Chefs consider desserts works of art
Published in the Nov. 26 – Dec. 9, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Master Pastry Chef Marco Mogollan and Odeum chef and owner Sal Calisi.
Food lovers travel from throughout the Bay Area to dine at Morgan Hill’s Odeum restaurant, which features Mediterranean cuisine prepared by one-Michelin star chef Salvatore Calisi. And many of them enjoy taking time at the end of a meal to enjoy a selection or two of his mouth-watering desserts prepared by master pastry chef Marco Mogollan.
“I’m blessed with a pastry chef who’ve I trained and he does an amazing job,” Calisi said. “Marco has been with me maybe for nine years. What I like about him is that he does a lot of (dessert) research on his own as well. He’s like me. He always wants to up the ante and push himself on his talents.”
Mogollan is so talented in concocting mouth-watering desserts that Calisi has considered the possibility of starting a Morgan Hill-based coffee and dessert shop with him. Because variety is the spice of life, the two chefs like to change Odeum’s dessert menu every now and then to share new desserts with their customers with sweet tooths.
“We need to keep people excited, but it’s sometimes hard to change the menu because when we do people can get upset,” Calisi said. “They say why did you take that off, we really wanted (that dessert). Our desserts are all unique and original. We don’t have the run-of-the-mill desserts.”
The desserts served at Odeum are as appealing to the eyes as they our to the taste-buds. Calisi wants the customers to have a full sensory experience in seeing a dessert that looks delightful.
“Our desserts are also art pieces because they have so many different components and they’re well thought out,” he said. “When it’s on a plate, it looks just beautiful. Our desserts have different textures — creamy, crispy, sweet, salty. Every forkful dances in your mouth in a way that comes to life. When our servers carry desserts and go by a table, I want people to glance over and say, ‘Wow, what is that. What are they having?’ I’m always looking for that.”
Among the more popular selections on the dessert menu is a specially prepared mille-feuille that contains layers of light, caramelized phyllo dough covered with toasted candied almonds and a vanilla bourbon Bavarian crème. Odeum also does a pecan tartlet that comes with a vanilla bean gelato and bourbon crème. The molten chocolate cake is a warm Perugina chocolate lava cake that comes with house-made vanilla bean gelato and candied walnuts. And the restaurant’s tiramisu is a dessert delight featuring house-made mascarpone, bittersweet chocolate, espresso cake and cappuccino crème.
Calisi encourages people to come into Odeum for a “just dessert break” during the holiday season while out on their shopping excursions with friends and family.
“I recommend the mille-feuille because it’s so humongous and at the same time it’s very light and two, three, four people can share it,” he said. “I think the candied toasted almonds with the burnt caramelized puffed pastry and the vanilla bourbon cream kind of reminds me of the holidays.”
To make the dessert experience extra special, Calisi recommends one of Odeum’s dessert wines or special coffees.
“We have the black Moscato which I like a lot because it’s a great dessert wine and it’s not overly sweet,” he said. “They kind of have an acidity when you drink it. Some dessert wines are heavy with sugars and these are not and I think they give a great balance to our desserts. I also like a great cappuccino with the almond grappa that we have. That’s a thing we like to sell with our desserts. It keeps you warm during the winter and it’s a snugly type of coffee.”
For people who want to bring an extra special dessert gift to a holiday get-together with friends and family, the restaurant provides a to-go option.
“We do a lot of take-out desserts,” Calisi said. “People want to bring something special to a party or home for the holidays. It’s a unique piece of dessert art to take to someone’s home.”
