Menu set for five-course 'goddess of pastry' brunch, Feb. 29

Chef Claudia Fleming,  known as "the goddess of pastry" for her groundbreaking desserts, will share her sugary secrets at a five-course cookbook brunch Saturday, Feb. 29, at the Fourth Estate at the National Press Club.

Dishes included a lobster salad served with a roasted pineapple, pink peppercorns and a roasted pineapple-champagne gastrique, a caramel chocolate tart, and blini Florentine. All courses will be paired with appropriate beverages.

Brunch begins at 10 a.m. with passed nibbles. The program and seated meal begin at 11 a.m.

Tickets cost $75 per person and include a copy of the book, The Last Course. Couples tickets cost $140 and include one copy of the book. Club members receive a 15% discount ($63.75 per person/$119 per couple). Members must be signed in to the website to receive the discount. Purchase tickets online.

Fleming will discuss her recently re-released iconic cookbook, The Last Course at the five-course brunch. Bon Appetit called the book "the greatest dessert book in the history of the world." 

The Last Course was first published in 2001 as Fleming set the dessert world ablaze with her James Beard Award-winning desserts at Gramercy Tavern in New York. A renewed version of the The Last Course was reissued in November.  Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Vogue and Time.

Menu

Hors d’oeuvres

• Dates roasted with sherry & spices, wrapped in bacon
• Cornmeal mini-cakes with ham and mango chutney
• Lavender-lemon pound cake with grilled lamb sirloin 

Ginger and Port poached pear with arugula salad

Roasted pineapple with pink peppercorns, lobster salad and roast pineapple-champagne gastrique

Light-as-air Blini Florentine with Virginia ham, spinach and egg served with rosemary hollandaise

Chocolate caramel tart with caramel ice cream