouth results of his sublime touch.
Pair the chocolates with Lammers’ carefully chosen wines for an additional $13. What better way to spend an afternoon or evening?
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