Julie Sahni

Q. What are some traditional Indian dessert flavors?

A. Indian desserts begin with reduced milk, called khoya. It tastes like milk fudge. This is the underpinning of all dessert flavors. Other flavors are then added.

Q. What is kulfi and how is it made?

A. Kulfi is very popular, it’s India’s version of ice cream. It’s made from milk, with no eggs or cream. The milk is cooked down and flavorings like cardamom and saffron added. It is still frozen. The milk mixture is put in conical molds and then placed in ice water. Men shake the molds until the kulfi freezes. It has an incredible texture, like gelato. It’s the Indian dessert of choice.

Q. How do desserts and sweetmeats differ?

A. Desserts are consumed at the end of the meal. They are milk-based puddings and not particularly sweet. They are eaten to soothe the stomach from all the spices eaten during the meal. Sweetmeats are served as a snack. Sometimes syrupy, dense in texture, they incorporate nuts, roasted beans, and grains. They are eaten in late afternoon to take the edge off your hunger. Today you sometimes see sweetmeats in restaurants but this is not traditional.

Q. Describe an Indian rice pudding?

A. An Indian rice pudding is the basic dessert of India. There are different variations throughout the regions of India. They are cooked-down milk with rice, sugar, and flavorings added at the end. Flavorings depend on the region—rosewater, saffron, or coconut.

Mark Furstenberg

Q. What characteristics of Latin cuisine have influenced your baking of bread and bread-based foods?

A. The irony is that most bread bakers in the United States are Eurocentric. They make European breads for European and American customers but the majority of people who make the breads are Latino.

Q. Describe some of the menu items at Bread Line which have Latin twists?

A. I make traditional bread-based foods from Latin and South America. I make my version of pupusa, a traditional Salvadorian flatbread made from masa. I mix masa and water with a little olive oil and salt. After it sits for a while I form it two-inch balls, make an indentation, and fill it (usually) with shredded pork and white cheese. They are then closed and flattened into a cake which is grilled on a lightly greased griddle. I also make Argentinean empanadas. The fact that the flavorings are varied and consistent with a country’s tradition doesn’t really make a difference to most customers (Latin or European) but does give my employees a sense of pride to include recipes from their cultures.

Q. How do bread and bread based foods differ between the United States and Latin America countries?

A. Corn dominates Latin bread based foods. Seasonings differ and more sugar is used. Also, flatbreads are more common.

Q. What kinds of ovens were used to make traditional breads in Latin America?

Minoru Naka

Q. Define wagashi and tell us about its history.

A. Wagashi is a Japanese sweet made with red adzuki beans. It expresses the seasons by its texture shape and color. There are two categories of wagashi—one made only by artisans with special techniques. The other is prepared at home. In summer more agar-agar and warabi flour are used, and its texture is like jelly and translucent. This makes it look cooler. In primitive Japan nuts (walnuts and chestnuts) and fruits were consumed. Then honey and amazero (a sweet-tasting creeper plant) were discovered. Lastly, Japanese found rice flour and combined it with malt and added it to sweet potato and sugar cane. Brown unrefined sugar came before white sugar.

Q. What are the main ingredients of wagashi?

A. Rice flour, azuki and kuzu flour, wararbi flour (from the fern family), agar-agar, wasanbon sugar, and cane sugar. There are three categories of wagashi depending on its shelf life, one day, one week, and two to three years.

Q. Are dessert preferences and sweet preferences changing in Japan? Are the traditions maintaining their popularity?

A. Desserts and sweets have changed some, people prefer less sugar and sweetness. The technique and expression are the same.

Daniel Tay

Q. What are the primary flavors and ingredients in Singaporean desserts?

A. Beans (red and green, mung beans, soy beans), sesame seeds, durian, and lychee.

Q. What are some traditional desserts or breakfast pastries?

A. For breakfast there is a Chinese version of a French croissant called yu tiao. Also soy bean curd is eaten. Not much jam is used, but there is a famous jam with coconut and pandan leaf called Kaya. It’s spread over European bread.

Q. How do you marry your European training with the production of traditional Singaporean desserts?

A. European desserts are foreign to Singapore. I mix traditional spices and ingredients in European desserts. I try not to go too far from what Singapore is used to.

