I Can’t Stop Thinking About: Bistro Grenier’s Maple Syrup Pudding

I don’t care about dessert. There, I said it.

I’d rather get my fill at the saltier end of the meal. I want golden slabs of potato ferrying zippy gribiche. Fresh crudités swiped through whipped buffalo curd. I want a table in a sexy dining room covered in stuff to share. I got all of that at Bistro Grenier when it opened last year. But then, when the skinny beeswax table candles were nearing the end of their glowy little lives, I was strongarmed into a sweet finisher: a sticky, crispy, syrupy pudding.

My, my, my – how lucky I was to dine with bullies.

As the hot ceramic dish floated towards us, I zeroed in. The self-saucing maple syrup pudding landed on our table, with a melty scoop of Ciccone & Sons buttermilk ice-cream on top. In the lofty dining room in one corner of the cavernous Odd Culture space, we ooohed and ahhhed – our spoons poised to strike.

Like archaeologists, we dig.

Between four people, there are three mouthfuls each. And that’s all it took. That little golden pud snuck its way into my psyche and latched on.

It’s essentially a rich butter cake, new exec chef Alex Haupt tells me. “Just your classic butter, sugar, eggs, flour type cake. When it goes into the oven, the cake dough gets some of the maple syrup cream. Then it gets a second helping once it’s out of the oven 13 minutes later.”

It’s a recipe based on pouding chomeur – or “poor man’s pudding” – that Haupt inherited from ex-exec chef James MacDonald, who spent time in St John’s London kitchen. His saucy baked-to-order serve is now a Bistro Grenier “untouchable”.

Thank God.

As the batter bakes, the cream reduces and the sugar caramelises. There’s a toasty depth courtesy of malt syrup and malted milk, too. But it’s the Canadian syrup and sheer volume of cream doing the heavy lifting. A sprinkle of salt takes it home.

The dish is empty and we’re all gobsmacked. Moments ago there wasn’t a hint of tum-space left in me. Now I’m wondering what just hit me. The stickiness! The warmth! The irresistible need to scrape the chewy black sugar off the lip of the dish!

“Have you had the maple syrup pudding at Bistro Grenier?” I ask everyone I come into contact with. “Mate, you need to. I can’t stop thinking about it.”