• Preheat one oven to 155°C fan forced and another to 165°C fan forced.
• Place a deep sided oven tray in the freezer.

The Box

• Half fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer over low heat.
• Combine 250g white chocolate and colouring powder in a medium bowl. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water, stirring until white chocolate reaches 45°C and melts.
• Add cocoa butter and stir until melted. Remove bowl from the saucepan, reserving saucepan of simmering water and topping up water as needed.
• Gradually add as much of the remaining white chocolate as needed to drop the temperature of melted chocolate to 30°C, stirring until melted and smooth.
• One at a time, very lightly grease a 5cm silicon box mould with canola oil spray. Wearing gloves and holding the corner of the mould with tongs, briefly submerge the mould into an insulated bowl of liquid nitrogen. Lift out and carefully pour excess nitrogen back into the bowl.
• Hold the mould in gloved hands and working quickly, add a ladle of tempered chocolate to the inside of the mould, rotating to cover all sides then pour excess chocolate back into the bowl.
• Holding the corner of the mould with tongs, briefly submerge the mould into the liquid nitrogen for 1 second to set hard. Lift out and carefully pour excess nitrogen back into the bowl. Transfer mould to an oven tray.
• Repeat for each silicon box mould. Place the tray of filled moulds in the fridge. Reserve the liquid nitrogen for use later.

Grilled Mandarin Custard

• Warm a grill pan over high heat.
• Fill a water bath with water and preheat to 75°C.
• Peel mandarins, reserving the flesh for later use and weigh 37g of the peel. Reserve any remaining peel.
• Place mandarin peel, skin side down, into hot grill pan and weigh down with a large saucepan. Grill on one side for 6 minutes or until char marks are dark.
• Combine grilled peel and cream in a Food Saver bag and seal with the Food Saver machine. Carefully place bag in the water bath, submerge and leave for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Puree

• Remove any mandarin stems. Cut a deep cross in the top of each mandarin, halfway through. Place whole mandarins in a small saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 3 minutes then drain, discarding the water. Repeat 4 more times.
• Meanwhile, combine the water, sugar and honey in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove saucepan from the heat and set aside.

Rosemary Sherbet

• Place rosemary leaves on an oven tray and toast in 155°C oven for 10 minutes or until dry. Set aside to cool.

Honeycomb

• Combine sugar, glucose, honey and water in a small saucepan and heat to 155°C over high heat.
• Meanwhile, grease and line the base and sides of a small loaf pan with baking paper.
• When honeycomb reaches 155°C, add bicarb and stir through. Quickly transfer honeycomb to prepared pan and set aside to cool.

Grilled Mandarin Custard (continued)

• Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 3 minutes to soften. Lift gelatine from the water, squeezing water out. Reserve the bowl of water.
• Combine sugar, eggs and honey in a medium bowl and whisk until frothy.
• Remove mandarin peel from the warm cream, squeezing cream from the skin. Discard the peel.
• Weigh 150g of infused cream into a small bowl. Transfer remaining infused cream to a medium bowl and place in the fridge.
• Whilst whisking, gradually add 150g of infused cream to the sugar/egg mixture. Transfer egg/cream mixture to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, whilst stirring until mixture reaches 78°C and thickens. Remove saucepan from the heat.
• Add gelatine and stir to dissolve. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl and cool slightly over an ice bath. Place in the fridge.

Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Puree (continued)

• After blanching and draining, transfer mandarins to the saucepan of syrup. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Honey Yoghurt Pearls

• Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 3 minutes to soften. Lift gelatine from the water, squeezing water out. Discard the bowl of water.
• Combine reserved mandarin peel, water, sugar, honey and vanilla bean seeds in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove saucepan from the heat.
• Remove and discard mandarin peel.
• Add gelatine to the syrup, stir through and set saucepan aside for 5 minutes to cool.

Citrus Isomalt Wafer

• Combine isomalt, nougasec and water in a small saucepan and melt over high heat. Warm to 220°C then remove saucepan from the heat and set aside to cool to 170°C.
• Place a silpat mat onto a large flat tray. Grease the silpat mat then lightly wipe.

Honey Yoghurt Pearls (continued)

• Combine yoghurt and cooled syrup in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
• Transfer mixture to a squeeze bottle. If needed, briefly warm the bottle in the water bath and shake to bring back to liquid consistency.
• In small batches, gently squeeze the bottle to allow droplets to fall into insulated bowl of liquid nitrogen to freeze small round pearls. Leave for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove pearls and place in a small bowl. Store in the freezer.

Citrus Isomalt Wafer (continued)

• When isomalt mixture has reached 170°C, add orange zest and stir well.
• Transfer to prepared silpat and set aside to harden.

Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Puree (continued)

• Remove mandarins from the syrup and transfer to the cannister of a stick blender. Blend mandarins to a smooth puree. Set the syrup aside.
• Add 80ml of reserved syrup and blend for 1 minute or until very smooth. Season with salt and citric acid if needed.
• Pass mandarin puree through a fine sieve into a measuring jug.
• Place the tray of microgem (0.9cm) silicon moulds onto a flat oven tray. Pour puree into moulds and use a small palette knife to smooth the surface. Transfer tray to the freezer for 1 hour or until set.