Q. Is there a traditional Singapore bread style?

A. Buns with fillings—red bean, curry chicken, Chinese ham. Dried pork with bread and mayonnaise-like sauce on top.

Patricia Quintana

Q. What is a mollinio?

A. It is an implement used to froth hot chocolate. It is carved from one piece of wood. A round piece rings around a straight piece of the wood. As it is stirred in the hot chocolate air gets in and creates bubbles. Every house has a mollinio.

Q. Describe Mexico’s pastry culinary history.

A. It is a way to understand pre-Hispanic times. The ingredients were indigenous—pineapple, guava, yams, avocado, amaranth, peanuts, chocolate, and spices such as allspice, annatto seeds, and chiles. They were mixed with honey (extra virgin) and pounded corn. Syrup was used from an ancient plant called an agave was used as a sweetener. Spanish added sugar cane and flour around 1535. First crops of sugar cane were in Veracruz. Nuns came to Latin America and baked in convents … basic Mexican desserts were large platters with milk and nuts. Almonds came and then cinnamon from Ceylon. It is fusion, mixed flavors. Ginger came from Asia. Rice became important for rice pudding along with milk, sugar, and eggs. Pine nuts came from the northern part of the country. Traditional desserts are fritters in caramelized sugar with cinnamon and cloves, and desserts with fruits and syrup using white sugar. Indians used chocolate without sugar and added honey, chile, allspice, and annatto seeds. Chocolate was fermented with cacao flower by burying with limestone. This brought spirit into the chocolate.

Q. What desserts represent the traditions of Mexico?

A. Preserved fruits with sugar, churros, hot chocolate made with a molinillo, pastries with nuts and pine nuts, cinnamon and vanilla, condensed yams (rolled into cigars and crystallized on the outside), round flattened cakes cooked with milk and sugar with cinnamon vanilla, burnt sugar.

Q. What are some of the holiday desserts of Mexico?

A. Fritters soaked in syrup, almond paste, and pumpkin used to make figures which represent fruits of Mexico, mamey, guava, prickly pear, mangoes, banana, and colored with natural colors of fruit. Also meringues.

Najmieh Batmanglih

Q. How does Persian ice cream differ from American ice cream?

A. It’s made without eggs and gets elasticity from saleb (root of orchid) or mastique. Saleb is ground into a powder. Two teaspoons of pure saleb are used for five cups of milk. Dilute saleb in a small amount of the milk. Reduce the rest of the milk, add saleb. Pulverize the mastique (an Arabic gum from the resin of a tree) with sugar. Add to the warm milk and cook until thick and it coats the back of spoon. Cool, flavor and sugar, and then freeze. It’s a stretchy, chewy, perfumy ice cream. Frozen crushed pure cream in chip form is added after it’s frozen, making it crunchy and creamy.

Q. What are the some of the popular flavors?

A. Saffron, rosewater, pistachio, or any combination of these.

Q. What kind of machine is used to freeze Persian ice cream?

A. In ancient times a still bath over cooled ice was used. As the mixture froze the bath was turned around. This method is still used in the country but in cities, modern soft-serve Italian machines are used.

Q. How is Persian ice cream traditionally served? In restaurants? Street stands?

A. It’s served soft, not hardened off. It is stretchy and not scooped. As a kid I would try to make it last as long as possible without dripping or melting. It is delicious and sensuous. Served at street stands or in dishes at restaurants with Persian wafers. Shops sold ice cream too, cafes designed for ice cream consumption. It was a ceremony in the afternoon when we got sundaes in long-stemmed glasses with long spoons.

Sorbet can be made with rice noodles soaked in rosewater and syrup. Make syrup and freeze it. Chop soaked noodles and put in machine so they freeze right away. Serve with Persian blackberries, fresh lime juice, and fresh sour cherries.

Laura Cid Perea

Q. What are the origins of dulce de leche and cajeta?

A. Dulce de leche is not Mexican but from Argentina. It is their version of caramel. Mexicans use cajeta. Dulce de leche is candy or an ingredient. Cajeta is made from goat’s milk or half goat and cow. Sugar is added and reduced to caramel. Cajeta will get more known in United States. From goat milk it gets acidity and beautiful finish. In Mexico it is distributed commercially in glass jars almost like Nutella. Most versions have a goat’s face on the jar. Mexicans are very proud of their cajeta.

The Spanish came to Latin America. There were lots of goats, used in different ways. There wasn’t refrigeration, so they had to find way to preserve the milk. Nuns came up with a lot of recipes. As a candy, it is traditionally packed in wooden boxes. Given as gifts or used as ingredient.

