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Friday night was the New York Food & Wine Festival “Sweet” event.  A rare opportunity to try some of the best desserts from New York’s top pastry chefs–all in one place.  This is part 2 of our report  (Part 1 with fan favorite Doughnut Plant and Johnny Iuzzini is here). 

Ron Ben-Israel, fresh off the debut of his new show on the Food Network, Sweet Genius, showed off his cakes skills with a cake pairing: Salty Godiva chocolate cake with salty pistachio and mascarpone filling and an almond cake with brown sugar and  apple fillings.  For a review of Ron’s new show, Sweet Genius go here.

Catrine Oscarson from Mas Farmhouse brought a date cake with cinnamon caramel cranberry compote and yogurt mousse.  She also brought some House-made marshmallows as well.  Catrine’s desserts from Mas were featured on these pages a few weeks ago.

The colorful and flavorful French macarons from Ludovic Augendre and Florian Bellanger of Mad Mac.

Allison Kave from from First Prize Pies transported us to a New England bed and breakfast with her Hot Chocolate Pie with Godiva Chocolate.  This was no ordinary pie–it had a serious spicy kick to it.  You can find Allison selling her pies at the Hester Street Fair.  Look for a video of Allison talking about this pie later this week.

Stephen Colluci from Colicchio and Sons brought a beautifully composed dish containing a peanut butter chocolate pretzel tart and banana malted milk.  He also had a huge tub of dark chocolate pieces with pretzels.  The banana malted milk was not sweet at all which  helped cut the sweetness factor of the tart.  Look for a video of Stephen talking about his dish later this week.

Elisa Strauss used a cool “push-up” apparatus to house her delicious White Chocolate layer cake.  Look for a video of Elisa talking about her cakes soon.

Deborah Racicot from Gotham Bar and Grill brought a cinnamon cheesecake with roasted figs.  The roasted figs added some texture to her silky smooth cheesecake.  Gotham Bar and Grill has been putting out superb desserts for years.  Go here for DessertBuzz coverage of Gotham Bar and Grill desserts.

Long time DessertBuzz favorite Gustavo Tzoc from Abe and Arthur’s brought a “comfort food” dessert of French toast bread pudding and Godiva chocolate chip butter pecan ice cream.  Read and interview with Gustavo Tzoc from the DessertBuzz archives here.

Ashley Brauze from DB Bistro Moderne brought one of my favorite desserts of the evening.  She said  this light dessert was meant to compliment all the chocolate desserts that were expected to be on hand.  I found the “Plum Delice”  (Ricotta Mousse, cornmeal poundcake, plum gelee and candied corn) to be really light and flavorful–the candied corn was a nice touch as well.  Look for a video of Ashley talking about the dessert in the coming weeks.

Katherine Thompson of Dell’ Anima brought a Sicilian ricotta with bittersweet Godiva chocolate and candied cranberries.

Stephan Motir from Tribecca Grill brought a number of superb verrines that tasted as good as they looked.  My favorite was the black forest cake verrine.

Alessandra Altieri from DessertBuzz favorite Bouchon Bakery brought a Chocolate caramel peanut butter parfait (and a few hundred macarons).  More coverage of Bouchon on DessertBuzz  is here.

Colleen Grapes from The Harrison brought a sticky toffee pudding with bourbon custard and orange pieces.

Jaime Sudberg of the Stanton Social brought a beautifully photogenic dish: Fall parfait spiced panna cotta with Pom Gelee.

Andro Micheli of Adour (at Alain Ducasse) brought a  roasted cranberry crumble with whipped vanilla cream.  This dish also reminded me of a New England or Vermont bed and breakfast–it was like a bite size apple crisp except made with cranberries.

Go here for Part I of this feature.

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Here’s a listing of chef’s and their restaurants: