Column

Scouting the cookies for dessert recipes

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published November 3, 2007

Meghann Walsh doesn't spur her creative juices by putting Do-Si-Dos under her pillow at night.

She doesn't stand on her head with Thin Mints in each hand to funnel ideas into her fingertips, and she doesn't pace between boxes of Trefoils and Tagalongs to spark her imagination.

To Walsh, the 25-year-old pastry chef at the Renaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg, dessert ideas come more naturally, even when those concoctions must involve Girl Scout cookies.

Last year, Walsh participated in the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida's annual Dessert First Dinner and Auction, creating a scrumptious warm Do-Si-Dos skillet cake with homemade Tagalong ice cream.

"It's just something that comes to you," Walsh said. "We just experiment and play around with different ideas. And we always let other people sample it."

In 2006, I was one of three judges who deemed Walsh's effort best, edging out the Samoas cookie and cream cheesecake from Paul Bocher of Mise En Place, the habanero ganache bread pudding from Jack Wenz of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and the Florida citrus mousse from the Marriott Waterside's Michael Lottermoser.

Since I ate so much of the skillet cake, not to mention the other desserts, it's difficult to discern who was the biggest winner. Biggest, in my case, being the operative word.

This year, Walsh returns for the dinner, scheduled for Nov. 16 at the downtown Embassy Suites. Guests will sample desserts from area chefs before dinner and bid in a silent auction.

Then they'll enjoy an elegant dinner. Assuming, of course, they have room left.

Walsh spends her days at the Vinoy preparing desserts for the buffet, gearing up for the lunch crowd, crafting amenities for special guests and working on cakes for the three to four weddings the Vinoy plays host to every weekend.

Yet she has no qualms about carving out a place on her schedule for Dessert First.

"You just make the time," Walsh said. "It's long days, long hours. ...But it's easy to come to work whenever you enjoy what you do."

Ever since Walsh baked up some doughnuts and cakes at a vocational school in her native Pittsburgh, she has taken to cooking. She attended the International Culinary Academy's Le Cordon Bleu program, and after interning at the Vinoy six years ago, she landed a full-time job at the hotel. She has been there since, relishing the dual roles of chef and artist.

"I think to be a chef, you need to have some artistic ability and creativity," Walsh said. "Food is definitely art, and I've always had a knack for art."

Walsh won't say much about what she will offer this year, only that her creation will be something the general public recognizes, but with a little spin.

I can't wait.

That's all I'm saying.

FAST FACTS

Dessert First Dinner and Auction

To benefit Girl Scouts of West Central Florida

Where: Embassy Suites Tampa-Downtown Convention Center

When: Nov. 16, 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: $150 (sponsorship opportunities available)

For more information: (813) 262-1688, 1-800-881-4475, ext. 213, www.gswcf.org

[Last modified November 3, 2007, 00:53:34]