Chefs combine nostalgia and seasonality in warm dessertsChefs combine nostalgia and seasonality in warm desserts

Le Périgord, a classic French restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, has a “Temptation Wagon” laden with desserts that rolls up to every table. The treats are included in the restaurant’s $75 prix-fixe menu.

Nonetheless, owner Georges Briguet says about three quarters of his customers order a warm soufflé, which is $8 à la carte or a $6 supplement to the prix-fixe menu.

Operators of newer restaurants also report that their warm desserts are attracting crowds. For some, the physical comfort of something warm at the end of the meal, plus the emotional comfort of the desserts’ sweetness and richness, are enough to satisfy customers. Others are using seasonal ingredients, nostalgic whimsy, pop culture references or contrasting temperatures to add extra allure to dishes.

The Rusty Spoon's strawberry crisp utilizes local Plant City, Fla., fruit. Photo: The Rusty Spoon

Churned Creamery, a made-to-order ice cream shop slated to open in February, in Tustin, Calif., plans to use the latter technique with its CroCream, a warm croissant stuffed with ice cream.

Chef David Varley takes a similar approach at RN74 in Seattle with his Valrhona Caraibe chocolate soufflé, which he pairs with affogato made with single-origin coffee.

“This is a favorite dessert because it combines many of our favorite things in varying temperatures and textures,” Varley said. “The hot and velvety soufflé paired with the cold, creamy coffee ice cream is awesome. The mingling of temperatures and aromas really makes it.”

Kirstyn Brewer, chef of Victor Tangos in Dallas, evokes a childhood favorite with her PB&J Bread Pudding. She breaks up sweet Hawaiian bread rolls, toasts them and soaks them in a custard base. She layers the soaked bread with strawberry sauce and a sauce made of peanut butter, cream and caramel. She bakes the mixture and serves it with peanut butter ice cream and chopped peanuts.

“When a dish hits a familiarity note for guests and strikes a chord with something from their past, I feel like I’ve accomplished what I set out to do,” Brewer said. “That was my goal with the PB&J Bread Pudding — to create a unique and playful adult version of something that takes all of us back to a simpler time.”

The cinnamon and coffee flavors in Babalu's bread pudding complement its Latin-inspired menu. Photo: Babalu Tacos

Seasonality and localness have their part to play in warm desserts, too, such as the seasonal fruit cobbler that comes out of the wood-fired oven at Glen Ellen Star in Glen Ellen, Calif. For the holidays, this Sonoma County restaurant offered an apple cobbler with gingersnap crumble, and in the summer, chef and owner Ari Weiswasser created a blueberry cobbler with poppy pound cake crumble. In the spring he made a strawberry cobbler with fruit picked from nearby Watmaugh Farms.

Anthony Pino, chef and owner of Anthony David’s in Hoboken, N.J., also focused on seasonality this past autumn with his pumpkin bread pudding, which he served with pumpkin seed brittle and Jack Daniel’s cream.

“For me, it’s all about textures,” Pino said. “It’s soft, warm and not too sweet.”

The seasons are different in Florida, of course, which is why Kathleen Blake, chef and owner of The Rusty Spoon in downtown Orlando, is offering a warm Plant City strawberry crisp with salted caramel gelato.

“The crispiness of the oats and brown sugar are the perfect complement to the sweetness of the local Plant City strawberries. It’s simple, seasonal and flavorful.”

Plant City is about 60 miles southwest from Orlando.

Babalu Tacos & Tapas — a chain with locations in Jackson, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Knoxville, Tenn. — ties its warm dessert into the restaurant’s Latin-inspired menu with a cinnamon bread pudding garnished with Kahlua caramel sauce and whipped cream spiked with a tequila-coffee liqueur.

E.P. & L.P. in Los Angeles ties its warm banana dessert to pop culture with its Zen Stefani dessert. Made with banana custard, banana crumble and coconut yogurt, and topped with peanuts, the dish was developed by chef Zen Ong and pays homage to Gwen Stefani’s song “Hollaback Girl” with its lyrics, “This s**t is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s!”

Tom’s Urban at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas takes a retro approach with its warm pineapple upside-down cake.

“Warm butter cake, caramelized brown sugar and pineapple are topped with a mango drizzle and salted caramel sauce,” founder Tom Ryan said. “A melt-in-your-mouth take on the classic American dessert is simple and sassy.”

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
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