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Postprandial pleasure is at an all-time high as the world's best pastry chefs revolutionize dessert.
From dessert-only restaurants and kaleidoscopic éclairs to savory-sweet creations, the culture of confectionary has never been as whimsical, widespread and worth every bite.
While the art of postprandial preparation has been a cornerstone of the kitchen for centuries, pastries are now taking center stage on the culinary catwalk. Be they fashionable, freaky or just plain fun, today's pastries delectably capture—and inspire—the mood and tastes of our time. "We were one of the first pastry houses to be featured in the shopping pages of fashion magazines," recalls Safia Benbani, communication director for Ladurée, the historic French pastry house founded in 1862, whose pastel-hued macaroons famously influenced the costume colors of Sofia Coppola's biopic Marie Antoinette.
Shedding their traditional attire, vintage classics (such as macarons, éclairs and réligieuses) have become covetable edible accessories. Revamped in kaleidoscopic colors and sold in limited-edition collections, they are to food what "it" bags are to fashion. With serpentine queues streaming out their doors, Pierre Hermé, Sadaharu Aoki and Ladurée in Paris are Meccas for international gourmands seeking the latest seasonal indulgence, while in Barcelona, the sleek jewel-box dessert bars from up-and-comers Carles Mampel and Oriol Balaguer have become destinations on par with the city's main cultural attractions.
Some of the most exciting confections are brewing in the kitchens of the world's most renowned restaurants as well, where dining has become a multi-act performance of challenging twists and surprises. At Paris's Plaza Athenée restaurant, where starred chef Alain Ducasse presides over the tantalizing cuisine, 2005 World Pastry Cup winner Christophe Michalak has diners fantasizing over final acts of fancy such as his Elixir Plaza, an outstanding alchemy of aromas and densities, which fizzle on contact.
As chefs keep diners on their toes by incorporating new textures, flavors and techniques into their dishes, the role of the pastry chef has never been more critical. "The way I see it," says dessert diva and award-winning cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, "the pastry chef is responsible for the make-or-break moment of the night, because, no matter how outstanding the food is, the last course is either going to send you out of the restaurant skipping merrily for joy or complaining grumpily."
In order to maintain the level of innovation and excitement from the first bite to the last, at some of the best tables—such as Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, El Bulli in Catalonia, WD-50 in New York—many of the ingredients and techniques found in the inventive savory cuisine have migrated their way to the dessert course, producing groundbreaking sensations and styles.
"One of the most exciting things we've been seeing is the use of avant-garde technology and industrial grade ingredients. It's the whole mixing of science and food, " explains Judiaann Woo, editor-in-chief of PastryScoop.com, The French Culinary Institute's online guide to pastry trends and talents. "Dessert is about surprising and delighting, and you can do that even more so now with these new applications," she continues. At El Bulli, for example, where pasty visionary Albert Adria (Ferran's brother, and founder of Cacao Sampaka, an experimental chocolate shop in Barcelona) choreographs the meal's dramatic finale, desserts may consist of isomer sugar casings sculpted into hummingbirds or black-sesame paste and chocolate-lime sorbets plated in homage to Antoni Tàpies.
While the celebrity of their main-course counterparts has long overshadowed the handiwork of the pastry chef, the latest wave of dessert daredevils are cultivating a fan base and branching out on their own. In New York, diners are increasingly organizing their evenings around dessert. For a sugar rush in the early evening or a sweet stop before bed, they're rushing to all-dessert restaurants such as Will Goldfarb's Room 4 Dessert, ChikaLicious or Kyotofu for manicured pastry tasting menus paired with wine or tea.
As the lines between savory and sweet and the context in which to enjoy them are becoming increasingly blurred, avant-garde pastry chefs are breaking beyond the boundaries of desserts. This season, two of New York's most sensational up-and-coming pastry chefs, Sam Mason and Pichet Ong, are each opening up dessert-oriented full-service restaurants. Mason, whose chocolate starters and crème brûlée beads were the talk of the town during his exciting reign at WD-50, is set to open Tailor, an experimental restaurant-lounge-bar that's strong on sweets, in downtown Manhattan later this month. Ong, the former pastry chef at both Spice Market and 66, will man the kitchen of his first solo venture at P*ong, an Asian-accented restaurant that harmonizes savory with sweet.
So let your sweet tooth rage and your waistline wax as the international influx of daring dessert dens puts the pudding in pleasure.