Q. Have you had to adjust any of your Mexican recipes for the American palate?

A. I try to be as traditional as possible at Bombon. Stick to recipes. Add or change presentation a little. They are good recipes with great ingredients, so they please American and Mexican palates.

Q. What are some traditional Mexican candies?

A. There is a huge assortment of candies influenced by French, Belgian, and Austrian chefs in Mexico . Recipes were adapted using local good ingredients. Coconut candies, candies made with milk, raw sugar. Mexican cinnamon, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), tamarind, and spices. Not huge amount of nuts. Pecans, peanuts, yes, but almonds are expensive. Yams and sweet potatoes are used in candies too.

Q. How does a Mexican pastry shop differ from an American one?

Suvir Saran and Michael Laiskonis

Q. How do you incorporate Indian flavors into your American dessert menu?

A. I use Indian spices and herbs. There are many similarities with French desserts. Indians reduce cream until it almost dries out completely. It has a smoother consistency then French cream.

Q. What are some of the desserts on the menu at Amma?

A. Rosewater panna cotta with candied roses and ginger confit. Things with a contemporary twist of French style and Indian spices. Chai pot de crème, transforming it by presenting it in an egg shell and layering it with pistachio caramel, orange blossom foam, and citrus reduction. The textures in Indian desserts are amazing. Indian cooking documents around 800 BC found that there are 18 different textures in a complete meal.

Q. What are the primary ingredients used in Indian desserts?

A. Milk, milk, and milk! Yogurt, Indian cheeses, nuts, chickpea and lotus flours, lotus and dragon fruit seeds (tinier than mustard seed, ground up in flour and used as starch). Cornstarch is not used as it does not have much fiber.

Q. Are there different desserts served in Indian restaurants vs. those enjoyed at home?

A. India is not a restaurant-dining country. Affluent people have begun dining out only in the last 20 to 25 years. European styles of desserts are served in restaurants. At home and in sweet shops, Indian desserts are served.

Pichet Ong

Q. What are the key things to keep in mind when reinterpreting a culture’s classic desserts for an American menu?

A. Keep in mind the essence of a culture’s desserts and the essence of the American dessert. It is a marriage of two cultures, a marriage of two essences. For example, coconut milk in Thai desserts is flavored with jasmine, and vanilla is used in American desserts. It is all about balance of flavors.

Q. What are some primary ingredients used in Asian sweets?

A. They are heavy in starch, but not wheat. We use tapioca and rice starch.

Q. What are some of the desserts on your menu?

A. Fruit-based, tropical, pineapple, papaya, mango, tapioca, desserts in form of beverage—no utensil just straw. Tapioca dumplings with diced exotic fruit jack fruit, palm seed, papaya, passion fruit served on crushed frozen coconut water.

Q. How do you produce desserts using less sugar?

A. It is based on a concentration of flavors which I learned from the savory kitchen. When cooked down and used as flavorings, cooked pineapple, for example, add to the sweetness of a cake. Chocolate flavoring [is done] with Ovaltine. They have sugar but used in different ways.

Vicki Wells

Q. What are some of your favorite Latin ingredients?

A. Chocolate, coffee, and vanilla. More unusual flavors are pilancillio-type Mexican brown sugar, tropical fruit flavors, and goat’s milk.

Q. What are some of the items on your dessert menu?

A. My versions of flan in each restaurant. Chocolate cake with dulce de leche and toasted pecan ice cream. Ice cream sandwich with milk chocolate wafer and espresso pine nut ice cream and warm toffee sauce.

Q. You have been a pastry chef at many different styles of restaurants over the years. How has that affected your personal dessert style?

A. I feel more well-rounded and can incorporate different things and techniques but keep my own style. I taught for a long time and that was the best learning experience. I incorporate it in everyday work.

Q. What is the most challenging thing for a pastry chef in designing a dessert menu?

A. To please yourself so you will be happy, please the customer so desserts will sell, and to please the restaurant owner. Also to match the main menu to desserts so everything flows and goes together.

Chai Siriyarn

Q. What are some traditional Thai dessert flavors?

A. Desserts evolved with the sentiment of the Thai nation. Desserts originated from royal and other cuisines. Mid-16 th century introductions blended to suit Thai palates, eating culture, and ingredients. Main ingredients are flour, sugar, and coconut milk and meat. There are five types of flour—rice, sweet rice flour, tapioca, arrowroot, mung bean flour. Last three often used with first two to make particular texture. Vegetables like squash and taro root are used. White pepper ground into a paste with sugar and palm sugar and used to coat cookies. Palm sugar is indispensable for Thai desserts. Made from the raw sap of coconut palm, it is cooked for a long time until thick and condensed. It is creamy and aromatic.

