Atlas Dining is known for its constantly rotating cuisine. Chef Charlie Carrington’s menu visits a new national theme every few months, but it normally doesn’t stray outside the realms of reality – until now.
Inspired by restaurant-thriller film The Menu (now available to stream at home on Disney+), Carrington recently hosted a secret dinner party for moviegoers, with a menu to match. “The chef who designed the menu [for the film], Dominique Crenn, is a three Michelin star chef in the States, and she created some pretty epic stuff,” says Carrington. “It was cool to look at what she created, the flavour combinations, and then do it in our style. Sometimes when you do a bespoke menu that’s played on something it can be gimmicky, but I feel like this menu came across as very tasty food.”
Following Crenn’s notes, as well as some visual inspiration, Carrington gave diners a taste of The Menu – without the scares. “We did some really beautiful snacks at the start – they all looked like little vegetables sitting in trees,” says Carrington. “We made a Murray cod that we salted and made into a brandade, and served it with this beautiful corn broth. In the movie they do another dish, it’s almost like a chicken thigh with scissors through it, so we did a similar version of that. We have an American barbeque, so we smoked the chicken and made it really nice.”
Carrington’s recipe here is for the evening’s dessert course, for which diners had to build their own dish within a strict time limit, inspired by a scene in the film. The dish is something akin to an Eton mess or pavlova, but with the components – passionfruit, mango, crumble, meringue, ice-cream and lime cream – provided for guests to assemble themselves. “I put all the components in the middle of the table and then we set a timer and gave them 45 seconds to make the dish,” says Carrington. “I showed them what it should look like and it was hilarious – I’ve never seen more chaos and mess.”
The dessert is an ideal addition to busy Christmas parties since all the elements can be prepared in advance and each guest assembles it themselves. The fruit is fresh, the meringue can be baked in large sheets to be broken up, and the lime cream is just a matter of whipping lime juice and zest into cream until fluffy. And there are a few extra shortcuts you can take. “With the crumble, if people want to make it simply at home they could actually just crumble up some biscuits, using an Anzac biscuit or something like that,” says Carrington. You can also sub in your favourite ice-cream if you don’t want to make it from scratch.
When it comes to serving on the day, all you need to do is add the elements to the table and let guests guide themselves, giving this fun dessert a high reward-to-effort ratio. “What I really like about this dish, even though it’s super simple, it’s something that people can actually really make,” says Carrington. “It’s more about having fun with it and the presentation than anything.”
Recipe: Charlie Carrington’s 45 Second Head Start
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1.5 hours
Ingredients:
2 fresh passionfruits, cut in half
100g diced mango
100g crumble (crumble up your favourite biscuit)
Ice-cream
2 cups heavy cream (min. 36% fat)
1 cup whole milk
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
6 large egg yolks
French meringue shards
4 large egg whites
100 grams white sugar
100 grams icing sugar
Pinch of salt
Lime cream
200ml thickened cream
Zest of 4 limes
25ml lime juice
Method:
If you’re making your own ice-cream, start by combining heavy cream, milk, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks while pouring in about one-third of the hot cream in a thin stream. Whisk the yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hot cream. Return the pot to a low heat and gently cook until the mixture is quite thick, stirring constantly.
Strain the mix through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool the mixture to room temperature before covering and chill in the fridge overnight, or at least 4 hours.
Once chilled, churn the mix in an ice-cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in the freezer until needed.
Alternatively, just use your favourite store-bought ice-cream.
For the meringue, preheat your oven to 85°C.
Ensuring all your equipment is super clean and dry, whisk the egg whites together until light and airy. Gradually add in the sugar and salt, whisking continually. Continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the meringue has just reached stiff peaks.
Line a baking tray with baking paper, placing a tiny dollop of meringue underneath each corner of the baking paper to keep it stuck to the tray.
Smooth the meringue in a thin layer across the tray. Bake in the preheated oven for 1.5 hours or until dry and crisp. Let it cool to room temperature before breaking up into shards.
To make the lime cream, whip the thickened cream in a bowl until it’s light and airy. Fold through lime zest. Add fresh lime juice to taste and a touch of icing sugar.
Serve each element (ice-cream, meringue shards, lime cream) in a separate bowl. Give yourself 45 seconds to build your own dessert plate, finishing with a sprinkle of fresh passionfruit pulp, mango and crumble.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Searchlight Pictures. The Menu is now streaming on Disney+.
