Top 10 Most Difficult Dishes to Master

Puff pastry presents enough of a challenge on its own, but wrapping it around beef tenderloin, duxelles and pâté is even more difficult. The preparation varies between chefs, but the basic idea remains the same. First, the chef sears beef tenderloin in a pan, allowing it to brown on the outside but remain rare in the middle. In the same pan, the chef prepares duxelles, a mushroom-based mixture, which is then combined with pâté. The pâté mixture is spread over the tenderloin, and then the entire dish is wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden. The combination of different techniques and patience make this savory dish challenging but very worth it!

#9: St. Honoré Cake

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This complex cake was named after the patron saint of bakers, so of course it involves several challenging pastry elements. Puff pastry, already difficult as previously mentioned, serves as the base for this intricate dessert with delicate pâte à choux around the edge. Tiny profiteroles, or cream puffs, are covered in crunchy caramelized sugar, providing a myriad of textures, before being placed on top of the pâte à choux base. The entire concoction is then filled with a flavored pastry cream. Not only will you need a nap after making this intricate dessert, but you’ll probably need one after eating it, too.

This delicate sweet or savory egg-based dish can be as high as your hopes prior to making it or as deflated as you feel when you goof it. The dish originated in France in the 18th century, and it consists of two major components. The base of the dish can consist of custard, purée or cream sauce. This base provides the vast majority of the flavor and can vary depending on whether the dish is sweet or savory. The most challenging part is the soft, fluffy top, made from egg whites. Once the dish is cooked, it should be handled carefully and eaten pretty quickly in order to prevent a disappointingly premature collapse.

So far, all of our dishes have involved pastry, but this meaty concoction is quite different. Dating back to the 17th century, this French dish has a few variations nowadays, but its classical preparation is quite complex. First, the chef must debone a whole chicken. The chicken meat is then combined with truffles, veal, spices and other ingredients to create forcemeat, which is a uniform meaty concoction. The forcemeat is then wrapped in the chicken skin, tied and poached in broth. Once the dish cools and jells, it is served cold. As complicated as the dish is, galantine was actually once used in the Siege of Leningrad to feed starving citizens.

#6: Salt-Crusted Fish

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The trickiest aspect of this dish is that, despite being completely encrusted in salt, the fish is not supposed to taste overly salty. The dish starts out with a gutted fish that still has the scales attached. The inside of the fish is seasoned, and some chefs also add aromatics such as lemon and thyme sprigs. The fish is then crusted in salt until it is completely covered. Because the fish still has its skin and scales, the salt doesn’t penetrate through to the flesh. Instead, it simply creates a nice crust that retains moisture and helps keep the fish from drying out. The entire concoction is baked, and once it’s finished cooking, it makes for both a beautiful presentation and succulent dish. Plus, cracking away the salt crust is fun!

This is one of the most iconic confections and also one of the most complicated. Modern macarons usually fall into two camps: Italian and French, and the difference primarily lies in how the meringue is prepared. In both preparations, however, sugar, egg whites and ground almonds are mixed together, piped onto a cookie sheet and baked. Unlike the last dish, moisture is the enemy here, as it can threaten the integrity of the pastry. Once the cookies cool, they can be eaten alone, but traditional Parisian-style macarons are styled into a sandwich with jam or frosting in the middle. While the preparation is difficult, it’s even harder to decide what flavor you want to indulge in!

Move over, George R. R. Martin, this is the real song of ice and fire. Combining ice cream and flames seems counterintuitive, but therein lies the difficulty of this impressive dessert. Cake makes up the base. It is then topped with a mound of ice cream, and both components are frozen until the ice cream hardens. While the concoction is chilling, the chef makes a meringue using egg whites and sugar. The frozen dome created is then covered in it. Here comes the tricky part: setting ice on fire. Chefs differ on how to accomplish this, with some taking the traditional approach and baking the dessert in the oven until the meringue browns. However, some chefs use kitchen torches to get that beautiful golden color.

When one bird isn’t enough, maybe a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey can do the trick. While this particular dish is one of the newest ones on this list, it has been a long time coming. The ancient Romans created similar roasts, and the seventeen-bird rôti sans pareil - french for roast without equal - was developed in 1807 in France. The turducken’s specific origin remains unclear, but it is believed to stem from Louisiana. Because of the knife skills involved, a surgeon even helped with the original technique. Deboning the birds, keeping the skin intact and ensuring all components cook evenly takes quite a bit of skill, but it makes for a striking presentation.

With this stunning dessert, French pastries make their final appearance on our list. The complex confection was invented in the early 1800s. It consists of profiteroles, which are made from delicate choux pastry and are hollow before being filled with pastry cream, whipped cream or ice cream. They are then arranged in a towering formation. Finally, the profiteroles are covered in fine spun sugar, creating an absolutely beautiful dessert that is almost too good to eat. Combining complex pastry skills and some engineering into one dessert is a daunting task, but the results are worth it.

The rest of the dishes on this list have been difficult in their complexity, but this one is difficult in a much simpler way. If you make one small mistake when preparing the delicious fugu for consumption, the diner could die an agonizing death. In Japan, preparation of the fish is highly regulated. In fact, unless you have undergone at least three years of intensive training, you cannot legally prepare and serve it. One tiny nick of the fish’s internal organs can contaminate the meat with tetrodotoxin. If consumed, this poison can lead to paralysis, asphyxiation and eventually death. Despite the risk, this delicacy is a beloved dish and an important part of Japanese cuisine.