Q. What are some of the desserts on your menu?

A. In summer we serve cold noodles made from mung bean flour with coconut sugar syrup and pandan extract. It’s served with shaved ice. In winter we serve “14 lotus seeds,” made with sticky rice flour, green from pandan leaf, yellow from squash, purple from taro meat. It is cooked in coconut milk and meat.

Thomas Haas

Q. What Latin flavors have influenced the flavors of your chocolates?

A. I use kalamansi fruit (used to get frozen as puree, now fresh) as a thin gelee and layer it with white chocolate ganache which is less powerful than bittersweet chocolate. Vanilla and Jamaican rum in truffles, rompope which I use with vanilla.

Candied ginger which I rehydrate in orange essence, then dehydrate again and dip in dark chocolate, fresh Asian ginger in truffles, grated and infused in cream for many hours and then emulsified in chocolate. Green cardamom, ground to order, is good balanced with almond and milk chocolate. Chocolate with splash of whiskey and toasted caramelized almonds.

Q. What are some of the desserts on your menu at Senses?

A. Kalamansi and Venezuelan chocolate tart. Rich layer of chocolate cream (70 percent) and a light mousse with Italian meringue and kalamansi.

A coconut crème brulee baked in tart shell and served with fresh lychees and caramelized hazelnuts.

Pineapple and pomegranate tart, coconut flourless sponge cake with almonds and chocolate chips. Fresh pineapple, pomegranate, and mint sugar.

I like to say where fruits come from. Combinations of using Asian or Latin fruits in cocktail parfaits, reduced coconut milk and light meringue folded in. Fresh steamed pineapple in a double boiler to get juices out, with a touch of saffron and vanilla. Make a tender gelee, combine with pineapple juice with orange and sugar, pineapple cubes with gelee and layer of parfait, fresh shaved pineapple, and mango.

Haven’t gotten good papayas. Use mangoes with pulverized mint sugar sprinkled over as seasonings and served with coconut tuile and calamonza sorbet (add a little milk as it is very acidic).

Q. How do you balance the appeal of traditional desserts with the desire to be creative and try new things?

A. Keep traditions to those who have mastered traditions. Take the inspiration; don’t do a bad copy of a traditional. Match dessert to your inner core. What you believe and what you want to serve to a customer. I don’t feel comfortable serving a dessert that isn’t my tradition. It will be fine-tuned and inspired, but in my comfort zone. I apply techniques that I know and am comfortable with.

Q. In Germany where you grew up, were there many Latin- or Asian-influenced desserts?

A. No availability. Each food culture in its tradition is based on a strong foundation. The deeper the foundation, the more room there is to be open and take on something new. You can pull in different flavors easier. Food culture isn’t as deep in Germany as in France.

Gale Gand

Q. How do you include Latin flavors in your desserts at Tru?

A. I make a tequila granita with yuzu cream, lychees, and rose petal-pulled sugar Sometimes I use ingredients and flavors on their own, sometimes integrate them with Asian flavors.

Q. What are some of your desserts with an Asian theme?

A. I always have had Asian influences, star anise, ginger vanilla, cinnamon. I make a coconut tapioca with blueberries from Indiana to give it a Midwest slant. It is served with passion fruit ice cream, streusel topping, and meringue bits.

Q. Are the Latin- and Asian-focused desserts as popular as your other desserts?

A. Asian is important, Latin is interesting. Chocolate always sells.

Q. What should pastry chefs keep in mind when creating desserts which blend styles from more than one culture?

Randy Zweiban

Q. What similarities are there, if any, between Latin American and American desserts?

A. Ingredients from the southern hemisphere are used seasonally. Now they interweave through regional American dishes—Southwest, Floridian [and others] have become comfort food here.

Q. How do Latin pastry styles differ from those in the United States?

A. The techniques are not always French and Italian. More peasant style and simplistic.

Q. What are some of the desserts you are serving at Nacional 27?

A. Interpretations of tres leche cake with dulce de leche ice cream and fresh berries. Traditional flan with West Indian pumpkin. In summer, at least three kinds of exotic fruit sorbets and an ice cream assortment. An El Rey chocolate brownie with different sauces. Churros—cinnamon donut with brazil nut crunch ice cream.

