Hollywood has elevated Los Angeles to a trend setting city. However, if you imagine L.A. desserts as a landscape of sugar-free, gluten-free, uber-health-conscious mini bites, three of the city’s top pastry chefs set the record straight. 

Della Gossett, Spago

Della Gossett is the pastry chef at Spago in Beverly Hills. This flagship restaurant is owned by Chef Wolfgang Puck, arguably the most famous chef in North America. Prior to this, Gossett worked for nearly a decade at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, once on every foodie’s bucket list. In other words, her desserts are continually in the spotlight.

“Working for Spago wasn’t a hard decision to make,’ remembers Gossett, who has now run the pastry department for more than 10 years. “Windy cold Chicago versus warm and sunny L.A. I thought about all the fresh produce I would be able to work with that I would never get back home.”

Every week Gossett still delights in visiting the Santa Monica Farmers Market to hand pick fresh produce for her desserts. All the vendors know her by name and offer her samples to taste. The pastry chef consults each farmer, some of whom travel hours to set up booths, about what they will have in the upcoming weeks. On this day she selects strawberries, plums and apples. Then, she spies a bright yellow Buddha’s hand. “I’ll incorporate this into a dessert on the tasting menu,” she decides.

On the dessert menu, See Canyon Farm’s Pink Lady Apple Strudel and the Kaiserschmarrn are a nod to Chef Wolfgang’s Austrian roots. Gossett says the strudel is her favourite. “We pull the dough by hand. Customers love this strudel so much that we bake large versions to purchase.”

On the plate, the apple strudel is paired with whipped creme fraiche, delectable caramel sauce and the most outstandingly flavourful marzipan gelato. 

The Kaiserschmarrn is a sweet, golden-raisin-filled Austrian pancake. “The recipe is based on Wolfgang’s mother’s original recipe, but we’ve lightened it up a bit by folding in meringue,’’ the chef explains. “We bake it in a seven-and-a-half-inch buttered and sugared stainless steel pan.’’ Arriving fluffy and warm, it is cut in two and served with strawberries, homemade strawberry gelato and candied almonds.

Envision combining a traditional Black Forest cake and classical Mille Feuille and you can almost taste Gossett’s Black Forest Mille Feuille. A divine indulgence. Gossett says, “The sour cherries are spiced with cinnamon, clove, allspice
and ginger.’’

Hand in the Cookie Jar varies depending on what the pastry chef would like to serve. On this night, Gossett points out each item, saying, ‘’We have warm pumpkin spice madeleines, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, Linzer cookies, mini lemon meringue tarts and our version of the Oreo cookie, dipped in chocolate.” Then she adds, “The pumpkin madeleines are baked with a special spice blend recipe that has been passed down from our previous corporate chef. Chef Lee’s Fall Spice Blend is cinnamon, allspice, ginger and clove. For the Linzer cookies we make our own raspberry preserves.’’

With all the delicious recipes Gossett has crafted and collected over her career, pastry chefs and bakers everywhere are wondering why she has not written a cookbook like her Spago pastry chef predecessor Sherry Yard. 

Margarita Manzke, Republique

Next up is Republique. Pulling up to the restaurant in Miracle Mile, you will immediately notice the long morning lineup outside the door. The star attraction is the extensive bakery showcase. Once inside, the high-ceilinged, incredibly atmospheric space holds a storied past. It was initially built for actor Charlie Chaplin in 1929.

“Republique really is like two different restaurants,” explains Margarita Manzke, pastry chef and co-owner of the restaurant with her husband Walter, the chef on the savoury side. “In the daytime, we have customers that just come for a light lunch, or to buy a couple of pastries to enjoy. In the evening it’s a more formal full-service restaurant.” 

As for the showstopping products in the showcase, Manzke says, “We have our mainstays that we have had since we opened, but we keep the menu evolving. The top sellers are the crème brûlée and the bombolini. And we always sell out of our croissants and pain au chocolate.’’

When asked what the secret to the perfect croissant dough is, she replies, “Flour and butter. We use French flour and Normandy butter, already prepared for lamination. We’ve tried other variations, but we can’t find anything that can compare.’’

Does the pastry chef have a favourite dessert? “I went to Portugal a few years ago and I’ve become obsessed with the Portuguese custard tart. I focused on teaching myself how to make them. Each tart is tiny, but rich and so good.’’

What about plated desserts? “The most popular one is the strawberry tiramisu, featuring white chocolate sabayan, soaked sponge cake, fresh strawberries and strawberry sorbet. It’s served in a transparent glass dish to really let the colours through.”

Thessa Diadem, Sirena/The Georgian Hotel

Thessa Diadem is the new pastry chef at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica. The hotel, which opened in 1933, is a splendid example of art deco elegance. “The desserts at Sirena are inspired by Italian flavours and seasonal ingredients,” says the pastry chef who spent three months in Florence, Italy, living the sweet life. 

When planning a new plated dessert idea, she says, “I like to focus on just two or three flavours on a plate and then add texture. Personally, I love the combination of hazelnuts and dark chocolate.” This was the inspiration for the rich flourless chocolate torte, paired with a light egg-white-based sauce, hazelnut gelato and chopped hazelnut for bite.

The cookie platter, a must with tea, contains chocolate chip cookies and pignolis, a staple cookie in Southern Italian households, especially during the holidays. 

“Thessa makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world,’’ confides one staff member at Sirena restaurant. And these chocolate chip cookies are hard to fault. Each arrives, large and uniformly shaped, thick, chewy, and moist. How has she perfected her chocolate chip cookies?

“It’s in the technique. By using a slow mix method, the result is a thicker cookie. Mixing the butter and sugar longer and faster incorporates lots of air and results in a flatter cookie. This isn’t bad, but I prefer to bake cookies on the fudgier side.”

The apple crustada is filled with apples seasoned with warm spices, along with frangipane, a nod to the pastry chef’s classical French pastry training. “It’s served with mascarpone cream, vanilla ice cream and warm salted caramel poured tableside,” Diadem says. “Making this dessert a la mode is the American influence. We love to eat our pies with ice cream and doused in sauce.”

For a classic Italian dessert try the tiramisu, made with homemade ladyfingers soaked in espresso amaretto syrup.  The ladyfingers are delectably layered with vin santo mascarpone cream. For a finale, the dessert is dusted with cocoa powder and topped with crunchy cocoa nibs. 

The Los Angeles crowd loves to indulge and when it’s time for something sweet they are spoiled for choice in this food-loving city.

Karen Barr is an Ottawa-based writer and licensed chef who travels the world to explore topics about food and culture.