Art Tea – 3 New Masterpieces

It is not just the hallowed halls of The Merrion Hotel which are filled with one of the country’s finest collection of artworks – the runaway success of The Merrion’s Art Tea has become legendary on the Dublin artistic scene.

In 2010, Executive Chef Ed Cooney and master Pastry Chef Paul Kelly originally created nine delectable pastries, each inspired by a work of art from The Merrion’s collection.

Autumn 2012 is time for the next generation of pastries to join the collection, with three new works being envisaged in cake. Pauline Bewick’s Path Moorea, Mainie Jellett’s Madonna and Child and John Doherty’s The Old Fox are the new stars of the show, each a ravishing masterpiece in its own right.

The Tahitian landscape of Path Moorea, by Pauline Bewick, has been brilliantly interpreted into a ‘Chocolate Trinity’. Dark chocolate cream, milky vanilla chocolate cream and a zingy lime and white chocolate Chantilly are combined together – and completed with tiny chocolate palm trees catching in the breeze.

Mainie Jellett’s Madonna and Child is characterised by its bright, cubist brushstrokes in blue and orange, translating delicately into a passion fruit and orange cheesecake, protected by wafer thin white chocolate panels striped in the same colours.

Finally, an eye-catching green apple macaroon transforms John Doherty’s The Old Fox, matching the colour of the garage door perfectly in pastry – and warding off rogue drivers with a miniature ‘No Parking’.

These three treats push the boundaries of pastry making at The Merrion like never before, letting Dublin’s most cerebral afternoon tea shine. Three irresistible paintings: quite literally good enough to eat.