Q. What drew you to Latin cooking?

A. I grew up in New York City where there is a large Latino population. I was enthralled with big bold flavors. Moved to Miami in 1989 and got to work with Norman Van Aken for seven years. Nuevo Latino food and New World food now becoming prominent. Spent a year in L.A., where it’s Asian meets Latino.

Sam Mason

Q. How is your dessert style shaped by Latin and Asian flavors?

A. My dessert style is affected by a lot. Asian and Latin are dominant since they are so huge in ingredients, very exotic. New York is inundated with Asian cultures, not as much Latin. I am open-minded and read a lot.

Q. Describe some of the desserts on your menu at WD-50 with Asian and Latin influences?

A. Asian—I use a lot of soy sauces: soy caramel, confit of kumquats, toasted sesame ice cream, miso ice cream (use less salty versions). On the savory menu we serve a soy bean ice cream with venison and fleur de sel sprinkled on top

Latin—mangoes, pineapples—domestic fruits. Episota—Latin herb. Setiva, a sweet herb that tastes like sweet and low, god’s sugar substitute. Tomatillos. I use everything. I’ll pick up anything in market.

Q. You live and work in New York City. Are there secret Asian and Latin shops where you have gotten ingredients or ideas?

A. I go to Chinatown and get lost there. Salted dried plums hit more taste buds in mouth than you can count—salty sweet sour. Licorice. Find things that freak you out or you love.

Q. How do you design an Asian- or Latin-influenced dessert for an American palate?

A. Be true to what you like and it won’t be interpreted as wrong. Can’t force it by using Asian ingredients, just to have something Asian on the menu. Must come naturally. Be true to flavor.

Nancy Silverton

Q. Los Angles has both large Asian and Latin cultures. Have they altered the way you design your desserts?

A. My restaurant and the desserts and flavors are Mediterranean. But from this conference I realize there are many Asian and Latin ingredients that we use at Campanile that are used in a way that is not true Latin or Asian. We use cardamom, vanilla, coconut, and cinnamon.

Q. Describe desserts on your menu with Asian or Latin themes.

A. I use these themes loosely. We opened the restaurant with a rice flan, baked in the oven. You cook the rice, put in bottom of caramel lined ramekin, and fill with custard. It is served turned out and surrounded by lime caramel and a brandy snap. We also have a crèma Catalan. It has a caramel-lined bottom and served in a dish with candied caramel corn, spicy peanuts, and other condiments that you dip in the crèma. It’s Latin-influenced but still in the style of the restaurant. Monday nights we have family night with a less expensive prix fixe, often with a Latin or Asian theme.

This weekend I’m serving an ice cream pie. Homemade graham crackers ground up with cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Fill with dulce de leche ice cream. I thought it was Mexican but found out this weekend it is from Argentina . The ice cream base is sweetened condensed milk, boiled in the can for a couple of hours until it is caramelized and thick. It’s served with hot fudge, cajeta, and salted peanuts.

Q. How do you create a dessert when you are trying to merge two distinct culinary styles?

A. Don’t try to merge styles unless you are comfortable with them both. I’m comfortable with French and Italian. Create a new dessert by using spice or technique. Don’t build on it in traditional ways or in a way you wouldn’t feel comfortable. [You] must be true to the source.

Q. Do any of your breads have a Latin or Asian influence?

A. No, I make hearth-baked crusty loaves. [I] don’t bring Asian or Latin flavors in.

Maricel Presilla

Q. What are the different cacao beans used to make chocolate, and how do they influence the final taste of the chocolate?

A. There are three main types and they all come from 20 percent north or south of the equator. The finest is criollo. Very light beans, very pronounced aroma, nutty flavor.

Next is forastero from the lower and upper Amazon. They are very dark, tannic, strong acidity; trinitario is a hybrid of forastero and criollo, combining the fine aroma of criollo with the strength of forastero. Unfortunately criollo is very rare. There aren’t any sources for pure beans. You must use blends. Only chocolate with a lot of criollo is Sur del Lago by Guittard.

Q. Latin American cultures blend spices differently than we do in the United States, especially when used in chocolate. What spices are used and how are they balanced to not overpower a dessert?

A. The older the cuisine, the more aromatic and flavorful the desserts. [Among the] few areas that retain cooking with spices are Mexico and Central America. Held onto pre-colonial cooking.

