Green gauge plums from New Zealand

Last Wednesday a friend took me to Le Bernardin for lunch and aside from being my first visit to a 3-star Michelin restaurant, I was excited to finally meet one of the rockstars of the culinary world.  Someone who has won James Beard awards and been recognized as one of the top chefs in the US.  He has even been a judge on Top Chef–the real standard of your status in the culinary world!  Of course I am referring to Michael Laiskonis, Le Bernadin’s executive pastry chef (no disrespect to the other executive chef at Le Bernardin, Eric–something?). (more…)

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don't miss the Bomboloni with apricot filling

One thing becomes clear after spending even a few minutes with Executive Pastry Chef Antonio Bachour: he takes his desserts and his craft unbelievably seriously.  Many experienced pastry chefs operate with passion, but Bachour’s level of enthusiasm is on a whole different level.  A highly caffeinated level.

Torta Piemonte Di Nocciole (Piedmont Hazelnut Cake)

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Without a doubt, one of the best prix fixe lunches in New York City is offered by Gotham Bar and Grill.  Twenty-four bucks gets you two courses plus a $7 supplemental dessert menu.   All the service and quality of a fancy-pants restaurant without the expense (and fuss). (more…)

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Dovetail desserts

Had a great dinner at Dovetail.  Full review coming soon.

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[This post was originally published in June 2009]

After success in a certain bike race, the DessertBuzz editorial team decided to head to one of their absolute favorite restaurants for dessert: Dovetail, on the upper west side.  One of the best things about Dovetail is that they constantly change their dessert menu.  Dovetail’s pastry chef, Vera Tong, seems to like to mix classic options with a few experimental desserts.  I still regret not trying the grape soup that I saw last winter, but I did eat the peanut butter pretzel with sea salt and beer ice cream.  Edgy, but not as hectic as Wd-50. . .

On Sunday’s Mother’s Day menu there were a couple intriguing choices but I had it narrowed down to either the pain perdu or the chocolate hazelnut fondant.  Normally, I always go with the chocolate option – that’s DessertBuzz Law #1: when in doubt, go with the dessert that contains dark chocolate. However, in this case,  I knew I still had 5 artisanal dark chocolate bars waiting at home that were going to be eaten this week so I went with the pain perdu.  Truth be told, I had to ask what pain perdu was.  But now, after reading all about it on the internets, I am of course an expert.  Pain perdu means “lost bread” and it was a way for people to reclaim stale bread by soaking it in eggs and milk and then frying it.  Which takes us to DessertBuzz law #2: when you can’t apply rule #1 go with the fried dessert option.  Of course DessertBuzz law #3 is:  If you ever see a dessert that is both fried and contains dark chocolate you must order 2 servings and take one home to photograph it for a feature on Dessertbuzz.

Anywho- the pain perdu was like a light, evenly fried, French toast saturated with a flavorful egg and milk mixture.  It looks like it was finished off with a blow torch too (but that is just speculation on my part).  The pool of caramel below the bread was even tastier than if it was made with real maple syrup.  The berries were 5-star as was the vanilla bean ice cream.  The picture really says it all. The also gave us 2 mini-red velvet cupcakes and 2 small tea cakes to take home. Damn I love this place.  I plan to talk some teammates into going back this week for more.

Best fancy pants restaurant desserts, Best of New York City, Dovetail | 1 Comment »

One of the best ways to experience a 3-star New York Times restaurant at a fraction of the cost, is to go for lunch or in this case for brunch. The Dovetail brunch is very dessert heavy. It includes a basket of fresh baked bread items; canapes, which include a yogurt parfait and a duck meatball amuse; a main course and a mini-dessert sampler. I should note some of the unique and heavy-duty savory brunch items such as short rib lasagna (!) and sirloin eggs.

It’s interesting that Dovetail has such a dessert-heavy brunch.   I have long been aware how how great their desserts are but I didn’t know their customer base felt the same as me until I saw the 4-dessert sampler and additional bread pudding pre-dessert. By the way, who ever heard of a pre-dessert for 3 course brunch?

My guest and I both thought the bread pudding, which came as the “pre-dessert”  was the best offering.   It was more like like a perfect, syrup-soaked piece of french toast.   I also really liked the devil’s food cake which packed a strong chocolate flavor but was not too heavy.  The apple crisp, which has been part of this brunch for a while is also very good.  The apple crisp is excellent, it’s very fresh and not too sweet.  The cheesecake, like the devil’s food, is a one-bite dessert that has a lot of house-made  components, such as the flaky cookie base and a blob of jelly.   The final dessert-bite was a brownie with whipped cream.

Recommended: Bread Pudding, also sometimes available as a “pain purdu”.

Dovetail is located at 103 West 77th Street.

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Seriouseats New York was right about the pasta at Marea, a restaurant that is supposed to specialize in seafood.   They recommended a number of pasta dishes and in my opinion their pasta was far superior to their seafood.  Not because the seafood wasn’t good but because the pasta was so spectacular.

Marea’s fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow was the best pasta dish I have ever eaten.  That’s EVER.   For pics and a review see the SE feature on Marea here.

Their desserts were superb as well.  The house made sorbet was very flavorful and perfect for the diner that has already consumed 6 courses.

The vanilla-bean-specked panna cotta had great flavor and the accompanying scoop of dark chocolate gelato was absolutely stellar.  The hazelnut torte had a smooth dense texture and great flavors of dark chocolate and hazelnut that were not too sweet.

Recommended: House made sorbet, and savory must have: fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow.

Marea is located on 240 Central Park South. Their web site is here.

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