Orlando’s signature dish, honey is the flavor of City Beautiful

Orlando’s signature dish creates the sweetness from local honey. The City Beautiful is celebrating a delicious dessert, Orlando’s Honey Nougat Glace.

When people think about Orlando, Florida sunshine, exciting theme parks and a memorable vacation are the common thoughts. The City Beautiful is all these thoughts and more. While the theme parks draw large crowds, the local food scene is bustling.

Throughout Orlando, the local restaurants and chefs are evolving. With the abundant fresh, local flavors, the culinary scene is pushing food trends forward. Earlier in the year, Visit Orlando launched a competition to find Orlando’s signature dish.

The food competition had a specific focus. The dish had to be a dessert featuring honey. While some people would have thought that a citrus dish would be more Florida-centric, honey is a more compelling choice.

Orlando’s signature dish, Orlando’s Honey Nougat Glace, Photo by Preston Mack / Visit Orlando

Honey has a long history with Orlando and the Sunshine State. As the citrus trees flourished, the honeybees flourished as well. Today, the vast local crops help to continue to cultivate the honeybees. All those plants help to create a robust and diverse honey production. From orange blossoms to Brazilian pepper, local honey has an astonishing flavor.

After a tremendous response from local chefs, 10 dishes were chosen as finalists in this competition. A group of four judges, Art Smith, James Beard award winning chef and restaurateur, Tish Boyle, co-editor of Dessert Professional magazine, Lauren Delgado, multimedia food reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and Scott Joseph, veteran restaurant critic for scottjosephorlando.com, chose one honey dessert as Orlando’s signature dish.

The winning dish was Honey Nougat Glacé by Chef Catherine Delrieu of Mon Petit Cheri. The dessert is described as “an Italian meringue prepared with honey, nougat and fruit confit, on a red berries sorbet.” According to Chef Art Smith, the dessert has “a total sweet honey bomb with a delicious tart fruit that soothes.”

The winning dessert shows a keen balance of flavors. While the honey is the star, the sweetness isn’t overpowering. The tartness from the red berries adds a brightness to the dessert. For the end of a meal, this dessert offers a sweet note that is also refreshing.

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Orlando’s Honey Nougat Glace was created by Mon Petit Cheri in Winter Park, Florida. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and pastries.

When visiting Orlando, venture outside the theme parks for some of the area’s delicious local restaurants, bakeries and other food establishments. The flavors, creations and trends might be the memory that you take home.

Orlando’s signature dish is just one example of the innovative food scene. The City Beautiful is imagining even more delicious bites every day. What are you hungry for?

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