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As any restaurateur knows, desserts do far more than sweeten the dining out experience for their customers. When made and marketed successfully, desserts also sweeten restaurant profits — an especially welcome benefit for operators feeling the margin squeeze all foodservice segments are experiencing.
"Restaurateurs and executive chefs often underestimate the power of pastry, but anyone who's really looking at the bottom line in this business knows that the profit margin on dessert — which is often composed of lower cost items like sugar, flour, butter and cream — is usually greater than the margins on savory items," StarChefs.com Editor Amy Tarr notes in her online story about dessert trends. "With a great dessert menu that's effectively promoted, restaurants can significantly increase their average check."
Chefs found out by combining results of a survey of more than 350 executive pastry chefs, pastry cooks and top executive chefs throughout the U.S. with their own "tasting" research in culinary capitals like New York, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Seattle, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
The biggest (and perhaps best) news for restaurants that serve Mexican food? Latin influences are hot — just as they are on the savory side of the business.
Those influences are found in desserts like the exotic cheesecake sampler from Pastry Chef Maximo Santiago of Norman's in Miami. For that offering, Santiago relies on South American fruits including lulo (a citrus fruit with a taste that resembles sour apple); guanabana or sour sop (which has a flavor similar to pineapple and banana); caruba (a mix of passion fruit with subtle citrus notes); and mora (South American wild blackberries commonly found in Colombia), the StarChefs' report notes.
Another chef who favors desserts made with fresh fruit is Rolando Gonzalez, owner of Casa Don Rolando Authentic Cuban Cuisine in North Hills, Calif.
"We find today that when my customers order desserts, a majority of them order desserts that contain fruits," reports Gonzalez, the former executive chef at Jennifer Lopez' Madre's restaurant in Pasadena.
Examples include his Casco de Guayaba con Queso (guava slices covered with guava syrup and cream cheese). "The combination of the sweetness of the guava and the cream cheese provides an unusual and rich taste," says Gonzalez, adding that the Flan Cubano topped with strawberries is another customer favorite. "Our Cuban flan differs from the Mexican flan on its texture," he explains. "The Cuban flan recipe includes more eggs, giving the flan a softer texture." The flan is one of Lopez' favorite dishes.
Sorbets also can deliver light, Latin flair to dessert menus. David Cordúa — the vice president of brand development for Cordúa Restaurants, a Houston-based group that includes Amazon Grill, Américas, Artista and Churrascos — serves sorbets made with lucuma, pitahaya, coconut and salted caramel — all top picks with customers. "The Pitahaya Sorbet is one of our exotic tropical fruit sorbets," he explains. "Pitahaya comes from the relative of a prickly pear and has a beautiful, florescent magenta color."
Not surprisingly, chocolate still reigns as the No. 1 ingredient customers crave when it comes to desserts — and it doesn't matter what kind of dessert it is, StarChefs found.
Cordúa taps into those chocolate cravings at América's with his Delirio de Chocolate — "a chocolate chiffon cake with layers of chocolate ganache so rich that a glass of milk is almost required." Another confection that wows diners is Cordúa's Guanaja Chocolate Torchon featuring a liquid acai center made with the South American acai berry, a fruit that has been described as a "superfood" with a chocolatey flavor. The Torchon, which also includes crème anglaise and gets a kick from chocolate pop rocks, is a customer favorite, Cordúa reports.
The pop rocks are Cordúa's take on the Retro Classics (variations on nostalgic favorites like Twinkies and Moon Pies) and Good Humor (whimsical offerings that play up the entertainment factor) crazes, which StarChefs identifies as two more trends — things that Cordúa agrees are driving dessert presentations.
"Miniature desserts, retro desserts and things that make you chuckle — pop rocks and swivel sticks showing up on menus," he says when asked to identify hot items in the market today. "A trend I particularly enjoy," he adds, "is how pastry chefs today are straddling the sweet and savory world."
And while Gonzalez says many of his customers want healthier dessert options (hence his focus on fruit), Cordúa ob-serves that "diets are out the window when people eat out."
"My diners want soul-satisfying desserts with flavors that are as bold as those in the rest of their meal," Cordúa says. "I think seasonality, context and 'yummy' are most important."
Some other findings influencing dessert menus, according to StarChefs:
The way you prepare desserts is important; the way you menu and market them is key. And just listing your sweet selections won't result in stellar dessert sales. As Gonzalez says, "We think the best way to sell a dessert is by showing it. It all starts with the eye." At Casa Don Rolando, a member of the waitstaff brings a tray filled with the different kinds of desserts to each table when customers finish their meals.
"While the customer stares at the tray, we explain what each dessert is using some words to indulge their appetite for the sweet," Gonzalez explains
Cordúa, too, employs marketing techniques that entice diners to indulge.
"We include desserts in the Executive Lunch Fixe Prix Menu to get guests accustomted. Once they try them, they tend to get hooked," he says.
Even more creatively, rest-aurant employees deliver dessert menus to each table in a small envelope. "Even if the guests are full, curiosity gets the best of them and they read their sweet delivery," Cordúa explains. "The best solution is having an educated waitstaff that owns the product as much as the kitchen does."
And every October during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Cordúa donates $1 from the sale of each Tres Leches Dessert sold (which, in honor of breast cancer awareness, is prepared as a Pink Tres Leches) to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Yet with all the trend talk, it is important to remember that the classics will always be in vogue. As Gonzalez says, it is important "...to keep the traditions, to think what we had when we were back at our hometown."
Cordúa concurs. "The most popular desserts are the classic Tres Leches, a twenty-year-old family recipe," he says. "It has always been and will likely be the most popular dessert on our menu. The classics always have a way of coming back. Even with today's exciting molecular cooking techniques, at the end of a meal, people are looking for comfort and a little love."
See recipes for Margarita Cupcakes, Calabaza en Tacha, Casco de Guayaba and Flan Cubano.
