After a day of tasting and learning about Guinness ale in Dublin, Matthew Robinson ordered a dessert that years later, he’s still thinking about: The Knickerbocker Glory, a classic British ice cream parfait. It was, as he says, “A WOW moment”.
In his book, Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef’s Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond (with contributions from chef, recipe developer and cookbook author Andrea Lynn), Robinson gives readers a look into the creation process, both in and outside of the kitchen using real world culinary examples and tips he picked up from his experience in the food industry.
Knickerbocker Glory is both a guide to creating masterpiece desserts and a resource for becoming more innovative in the culinary and real world. Using a basic recipe—a layered ice cream dessert—and encouraging some out-of-the-box thinking, he shows readers how innovation can be applied to achieve extraordinary results, from “wow” moments on the plate and even reinvention in the office.
In addition, Robinson shares 30 recipes for Knickerbocker Glory variations such as White Chocolate Pretzel, Chai Tea, A Date with a Fig, Pumpkin Spice, Black and Tan and Cherries Jubilee.
Who Wrote It?
Matthew Robinson has spent 17 years in the food industry as a scientist, spokesperson, and product developer. He is the founder of exCLAIM International, a nutrition science and claims strategy consultancy that helps clients turn the complexities of science and new innovations into communications that are compelling and beneficial to the consumer and health care professional. He is also creator of TheCulinaryExchange.net, an up-and-coming destination for information regarding innovation in the culinary arts.
Robinson has an M.S. from The University of Georgia in Nutrition Science and is a graduate of the professional culinary program at The French Culinary Institute in New York City. He resides in Amsterdam.
Andrea Lynn (www.andrealynnfoodwriter.com) is a food writer and recipe developer. Her recipes have been featured on Serious Eats, Chile Pepper Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens’ bookazines, Kiwi magazine’s cookbook, Allergy-Friendly Food for Families and others. She has edited and tested recipes for MarthaStewart.com, Art Culinaire, Chile Pepper Magazine and cookbooks like Made with Love, Food52.com and many cookbook authors. She is the author of two other cookbooks, The I Love Trader Joe’s College Cookbook and The Artisan Soda Workshop. She lives in New York.
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Praise for Knickerbocker Glory
☆☆☆☆☆
Author Matthew Robinson has created a book (with the aid of illustrator Todd Miller and contributor, author chef Andrea Lynn) that takes a concept – in this case `Innovation’ – and makes it a lesson rewarded with the accoutrements of some delicious edibles. Robinson has impressive credentials: hw has been active in the food industry as an innovator, scientist, product developer and spokesperson and has a master of science degree from the University of Georgia in Nutrition Science and a diploma from the professional culinary program at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. He also has a fine knack for teaching a concept that is applicable to all forms of interaction with the world at large by offering an excellent course in improving food created in our kitchens that produce the WOW! Effect. It works very, very well.
To keep the comments short, Robinson defines innovation and how to get there with 6 stages that follow the path form deciding what you want to do, getting inspired and experimenting until you achieve the desired WOW! effect. Those stages are 1) State – what are you trying to accomplish?, 2) Stimulate – important facts and information, 3) Formulate – organizing the facts into themes or opportunity areas, 4) Ideate – putting ideas to paper, 5) Create – bring the ideas to life, turning ideas into real products, and 6) Iterate – perfecting the products. It is easy to see where Robinson wants to take us – form the basic idea of enhancing a culinary product that makes it uniquely our own innovation, and transferring that new knowledge into the way we approach all aspects of how we live and work.
Then comes the fun! The Knickerbocker Glory is a dessert treat served in a soda/pilsner glass – layer upon layer of goodies such as ice cream, cake, fruit curd, crunch, and cream. What is provided here is not only the various ideas of how to select the layers that will make the dessert seem to have endless variations but also the recipes that go along with how to make every layer ingredient selected for your special final product. This is a very tasty way to nudge yourself into the vein of Innovation. Amazon Top 50 Reviewer
☆☆☆☆☆
Matthew Robinson uses his background as a scientist, product developer, and chef to write this book about how innovations get their start and the process involved in making them become a reality.He spells out the steps to innovation with specific examples, charts and descriptions that are easy to follow and understand.