Usually see blend of Old and New World spices. New World achioto (for coloring) vanilla extract (not beans). Old World Ceylon-true cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg. The cross over spice is allspice. It belongs to everyone and blends many spices. It is a native American berry and pan-Latin spice used in Mexico , Peru , and Brazil . It is best to grind your own allspice. You can use all parts of allspice tree—the bark for cooking jerk sauce, leaves for seasoning. Steep leaves into custard for desserts. It grows in South Florida.

Chiles not used in dessert. Spiced chocolate drink in pre-colonial and colonial times. Spicy edge died out. Now chefs are beginning to use them.

Brown loaf sugar very important as flavoring. Dark-brown sugar shaped into square or cone, wrapped with leaves or corn husks. Look like meteorite. Once you begin to use it you can’t stop—it’s sugar with backbone, personality, with a lot of flavor. Sugar is boiled down and transferred between five cauldrons until crystallized. Called various names: [in] Columbia panella, [in] Mexico pilloncio (for mold). Each country has different variety. Look for a wine-y taste. It adds flavor, color, and texture as it melts to molasses consistency. With vanilla, anise, and cinnamon. It’s a very powerful and intense and adds a complex layer to desserts.

Q. What is a metate and how is it used?

A. It is the most important pre-Columbian piece of kitchen equipment. It is used to rub shelled cacao beans into chocolate. Volcanic grinding stone with three legs with a rough surface, making it easier to grind. It is heated up from underneath. The beans are rubbed, not pounded by hand with a sidewise pestle against the surface. Used in colonial Philippines, Mexico, and France. France transformed it into something more efficient. A metate was also found in Colonial Williamsburg.

Mai Pham

Q. What are the most popular Vietnamese sweets?

A. There are three categories of sweets:

• Beverages—glass of red beans cooked until soft, served with simple syrup and coconut milk infused with pandan leaves and tapioca strands or pearls and shaved ice. It is stirred together and drunk with a large straw or with a large spoon.
• Cakes—no ovens, so they are not baked but steamed. Corn or rice flour and tapioca starch are added to coconut milk or water and flavored with pandan leaf or pureed legumes. Steam in layers—pour one batter and steam; pour another batter of a different color on top and steam, later cut into wedges. Garnish with sesame seeds.
• Hot or warm puddings. Tapiocas. Warm bananas with tapioca pearls. All simmered in coconut milk. Garnish with toasted peanuts and sesame seeds.

Q. Do Vietnamese people enjoy desserts at the end of a meal, or at other times of the day?

A. Vietnamese don’t like desserts right after a meal. They prefer them throughout the day as snacks, or two hours after a meal they will have a late night snack of dessert. After a big meal they usually have fruit and tea.

Q. What are some of the unique ingredients used in Vietnamese desserts?

A. Rice, sticky rice as is or turned into flour, coconut milk as a flavor, sauce or garnish. Aromatics like pandan leaf or vanilla.

Q. How can these ingredients be incorporated in American dessert menus?

Michael Batterberry

Q. How do you think Latin and Asian dessert flavors will impact American menus?

A. They already have. They will continue too because they have been given an extra shot of adrenalin through this conference. The public is much more adventurous, looking to new horizons of flavors. They want more variety. The new worlds of flavors are going to be intriguing as they add to sample plates across the country. Ripple effect of this kind of event is enormous. It will become part of menus in restaurants then cafes, catering, hotels, and retail. Then it will become commonplace.

Q. Are drinkable desserts the next trend?

A. Drinkable dessert possibilities are infinite, both creatively and commercially. One can incorporate different flavors and have the public try them. It is easier to put in a drink than an entrée, takes less of commitment on the part of customer. Dessert drinks or drinks by a new collaboration between the pastry chef and the bartender. Not just flavors but also using great range of liqueurs and spirits that aren’t used much.

Q. What is the role of the restaurant in innovating new cuisine flavors and remaining true to their original intent?

A. The central issue in defining … taste and directions from this moment on is the tug between globalism and neo-regionalism or clanism. Specific regions of the United States don’t want to lose familiarity, even if they are wrong. Every ethnicity welcome to the table and on the menu. Restaurants have taken over home cooking. Chefs take flavors and make them mainstream. They will figure out if the easiest way to capture the public’s attention is in a dessert, main course, buffet table, drink at bar, or whatever it may be. These are people changing the way the country eats.

Q. Why have American chefs been so receptive to flavors from different cultures?

A. Because they are better educated with a breadth of knowledge by the time they come into a kitchen. They travel and are more open.