When I walked into Chef Sanjana Patel’s La Folie, the city-based patisserie that serves European gourmet desserts to sample Contrast (her new Autumn/Winter 2014 menu) I felt I was transported to the dessert degustation episode of Masterchef Australia Season six. Here, contestants had to create course after course of delectable desserts, which looked straight like an artwork from a picture book.

Antioxidant is an interplay between panna cotta and beetroot juice

For the uninitiated, degustation means an appreciative tasting of various foods that focuses on the gustatory system, the senses and culinary art. It involves sampling small portions of all of a chef’s signature dishes in one sitting and is accompanied by a matching wine degustation, which complements each dish. Only in this case, flavoured teas replaced the wine. Each dessert was paired with a tea that cleared the palate and enhanced the dessert’s taste.