Matthew illustrates the concept using recipes. The Knickerbocker Glory is a dessert he had when traveling abroad . He uses the concept of the dessert to create other desserts of similar structure. Some of his creations are called: Cherries Jubilee, Nutty Peach, and Citrus Explosion.
Through his book, Matthew has illustrated that you are limited only by your imagination when it comes to innovation. Once you read this book, you will be making and creating your own Knickerbocker Glories. Buon Appetito! Amazon Top 500 Reviewer
☆☆☆☆
I certainly hope those responsible for this book (Matthew Robinson – author, Andrea Lynn – chef and author, and Todd Miller – illustrator) will be pleased to know that their efforts inspired me to create my own Knickerbocker Glory. I had never heard that term used before but deduced from the cover of the book that I must be about to read a cookbook for dessert sundaes. Actually the book presents recipes for 30 interesting and/or unusual treats, but so much more. I am the type of cook who follows a recipe the first time I make a dish and then makes my own adjustments if I make the recipe another time. I don’t consider myself to be creative, simply adaptive. This book gave the basic history of the Knickerbocker Glory and then concentrated on how to use innovation in concocting your own signature dessert with concepts that can carry over into all aspects in your personal life and career. I saw it as a kind of challenge to me to actually try to be creative. So the upshot of all that was that I presented myself with the idea of using Matthew Robinson’s method of applying ideas for looking at an opportunity in a different way which led me to be more creative than I knew I could be. With the help of this book I was inspired to use my own ideas to fulfill a challenge and come up with my own Knickerbocker Glory. Once I began to use the helpful information in this book, it went like a breeze. The result was a gorgeous, delicious treat! Here are the components for my first original Knickerbocker Glory. I have not included any ingredient amounts because that will be determined by how many desserts you plan to make. Just believe you can do it………and then wing it! It’s very exciting to be creative.
Goal: To create my own original Knickerbocker Glory.
Inspiration: To use only those ingredients and items on hand in my home.
Things considered: #1 – try a new cooking technique, #2 – find a suitable container for showcasing the dessert, #3 – be innovative in finding a component of the recipe.
LEMON BLUEBERRY KNICKERBOCKER GLORY
Top layer: Italian Meringue with fresh blueberries for decoration (I’ve wanted to try Italian meringue for a while now.)
Second layer: Blueberry coulis
Third layer: Soft lemon cookie, crumbled
Fourth layer: Fresh blueberries
Fifth layer: Vanilla/lemon ice cream (softened the vanilla ice cream, added lemon curd until desired tartness was achieved, refroze the ice cream)
Sixth layer: Blueberry coulis
Seventh layer: Pound cake cut into cubes
Serving: Used a clear pilsner glass and long iced tea spoon
By following the concepts laid out in this book I defined my goal, identified my inspiration, and planned my things to consider to end up with a delicious, beautiful product. The wonderful part is that these same strategies will translate into other aspects of my life. Now I’m ready for the planning session to come up with a fundraising idea for a non-profit group I volunteer with. Wow, all from making a dessert! Amazon Top 50 Reviewer
☆☆☆☆
There are two kinds of cooks – those who follow a recipe religiously, right down to the plating design if they are lucky enough to have a picture, and those who look at a recipe as a mere guideline to tinker with. I am a tinkerer. My lessons in innovation came at the hand of my grandmother. There were several, but the one that really sticks in my mind was Grandma’s Rhubarb Pie. I was a new bride and my Grandma had come for a visit to see my new apartment. As a special treat I baked a Peach Pie. (I still use the same recipe.) Grandma loved my pie and asked for the recipe, saying “this will make the best Rhubarb Custard Pie!” She never baked my Peach Pie, but she made that Rhubarb Custard Pie every rhubarb season until the day she died.
It is not an easy thing to teach someone to think in a different way, “outside the box” as it were, but this kind of creative thinking is what leads not only to new recipes but to new medicines, computers, smart phones and men walking on the moon. Authors Matthew Robinson & Andrea Lynn present a systematic methodology to help teach this sort of thinking in Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef’s Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond. I received a preview copy from their publishers a few days ago.
