Renowned pastry chef Jesús Escalera has created a dessert menu for London’s Qima Café.
Founded in 2016 as an ethical coffee sourcing business focused on supporting smallholder farmers in Yemen, Qima dedicates 10% of its profits to helping coffee-growing communities.
Escalera, who was head pastry chef at El Bulli hotel and El Bulli restaurant in Spain, and Heston Blumental’s The Fat Duck in Bray, has developed a series of desserts and cakes that explore coffee, storytelling, and quality patisserie. Items from the new menu will be available at Qima’s two sites in Fitzrovia and Covent Garden.
“We see Qima Café as a platform to reimagine what a coffee experience can be,” said Qima founder and CEO Faris Sheibani. “Jesús Escalera’s ability to tell stories through desserts is a perfect match for our ethos: combining beauty, origin, ethics, and artistry in everything we serve.”
Highlights of the new menu include:
- Cacao Glacé: Cocoa shell with spiced sponge, orange peel purée, cinnamon-tonka foam, cocoa streusel, chocolate & cocoa gelato
- The Pistachio Project: Pistachio mousse in chocolate-pistachio shell, citrus sponge, mandarin purée, pistachio gelato on crumble
- Fleur de Verre: A blown sugar globe with rose-yogurt foam, spiced honey sponge, strawberry-balsamic soup, and crystallised petals
- The Black Forest: Chocolate log with almond praline, cherry pâte de fruit, vinegar jelly, cocoa streusel, ruby leaves, Amarena cherries, cherry sorbet
- Banana Toffee Crackle: Brown butter financier, caramelised banana, banana ice cream, cocoa phyllo, walnut crunch, honey toffee
- Brick By Brick: Raspberry mousse, basil sponge, pâte de fruit, crisp chocolate shell
- Qima Basque Cheesecake: Caramelised crust and custard-like centre, crustless and creamy
- The Strawberry: A realistic strawberry filled with Earl Grey mousse, fig gel, lemon core
- The Qima Coffee Cup: Trompe-l’œil dessert with dark chocolate mousse, espresso toffee, hazelnut praline, soaked sponge.
“Qima’s philosophy has deeply inspired me to seek out ingredients with strong character, just as they do with their coffees,” explained Escalera. “It has also encouraged me to explore a variety of regions to create truly distinctive desserts.
”This approach gives me much more creative freedom. Normally, the drink supports the dessert, but in this case, we reversed the roles. The coffee became the main focus, and the desserts were crafted to complement and enhance it.”
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