Nitrogen Mandarin Segments

• Remove any heavy pith from the mandarin flesh and separate into segments.
• Place the segments into insulated bowl of liquid nitrogen. Leave for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove segments from the nitrogen and transfer to a ziplock bag. Tap the segments with the back of a large metal spoon to separate the individual mandarin cells.
• Remove cold tray from the freezer. Transfer mandarin to the cold tray. Working quickly, remove any large solid pieces of flesh, membrane, pith or seeds.
• Transfer to a fine sieve and shake to remove fine pieces of pith. Transfer to a small bowl and store in the freezer.

The Box (continued)

• When set, remove moulds from the fridge. Snap excess top edges off the box. Place mould, open side up over an inverted dariole mould. With a brief and smooth action, carefully pull the sides straight down to pop the box out. Repeat with all boxes.
• Warm a small frypan over low heat for 10 seconds then remove from the heat. Briefly touch the open side of each box onto the surface of the pan to give flush edges. Transfer to a tray, open side up and place in the fridge.

Box Coating

• Combine cocoa butter and colouring powder in a medium bowl. Place bowl over reserved saucepan of simmering water, stirring until melted and well combined. Cool to 35°C then transfer mixture to a spray gun.
• Transfer 3 boxes to a small wire rack, open side down. In a spray booth, lightly spray the outside of the boxes from 30cm away, rotating to coat evenly and to give a stone/slate affect. Transfer wire rack to the fridge to store boxes.

Gingerbread

• Place a flat tray in the freezer.
• Combine butter, golden syrup and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat to melt and dissolve. Remove saucepan from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
• Sift flour, bicarbonate, ginger and cinnamon into a medium bowl.
• Add egg to the saucepan of butter/sugar mixture and stir through.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix, using your hands to bring together.
• In two batches, use a rolling pin to roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to 1mm thickness.
• Transfer dough sheets to the cold tray and freeze for 5-10 minutes or until firm.

Citrus Isomalt Wafer (continued)

• Set isomalt sheet
• Break the set isomalt into small pieces and transfer to a small food processor. Process isomalt to a fine powder.
• Place a 4cm square plastic stencil over the same silpat mat. Dust powdered isomalt into the square stencil through a small fine sieve in an even layer to completely cover the inside of the stencil. Repeat to make atleast two squares. Remove the stencil.
• Bake isomalt squares at 165°C for 2 minutes or until melted. Remove tray from the oven and set aside for 1 minute to cool slightly. Whilst still slightly warm, remove isomalt squares from silpat and lay flat in a small container with baking paper between.

Gingerbread (continued)

• Use a small flower cutter to cut at least 8 flowers from the chilled dough.
• Carefully transfer flowers to a large flat baking paper lined tray. Bake at 155°C for 8 minutes. Remove tray from the oven and set aside to cool.

Rosemary Sherbet (continued)

• Combine dried rosemary, sugar, citric acid and salt in a small food processor and pulse to a fine powder. Transfer to a small container and set aside.

Grilled Mandarin Custard (continued)

• Whisk by hand, the remaining infused cream to soft peaks.
• Add whipped infused cream to the set custard and fold through. Transfer to a piping bag and store in the fridge.

Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Puree

• Combine dark chocolate and cocoa butter in a medium bowl. Place bowl over the reserved saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted. Remove saucepan from the heat and set aside.
• When Mandarin Puree is frozen, work quickly to remove from the moulds and insert a toothpick into each piece.
• One at a time, holding the end of the toothpick, dip Mandarin Puree into liquid nitrogen then dip into the chocolate/cocoa butter mixture, allowing excess to drip back into the bowl. Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle a pinch of salt flakes over the rounded side. Holding the end of the toothpick, shallow dip the Mandarin Puree into insulated bowl of liquid nitrogen for 1 second, not submerging the base around the toothpick.
• Place each chocolate dipped piece salt side down on a small tray. Remove the toothpick and discard. Gently push the chocolate over the small hole left from the toothpick to seal. Place the tray in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dark Chocolate Soil

• Finely grate the zest of the mandarin.
• In a small food processor, combine dark chocolate and cocoa powder and process to a coarse crumb.
• Add egg white, vegetable oil and mandarin zest and briefly pulse to a chunky crumb.
• Transfer Chocolate Soil to a small bowl. Season with citric acid and store in the fridge.

Honeycomb (continued)

• Set honeycomb
• Use a serrated knife to trim the edges from the Honeycomb and cut the aerated centre into 3-5mm pieces. Pass through a coarse sieve, discarding the fine powder.

To combine elements:

• Combine frozen Mandarin Segments and Honey Yoghurt Pearls in a small container and store in the freezer.
• Combine Gingerbread Flowers, Honeycomb, and Chocolate Soil in a small container and mix well. Store at room temperature.
• Transfer black boxes to a small tray and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

To serve:

• Fold a piece of paper towel into four and place onto a small tray. Place the box onto the paper towel, open side facing up.
• Add lemon thyme to the box.
• Add Rosemary Sherbet to combined Mandarin and Yoghurt Pearls and gently mix through. Add to the box.
• Add one Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Puree to the box, salted side down.
• Place a square of Citrus Isomalt Wafer on top to create a clear divide.
• Add combined Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Chocolate Soil to the box.
• Cut the tip off the piping bag and pipe Grilled Mandarin Custard into the box to fill.
• Hold the box in one hand and with the other hand, hold the serving plate upside down over open side of the box. Carefully flip box and plate so the box is open side down in the centre of the plate.