Simple, exotic and savory: These flavor elements, often in combination with each other, are what chefs and caterers are turning out for desserts at events and in restaurants right now. They’re making straightforward, uncluttered treats that put the focus on pure flavors—but not the flavors you might
expect. Instead of limiting themselves to traditional dessert ingredients like chocolate, common fruits and sugar, pastry chefs are experimenting with dishes like olive oil ice cream, beet cake and tea-infused treats. And the profusion of high-end Asian-influenced restaurants—like Spice Market, Geisha, and the Biltmore Room—has increased demand for exotic, tropical fruits that were rarely found on menus until recently. Here are the newest trends in desserts.
Get Rid of the Fluff
The overarching theme with the new desserts is simplicity—focusing on a few ingredients and leaving behind extras that look nice, but do little for the palate. “There’s a trend towards focusing on flavor and conveying what’s truly important: the ingredients,” says Spice Market pastry chef Pichet Ong. “It’s more simplified. Good, clean flavors are in.” Green tea, pumpkin, apple and ginger are among the flavors Ong gives precedence in his creations, and he’s also used exotic fruits like calamansi, jackfruit and papaya to create clean, simple flavors. “No extraneous details, like sauces just for color, or garnish for appearance, or sugarworks,” he says. “Not as much flash.”
Bôi pastry chef Bill Yosses agrees. “Ingredients are the new star,” he says.
Michel Nischan, formerly of Heartbeat and currently a chef-consultant for Taj Hotels and Resorts, says the simplicity trend will go even further. “We’re getting away from pastries that use processed sugar and processed flour. Not that I agree with the Atkins diet, but it certainly has raised attention to the kinds of carbohydrates we eat. People are going to go back to using whole grains and entire wheat flours.” A signature example of this trend: Nischan pairs vine-ripened peaches with semolina bread toasted with extra virgin olive oil and drizzled with rhododendron honey.
Drop the Berries
Even if you’re never heard of durian, jackfruit or açaĂ, it’s only a matter of time before one of these exotic fruits is sitting on your plate. Fusion chefs are venturing beyond typical, native fruits and importing what they can’t find at the green market. “If chefs can’t find the ingredients, they introduce them to the market,” says Ian Chalermkittichai, chef-owner of Kittichai restaurant at the 60 Thompson Hotel. Chalermkittichai’s latest inspiration is jackfruit, a fruit native to Southeast Asia with pineapple and banana flavors, which he’s incorporated into sorbets and crème brĂ»lĂ©es.
Durian, formerly a forbidden fruit in professional kitchens for its repugnant smell when cut open, is abundant in Chinatown markets but was absent from menus until recently. It’s appeared as an ice cream flavor on the Spice Market dessert menu and as a cream pie at chef Zak Pelaccio’s 5 Ninth.
Kumquats appear on Geisha’s dessert menu in a confit served with yuza mille-feuille. Gotham Bar and Grill pastry chef Deborah Racicot serves cardamom-poached kumquats with her duo of bittersweet chocolate and orange cardamom crème brûlées. Heather Umlah of Fancy Girl Catering served a dessert cocktail made of açaà (a Brazilian rainforest fruit with strawberry and chocolate flavors), simple syrup, Absolut Citron and Cointreau at an event for Aveda.
Pleasing Not-So-Sweet Tooths
Savory elements—unlikely dessert ingredients like vegetables, olive oil and other non-sweet items—are no longer a novelty. “The use of savory is a trend,” says Jane Park of Kai restaurant, which serves tea-oriented dishes. Kai sous chef Daisuke Horai’s desserts include a black sesame and green tea layer cake and Earl Grey-infused citrus fruits served with almonds coated in powdered green tea. Asiate chef Noriyuki Sugie offers an Earl Grey and tamarind crème brûlée on his dessert menu.
“I use more vegetables,” says WD-50 pastry chef Sam Mason. “I worked with Jean-Louis Palladin for a while and he started opening my mind to savory elements, and since then I haven’t really seen the line between savory and sweet. Everything’s fair game to me.”
Some highlights on Mason’s menu include beet cake with chocolate sorbet and beet caramel, and he’s currently working on a parmesan ice cream and olive caramel for his summer dessert menu.
Chef Chris Siversen of Bridgewaters served olive oil ice cream with a banana pecan gratin for a Merrill Lynch holiday party at Twenty Four Fifth.
Other newly popular ingredients are floral elements like lavender (Dumonet offers a lavender crème brûlée); medjool dates (Town’s Luci Levere serves them with fresh fruit); and sakeinfused dishes, like Nobu pastry chef Jessica Isaacs’ plum wine poached peaches with sake zabaglione. Urban Events served jalapeño gelato with Mexican vanilla madeleines at the Friends of the High Line benefit in mid-July.