Using the example of an old classic dessert called a Knickerbocker Glory, full of layers of cake and fruit and cream and crunch, the authors outline a detailed strategy for making the Knickerbocker Glory – or anything else – your own. While an individual cook might find the strategy useful, Matthew’s long experience in the food industry is readily apparent in the corporate-world strategy sessions he lays out in the first half of the book.
In the subsequent chapters the authors present recipes for 30 different takes on the Knickerbocker Glory along with recipes for various components – fruit curd, cake and the like. I thought that most of the Knickerbocker Glory variations sounded luscious, though I must admit that, tinkerer that I am, I took one look at Nutty Peach and decided that mine would have pecans and gingerbread instead of almonds and yellow cake.
I do have just one other comment. As written, Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef’s Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond would be a great textbook for a college-level Business or Hotel-Restaurant Management Program, almost entirely due to the focus of the Innovation Outside the Kitchen blocks. I would have liked to have seen a less industry-oriented focus in that material, as this would otherwise be suitable both for middle-school aged homeschoolers and high school students as well as friendlier for home cooks who simply want to cook more creatively.
Grandma’s $0.02 – Great strategy guide, perfect for group lessons in innovative thinking.
Amazon Top 50 Reviewer
☆☆☆
Matthew Robinson’s KNICKERBOCKER GLORY presents itself on one level as a cookbook, and on another as an inspirational tome aimed at revving up your creative juices. A “Knickerbocker Glory” is actually a type of parfait, in which layers of ice cream, cake, fruit, and sauce are arranged in a tall glass. Robinson spends some time at the start of the book explaining how amazing this dessert is, how much he loved it the first time he experienced it (in Great Britain, where it’s popular), and what a “WOW!” moment it gave him. And while the last sixty or so pages of the book do offer recipes for a variety of Knickerbocker Glory parfaits (with plenty of room for innovation suggested), the first thirty-five pages read like a motivational speaker’s script for one of those workshops meant to get your creative juices bubbling. Even after reading through the book and trying a few of the recipes, I’m not sure what kind of reader Robinson is targeting. Is this a book for people interested in making parfaits, or is it a book for people looking to develop new and innovative products for the marketplace?
As for the recipes, I have to say up front that I’m not a huge ice cream fan, and I’ve never met a parfait that gave me a “wow moment.” I’m also a cook that’s used to innovation in the kitchen, so Robinson’s tips and encouragement to play around with his recipes were unnecessary for me. All that said, I did enjoy the “Study in Ginger” parfait (which combines gingerbread, gingersnaps, and ginger whipped cream with the ice cream). I added crushed pineapple (because I just like pineapple), and I think it worked. I also liked the “Chocolate Grasshopper” (I added Crème de Menthe!), and the “White Chocolate Pretzel” (what could be better than cake, raspberry coulis, and pretzels?).
As for the motivational section of the book, I have to admit that Robinson lost me. He offers charts on the steps to coming up with a “WOW!” moment, which he calls “the `ates'”: State, Stimulate, Formulate, Ideate, Create, and Iterate. There’s something called “A Recipe for Innovation,” and a cool-looking graphic on how putting together a Knickerbocker Glory parfait is pretty much the same thing as the process of innovation. He also offers a bunch of little side boxes labeled “Innovation Outside the Kitchen,” which are supposed to encourage you to think non-traditionally (i.e. “outside the box”), break the rules, get stimulated by people, and be willing to “fail fast” (which means “getting to success more quickly”). Things like this don’t work for me. It’s all rather canned and generic, and nothing Robinson is saying is either new or innovative. If you’re a fan of motivational workshops, you might feel differently. For me, the parfaits were better than the metaphors.
Bottom line, KNICKERBOCKER GLORY is two books in one – it’s a celebration of parfaits (with recipes and tips for innovation in the kitchen), and a kick-in-the-pants attempt to inspire innovative thinking outside the kitchen. I liked the parfaits; I wasn’t crazy about the motivational aspects of the book. What will work for you depends on your goals and interests.Amazon Top 500 Reviewer
Other Details
By Matthew Robinson with Andrea Lynn
Publisher: The Culinary Exchange
Non-fiction
ISBN:Hardback 978-0-9891258-1-9
ISBN:Paperback 978-0-9891258-0-2
www.theculinaryexchange.net
