

A “Pâte Brisée” is the French version of a standard pie crust, made with a generous amount of butter.

The ideal crust for a Galette: a “Pâte Brisée”.įor making a galette, I find a Pâte Brisée is the best candidate. A dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on top will make it even more irresistible. It is an uncomplicated dessert to make during these late-Summer nights, and it doesn’t require much time to assemble.
#French peach tart free#
This rustic fruit tart features a flaky all-butter crust, folded in a free form manner over ripe Summer fruits.

Catra says that the more she leaves, the more she appreciates coming back to the city.A Galette, or a “Tarte Rustique” as we call it in France, is one of the easiest ways to showcase Summer fruits at their prime – and this Peach and Blueberry Galette is a perfect example of it. “Because of my Cuban heritage, I grew up eating a lot of tropical flavors like guava and mango, and I always try to incorporate any of those items seasonally into the new dessert items.”Īs a lifelong Miami resident, Catra has traveled the country but always returns to her hometown. “When I’m coming up with new items, I try to stick with local flavors,” she explains. Catra also draws inspiration for new desserts from the food she grew up with.

She’s also in charge of the dessert menus one of her favorite dessert items at Le Jardinier is the raspberry lychee, which Catra says is a perfect dessert to serve in Miami. Catra starts early each day, prepping to bake the signature French croissants and petite baguettes. The restaurant’s commitment to excellent food is evident in the details. The fact that Michelin finally came to Florida and Le Jardinier won a star and L’Atelier won two stars - it felt great.” It’s always been a goal to work for a Michelin-starred restaurant. It’s something that I’ve been working towards throughout my whole career. “And when it was announced, I was in disbelief. “We were in service when it happened,” Catra explains. Chef Catra serves as the head pastry chef of both restaurants, which recently earned Michelin stars. “I really looked up to Michelle Bernstein - she was the only female chef I knew of in Miami at the time.”Īfter graduation, Catra took jobs at Mandarin Oriental in Brickell Key and Jose Andres’s Bazaar Mar in Miami Beach, eventually joining The Bastion Collection, whose portfolio includes Le Jardinier and L’Atelier. “I first graduated in 2005 from Johnson and Wales University, and there weren’t a lot of females in this industry back then - and in Miami especially,” she says. “I spent my time in a lot of Cuban bakeries like Karla Bakery in Kendall, where I used to go with my cousins to order Cuban bread and pastelitos.”Ĭatra’s father was also an early inspiration for her baking career - she watched her father bake pastries and cakes in their family home, which helped her decide to pursue a career as a chef, in what was, and still is, a very male-dominated industry. “There weren’t a lot of French bakeries when I was growing up,” she tells InsideHook. Growing up in Miami, Melissa Catra often frequented the Cuban bakeries in her neighborhood, not knowing that one day she’d be a decorated chef in two of Miami’s famed French restaurants, Le Jardinier and L’Atelier.