—Suzanne Ito
expect. Instead of limiting themselves to traditional dessert ingredients like chocolate, common fruits and sugar, pastry chefs are experimenting with dishes like olive oil ice cream, beet cake and tea-infused treats. And the profusion of high-end Asian-influenced restaurants—like Spice Market, Geisha, and the Biltmore Room—has increased demand for exotic, tropical fruits that were rarely found on menus until recently. Here are the newest trends in desserts.
Get Rid of the Fluff
The overarching theme with the new desserts is simplicity—focusing on a few ingredients and leaving behind extras that look nice, but do little for the palate. “There’s a trend towards focusing on flavor and conveying what’s truly important: the ingredients,” says Spice Market pastry chef Pichet Ong. “It’s more simplified. Good, clean flavors are in.” Green tea, pumpkin, apple and ginger are among the flavors Ong gives precedence in his creations, and he’s also used exotic fruits like calamansi, jackfruit and papaya to create clean, simple flavors. “No extraneous details, like sauces just for color, or garnish for appearance, or sugarworks,” he says. “Not as much flash.”
Bôi pastry chef Bill Yosses agrees. “Ingredients are the new star,” he says.
Michel Nischan, formerly of Heartbeat and currently a chef-consultant for Taj Hotels and Resorts, says the simplicity trend will go even further. “We’re getting away from pastries that use processed sugar and processed flour. Not that I agree with the Atkins diet, but it certainly has raised attention to the kinds of carbohydrates we eat. People are going to go back to using whole grains and entire wheat flours.” A signature example of this trend: Nischan pairs vine-ripened peaches with semolina bread toasted with extra virgin olive oil and drizzled with rhododendron honey.
Drop the Berries
Even if you’re never heard of durian, jackfruit or açaĂ, it’s only a matter of time before one of these exotic fruits is sitting on your plate. Fusion chefs are venturing beyond typical, native fruits and importing what they can’t find at the green market. “If chefs can’t find the ingredients, they introduce them to the market,” says Ian Chalermkittichai, chef-owner of Kittichai restaurant at the 60 Thompson Hotel. Chalermkittichai’s latest inspiration is jackfruit, a fruit native to Southeast Asia with pineapple and banana flavors, which he’s incorporated into sorbets and crème brĂ»lĂ©es.
Durian, formerly a forbidden fruit in professional kitchens for its repugnant smell when cut open, is abundant in Chinatown markets but was absent from menus until recently. It’s appeared as an ice cream flavor on the Spice Market dessert menu and as a cream pie at chef Zak Pelaccio’s 5 Ninth.
Kumquats appear on Geisha’s dessert menu in a confit served with yuza mille-feuille. Gotham Bar and Grill pastry chef Deborah Racicot serves cardamom-poached kumquats with her duo of bittersweet chocolate and orange cardamom crème brûlées. Heather Umlah of Fancy Girl Catering served a dessert cocktail made of açaà (a Brazilian rainforest fruit with strawberry and chocolate flavors), simple syrup, Absolut Citron and Cointreau at an event for Aveda.
Pleasing Not-So-Sweet Tooths
Savory elements—unlikely dessert ingredients like vegetables, olive oil and other non-sweet items—are no longer a novelty. “The use of savory is a trend,” says Jane Park of Kai restaurant, which serves tea-oriented dishes. Kai sous chef Daisuke Horai’s desserts include a black sesame and green tea layer cake and Earl Grey-infused citrus fruits served with almonds coated in powdered green tea. Asiate chef Noriyuki Sugie offers an Earl Grey and tamarind crème brûlée on his dessert menu.
“I use more vegetables,” says WD-50 pastry chef Sam Mason. “I worked with Jean-Louis Palladin for a while and he started opening my mind to savory elements, and since then I haven’t really seen the line between savory and sweet. Everything’s fair game to me.”
Some highlights on Mason’s menu include beet cake with chocolate sorbet and beet caramel, and he’s currently working on a parmesan ice cream and olive caramel for his summer dessert menu.
Chef Chris Siversen of Bridgewaters served olive oil ice cream with a banana pecan gratin for a Merrill Lynch holiday party at Twenty Four Fifth.
Other newly popular ingredients are floral elements like lavender (Dumonet offers a lavender crème brûlée); medjool dates (Town’s Luci Levere serves them with fresh fruit); and sakeinfused dishes, like Nobu pastry chef Jessica Isaacs’ plum wine poached peaches with sake zabaglione. Urban Events served jalapeño gelato with Mexican vanilla madeleines at the Friends of the High Line benefit in mid-July.
—Suzanne Ito
Desserts don’t have to be sweet: Beet cake with chocolate sorbet and beet caramel is one of pastry chef Sam Mason’s savory creations at WD-50.
Chef Bill Yosses of Bôi restaurant offered sweet basil seed tapioca with pomegranate molasses at Citymeals-on-Wheels’ benefit.
Simple and exotic: Chef Pichet Ong serves durian ice cream in a soupspoon at Spice Market.
