Last Desserts with Los Angeles Pastry Chefs

Pastry Chefs Los Angeles

Mozza pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez joined Konnie Ho at a recent Foundation Rwanda fundraiser.


Since last fall, I’ve asked 10 prominent L.A. pastry chefs two key questions, If you could only eat one more dessert, what would it be and why? Also, who would make it?

Dahlia Narvaez (Mozza)

The last dessert I would have to have would probably be a very traditional vacherin, which is a French dessert. It’s composed of a meringue bottom, and then you get two layers of ice cream or sorbet. It’s perfect. It’s cold, there’s a little bit of warm sauce on top. It’s perfect. It’s one of my favorite things.

Who would make it?

I guess I would. I’ve learned to make a few in my day. I really like it the way I make it.

Elizabeth Belkind (Cake Monkey Bakery)

My favorite dessert that I ever had was at A16 in San Francisco. It was chocolate, not a cake. If it was a cake it was soft and could barely contain itself. It was warm, but not like a lava cake. It was more like a pudding that was set, and it was served with olive oil and sea salt. It was heavenly. The olive oil was delicious and combined with the chocolate, it was this perfume-y, salty, custardy delicious thing. I think I would eat that as my last dessert.

Candace Nelson (Sprinkles)

A Diddy Riese ice cream sandwich, made on a busy Saturday night when the cookies are coming out fast and fresh from the oven and partially melt the ice cream in the middle.

Jun Tan (Cube)

Lemon meringue pie. It’s just got a lot of complex flavors. There’s the sourness of the lemon, the sweetness of the sugar, the creaminess and fluffiness of the meringue and the crunchiness of the pie dough. It seems like everything is in there. It’s nice. I like my meringue pie a little salty. I put a little salt in the curd so you can taste that.

So you’d be the one to make it?

Maybe.

Ramon Perez (Adrian Vasquez (previously with Providence, now in Boston)

One more? One more? It would be a panna cotta. It would probably be vanilla and Amaretto and it would be served with strawberry, blackberry and mango. It’s actually something I did a long time ago, and I don’t know if I’ve ever done it here. I love Amaretto, strawberries and mango. Strawberry and mango are two of my favorite fruits, and it really works well.

Would you be the person to make it?

Sure.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

I attend Los Angeles Trade Technical College and Im majoring in Pro Baking with Instructor Robert Wemischner. I need to contact a pastry chef in Los Angeles to interview for a class project. Can you please assist me in locating me a Pastry Chef in the city so I can make an appointment and visit his or her shop. Thank You.

A good person to speak with might be Na Young Ma, a pastry chef and owner of Proof Bakery in Atwater Village. You can reach her at [email protected]

I find this pretty interesting, but would find it more helpful if either they couldn’t be the one to make it, or if there were a couple recipes or something.

TreasureLA,

Thanks for the feedback. I normally include a recipe with my pastry chef profiles, including one that will appear tomorrow, but will likely incorporate your other suggestion the next time I do this.

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