Berger’s Magic Ingredient: Creativity

The real advantage of years of training and experience in the kitchen is that you can taste dishes without putting so much as a bite in your mouth, says Ritz-Carlton executive sous-chef Donald Berger.

And that, he says, is what makes top chefs so creative. They can sense even the most subtle changes that a pinch of a particular herb or an exotic oil can make.

Combine that sixth sense with training on presentation of food and you have what can appear to be magic in the dining room.

But there really isn’t any magic, he says. No wand is needed if you use fresh, top-quality ingredients--which, in today’s marketplace with its emphasis on shelf life, isn’t all that easy for the average person.

“It isn’t a problem here at the hotel,” he says, “because we demand and get nothing but the best from our purveyors. We simply will not accept anything even slightly inferior.

“We go all over the world to secure the best, even air-freighting in fresh fish from Europe, and when I say fresh, I mean it’s still alive when it gets here.”

A symbol of the hotel’s obsession with freshness is its own herb garden, which Berger had a hand in developing.

Berger--whose training came in restaurants and hotels in Canada, Italy, Monaco and Hawaii--is second-in-command of a staff that includes 85 cooks and chefs who will turn out more than 400,000 meals in any given year.

But, administrative duties aside, he likes to experiment in the kitchen for home entertainment. A good example is the accompanying dish--a warm scallops salad--he devised for Chef du Jour readers. Central to it is fresh scallops. “Use Canadian sea scallops,” says the Quebec-born Berger. “They’re the best.”

TOMATO CHARLOTTE

1 pound Canadian sea scallops

2 large beefsteak tomatoes

2 large golden tomatoes

4 ounces olive oil

2 fresh lemons

1/4 cup minced shallots

1/4 cup mixture of equal parts minced parsley, thyme and opal basil

1/3 cup bread crumbs

2 ounces melted butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut tomatoes in quarter-inch slices and spread on foil-lined, lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake in preheated 225-degree oven for two hours to dry. Remove and cool. When cooled, fold tomato slices in half and arrange, overlapping and alternating around the insides of four 3-by-2-inch lightly oiled souffle cups.

Remove muscle from scallops and cut into half-inch pieces. Toss with juice from the two lemons, half the minced herbs, all the shallots and the olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and divide the mixture by fours. Fill each souffle cup with the scallops.

Toss remaining herbs with bread crumbs and melted butter and place atop the scallops. Tamp down and bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until bread crumb mixture is golden brown. Garnish with sauteed pasta strips and thyme sprigs. Serve ringed with coulis (see below).

TOMATO THYME

COULIS

1 pound ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoons thyme twigs

Core and make X-incisions on the bottom of the tomatoes. Plunge into rapidly boiling water for one minute and then immediately into ice bath. When chilled, peel and seed. Puree in blender with thyme.