Cutler & Co IV

December 8-20, 2011

For a while now Michael and I have had a habit of sharing a degustation for our birthdays. Six to ten (or more!) courses is a lot of fun and a lot to digest: while my mind always looks forward to dessert, my stomach's capacity to follow through varies. This year I hatched a plan to please both my sweet tooth and my unreliable appetite - for my birthday I'd eat my way through Cutler & Co's dessert menu, just one dish at a time, over the course of a couple of weeks. As we'd already discovered, they're willing to accommodate a late-arriving guest without a reservation at their front bar on a quiet night.

At $18 apiece, these five plates total less than most vegetarian degustations around town. The crisp, not-at-all-syrupy dessert wine that Michael tipsily ordered on our first visit was a fitting substitute for the matched wines he'd usually request.

Let me show you what sugary delights Cutler & Co are serving this summer...

strawberries, black olive caramel, olive oil ice cream & pine nuts

Silky ice creams, firm fresh fruit, sour jelly, salty candied pine nuts, vanilla puddles and toffee shards - there's a lot here to love even when one hates olives. In fact, I would have been game for a shade more brinyness! This pretty thing is made extra-lovable by the fact that it can be served vegan and gluten-free on request.

white chocolate mousse, beetroot ice cream, orange jelly and sherbet

The second dessert crept up on me. Its two-toned disc of mousse and jelly was nice, then better with the slightly earthy beetroot ice cream. The powders were puzzling but a welcome contrast in texture. Then I pulled in the sherbet and kapow! Everything made sense.

fromage blanc ice cream, chocolate ganache, pink grapefruit
& licorice meringue

This plate was a confusing mish-mash. The fromage blanc ice cream was finer than any cheesecake I've tasted, and the ganache just heavenly. I liked that the grapefruit sauce was too tart on its own yet just right once mixed with those sweeter components. Ultimately, though, there was too much powder for me and too much ganache for Michael. And where was the licorice? I couldn't taste it at all.

mango parfait, passionfruit curd, coconut, pineapple & pain d'epices

The mango parfait cubes are wrapped in slivers of fresh pineapple, like a high-end Splice! While this amused me no end, I was more pleased still by the mysterious treasures under the ginger crumbs, catching bursts of coconut and pandan.

chocolate ice cream sandwich, vanilla parfait & salted caramel

This is undoubtedly the richest and most well-known of the desserts, a fruit-free zone. While I liked the ice cream sandwich on our first encounter, this time I got it. I suspect that I was served a little more salted caramel, and that made all the difference.

It was probably a bit self-indulgent to draw out my birthday like that, but I relished every minute of it. This dessert menu warrants all the attention and appetite I could give it, and the staff made every visit a pleasure. The other unexpected pleasure was sharing the occasion with a number of my friends - their dropping by for a single course was no budget-buster, and it definitely doubled the fun.

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You can read about our previous visits: one, two, three.

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Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
9419 4888
desserts $18
http://www.cutlerandco.com.au/

Accessibility: Cutler & Co has a flat entry and generous space between tables. The front bar often contains high benches and chairs, but there are some standard-height booth seats to the side. There's full table service.