Turns out coffee isn’t just good for an early morning (or afternoon) caffeine fix; it actually works quite well when infused into gourmet meals. Now, this recipe by Nespresso chef ambassador and Lavelle executive chef Romain Avril isn’t exactly for the beginner chef. But if you consider yourself a master at-home cook (as in, you’d consider auditioning for MasterChef Canada), it’s worth giving this a try. Not only is it delicious (duh), but the presentation is spectacular—your guests’ Instagram feeds will be proof of it. And if you just want to taste it without putting in the work, head to Lavelle in Toronto.

Nespresso on Ice Dessert

Ingredients: 3 small discs (different size) of ganache (80 g) 3 pieces of cocoa cake 1 rocher of ice cream 5 hazelnut rocks 5 white chocolate rocks 6 sprigs of mint cress 3 dollops of mascarpone 5 dots of Nespresso gel

Mascarpone foam

Ingredients: 4 yolks 1 ¼ cups cream 4 tbsp mascarpone 6 tbsp sugar

Method 1. Put everything into a food processor and strain. 2. Buzz two more times.

Nespresso on Ice gel

Ingredients: 500 ml Nespresso Leggero on Ice 30 g brown sugar 2 g sugar

Method: 1. Steam espresso and brown sugar, add sugar and blend with immersion blender. 2. Cool mixture. 3. Process set gel in high-speed blender and strain.

Nespresso on Ice ice cream (yields 1 pint)

Ingredients: 1 cup 35% cream ½ cup sugar ½ cup milk 3 egg yolks 1 vanilla bean ½ cup of Nespresso Intenso on Ice

Method: 1. Simmer the cream, milk, vanilla bean (split and scraped) for 5 minutes and let infuse. 2. Cream the eggs and sugar together (whisk thoroughly). 3. Remove the vanilla pod and add the coffee to it. 4. Whisk 1/3 of the liquid into the sugar/egg mix and add with the rest of the milk mixture on the stove. 5. Slowly simmer on low for five minutes until thickened (be careful not to cook the eggs). 6. Cool it down on ice and keep stirring so the mix will stop cooking. 7. Churn it in your ice cream machine and reserve.

Caramelized white chocolate

Ingredients: 100 g caramelized white chocolate (cook white chocolate on a double broiler until it caramelizes) 150 g butter 91 g sugar 225 g flour

Method: 1. Crumble the butter, sugar and flour together and bake at 350°F (177°C) until golden brown. 2. Poor the warm caramelized chocolate over the crumble, let cool and reserve.

Hazelnut rocks

Ingredients: 101 g hazelnut praline paste 33 g milk chocolate 33 g white chocolate 67 g feuilletine

Ingredients: 1. Melt the chocolate and the praline paste over a double broiler, then fold the feuilletine into the praline mix. 2. Cool it down by spreading it as thin as possible and break into little rocks.

Cocoa sponge

Ingredients: 140 g sugar 40 g flour 6 eggs 50 g cocoa powder Pinch of salt

Method: 1. Process in food processor, strain. Let cool for 30 minutes. 2. Fill 1 litre plastic daily containers 1/3 of the way, pierce the container in three different spots in the middle of the container with a knife to let air comes through and microwave for 45 seconds. 3. Let cool over cooling trays before unmoulding.

Flexi ganache

Ingredients: 130 g dark chocolate 300 g cream 45 g inverted sugar 25 g glucose 1 g salt .75 g agar 1.5 sheets (3g) of gelatin

Method: 1. Bring cream, inverted sugar, glucose, salt and agar to a boil, cook for two minutes. 2. Melt the dark chocolate, poor the cream mixture over the chocolate. 3. When the mixture cools, add the softened gelatin. 4. Poor over acetate- orparchment-lined tray. 5. Punch discs when set with a ring mould and lift it up and put on the plate with a flat spatula.