Roberto Cortez does not like labels. His versatility has nothing to do with the frontiers that divide one profession from the other. Cuisine, pastry, and plated desserts are intermingled in a versatile professional profile. His creations follow this break with the establishment. In his creations, we see how gastronomy does not refer to itself, but rather seeks connections with other disciplines such as art, design, experimentation …
His latest work is a clear example of this will to overcome boundaries that delineate spaces. Senses in Sucrose is not a conventional book. To begin with it is presented as a work of craftsmanship in itself, carefully bound, full of sensitivity and good taste. Large format photographs and what is most surprising, an original, suggestive, evocative common thread. A book that is the pure expression of a unique gastronomic personality and which he poses the difficult task of translating the complexity of human emotions into desserts. A valiant gastronomic adventure in which he goes in depth to study and develop flavors connected to emotions. An interesting and stimulating line of work in which the application of the psychology of colors to emotions comes into play. Cortez speaks of emotions as wholeness-belonging, through colors like mauve, copper, and bumblebee. The sweet translation? A dessert called Precious Leaves, which comes alive thanks to the figure of the “family”. And it is precisely these figures that allow us to concretely and easily understand the underlying message that Cortez conveys to us. What can better express the values and emotions associated with honesty, respect, and integrity than a samurai, with their rigid code of honor? Its respective dessert, Liquid Honor, consists of creations like the liquid sake lees meringue, cherry blossom rice pudding with hokkaido milk, et cetera. At each step in the book, the circle that unites the emotions with the figure representing those emotions, as well as the colors and their respective dessert, closes perfectly. The same thing happens with other desserts like Chocolate Drug, with which the readers of so good # 9 are familiar. In it are gathered addiction, vulnerability, weakness, along with colors like buff, burgundy, bole, and sienna.
In conclusion, an exceptional book in depth and form, which departs from what is usual in pastry. A professional, in short, who should be followed closely and who in this book takes care of even the smallest details, such as the design of cutlery and crockery.
