THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602220049
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO FLAVOR
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
DESSERTS ARE getting bigger. Much bigger.
In restaurants, in bakeries and at home dinner parties, the tortes have become taller and the deep-dish pies deeper. Cookies are the size of saucers and cheesecakes have put on ounces. No longer does that piece of ancient wisdom - ``you can only eat a sliver of cheesecake'' - apply. A wedge of '90s cheesecake, all gussied up with a fancy crust, multiple layers and chic sauce on the side, is a steamship, not a sliver.
The message: ``Dessert rules.''
While ``dieting rules'' for many Americans, the trend toward big desserts may seem like a contradiction.
``But when it comes to dessert,'' says Norfolk restaurateur Louis Eisenberg, ``there is no rhyme or reason.''
In the 12 years that he has owned Uncle Louie's restaurant at Wards Corner in Norfolk, Eisenberg has witnessed many a diner ordering a diet soda to go with a slab of cheesecake.
Customers entering Louie's dining room are greeted by a display case of the day's 15 desserts - including a rugelach-pastry cheesecake that weighs 14 pounds before it's cut and a Fifth Avenue cream-and-candy pie, the 6-inch-tall skyscraper of sweets. About a third of Eisenberg's customers throw in the napkin and surrender to dessert, he said.
The move toward desserts of stature might have been triggered in part by Tom Hanks' reference to tiramisu - an Italian confection - in the 1993 movie ``Sleepless in Seattle.''
Perhaps the popularity of cocooning and making Martha Stewart crafts has had something to do with the emergence of the home cook who happily spends a Saturday constructing a towering torte for the company dinner.
Joanne Genoble, who makes desserts for area restaurants, thinks other ingredients factor into America's craving for sweets.
People are tired of giving up dessert, says Genoble, owner of Giannobili's Cakes and Confections in Virginia Beach.
``They are now ready to give up deprivation,'' she said. ``These days, people are better able to handle moderation. Instead of everyone ordering a dessert, a table of people will order one to share.''
Genoble's Double Chocolate Torta and Southern Pecan Carrot Cake, among the most popular in her restaurant repertoire, are so high and mighty that a slice can feed a slew.
Genoble also sees a correlation between alcohol and dessert.
``The less people drink, the more likely they will be to continue the meal with dessert, rather than finish with another glass of wine,'' she said. Without alcohol, she added, the taste buds are better able to savor dessert.
The boom in coffee-drinking also has perked up dessert sales, report many in the Hampton Roads restaurant business.
``Now that everybody's ordering an espresso or cappuccino, they want dessert to go with it,'' said Butch Butt, co-owner of the Lucky Star restaurant in Virginia Beach. There, many customers select the tiramisu cheesecake to go with their cup of java. Butt estimates that 70 percent of his customers at least sample a dessert by ordering a big one for the table to share.
Longtime Hampton Roads restaurateur Monroe Duncan, who now owns Suddenly Last Summer in Virginia Beach, carries the torch for desserts of grandeur. About 25 percent of his customers order his flambes - bananas Foster or chocolate or strawberry crepes - which are prepared with flamboyance at tableside. These spectacular desserts could be a symbol of a diet going up in flames.
``More and more people are saying to hell with the diet, bring on the dessert,'' said Duncan, who has noticed that many customers order the rest of the meal with dessert in mind.
Dessert-cookbook author Marcel Desaulniers has long believed that into every life a dessert cart must roll - at least once in a while. Many customers at the Trellis restaurant in Williamsburg, where he is executive chef and co-owner, come seeking Desaulniers' desserts, which are some of the most dazzling in the business.
The best seller, says dining room manager Susan Cicero, is a cake called Death by Chocolate, which is also the title of the first of Desaulniers' two dessert books. The dessert is a gastronomical and architectural wonder - layering cocoa meringue, two flavors of mousse, chocolate brownie, chocolate ganache and mocha rum sauce.
Now that's big.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Desserts from Giannobili's Cakes and Confections, Virginia Beach
Joanne Genoble's Double Chocolate Torta is served at some local
restaurants, yielding slices that can satisfy several diners.
Genoble's jumbo Black and White Cookies are sold at Taste Unlimited
stores.
People are tired of giving up dessert, says Genoble, owner of
Giannobili's Cakes and Confections in Virginia Beach, where she
makes an oversized Southern Pecan Carrot Cake, above.
by CNB