CANDY’S DANDY BUT DESSERT IS OBLIGATORY

It is no surprise to discover that Southern Californians are more fitness-conscious than people in any other part of the country. But it is surprising to learn that here in the mecca of the svelt more people order dessert when they go out to eat than those who live elsewhere. On average, half of Los Angeles restaurantgoers order dessert, while only about 30% of those who eat out in New York are similarly indulgent. The statistics in the best Los Angeles restaurants are even more astonishing: 90% to 95% of their patrons finish dinner with something sweet.

Why is dessert so popular in Los Angeles? Do we feel that all that exercise entitles us to a little sugar? That may be part of it, concede the dessert chefs at some of the area’s premier restaurants. But the very fact that so many Los Angeles restaurants have pastry chefs who are constantly inventing new and wonderful desserts might, in itself, provide one of the answers.

Los Angeles chefs have actually been inventing a whole new dessert style. “At Spago,” explains dessert chef Beatrice Keech, “our desserts are French-oriented, but we California-ize them.” Since she took over from Nancy Silverton (who trained her), Keech says she has been emphasizing American desserts, adding items like fruit buckles and shortcakes.

Keech, who does desserts for both Spago and Chinois on Main, is constantly innovating to meet the demands of her customers. One of her offerings is an assortment plate (for four) of eight dessert tastes and two fresh ice creams or sorbets, all light and delicately flavorful without being heavily sweet.

Pasadena’s Parkway Grill has also become known for unusual American desserts like the delectable S’mores: French chocolate sandwiched between homemade marshmallows and graham crackers, briefly scorched in the open pizza oven and served with a strawberry sauce. These were the creations of Amy Pressman, formerly of Spago, who recently left for a restaurant in Dallas. She has been succeeded by Ann Marie Plucinsky, formerly of Trumps, with the consultation of Le Chardonnay’s Sheila Linderman.

Mark Carter, dessert chef at the Biltmore’s Bernard’s also finds that diners are looking for the unusual. “Some of my flavor combinations,” he admits, “are influenced by the tastes of my California childhood.” Carter specializes in creative inventions like mango and brandied cherry pate or cream of coconut and strawberry “soup.” He also makes a popular frozen apricot sabayon on a bed of apples, almonds and raisins.

Carter’s training included a stint at L’Ermitage, where, as it happens, many young Los Angeles dessert chefs get their grounding in French traditions. After 11 years at L’Ermitage, restaurant head Michel Blanchet still captains his kitchen in the European manner, having his assistants turn out classics like lemon tart, floating island and tarte tatin. In addition, Blanchet finds that fruit mousses and sorbets are gaining in popularity with the 90% of the customers who order dessert, while there is less and less demand for the butter-cream creations he learned as a youngster.

At La Toque, where Ken Frank personally trains the pastry people, 99% of the dinner customers order dessert. Frank also finds that many of his customers order the same desserts over and over again: fruit tarts, a dacquoise, lemon tart, and the supremely popular chocolate mousse-and-meringue Concorde. Angelenos may appreciate the perfection of the classic French dessert, says Frank, but “most Americans don’t even know what can be done by experienced pastry chefs.”

Few Americans are aware of the elaborate presentation pieces that trained French pastry chefs are fond of turning out. These three dimensional creations of spun sugar look like fairy-tale tableaux made of delicately tinted glass-- but they are entirely edible.

One of the few masters of the spun sugar art (“sucre tire” or “sucre souffle”) is young Delphin Gomes, who has been learning pastry and presentation since he was apprenticed to a patissiere in his native Burgundy at the age of 14. After more than 10 years of training in France, he came to Los Angeles to work at L’Ermitage; he spent three years there, surprised to find that he was considered an expert in Los Angeles. Six months ago he moved to the West Beach Cafe, where he’s called upon to do California versions of classic desserts like Opera, Montenegro, pecan tart, walnut chocolate cake, and raspberry chocolate rum butter tart, all excellent. But Gomes is not happy about California cuisine’s necessity to continuously shock the palate, rather than allowing new flavors to evolve naturally over time.

Chef Laurent Quenioux, who was a pastry chef at Negresco for four years and at Maxim’s in Paris for two years, admits that artistic presentation pieces are his personal favorites. He says regretfully that there is little call for them here in Los Angeles. Instead, at his Seventh Street Bistro, he invents elaborate creations like a crepe “purse” stuffed with chocolate mousse and served with a creme caramel . This, and other equally original designs, are carried out by his dessert chef, Andy Rolleri.

Quenioux says that his lunch customers are regulars, and 65%-70% of them have dessert, but that these businessmen demand certain favorites from the menu over and over. At dinner, however, when 80% of the customers order dessert, at least half are interested in trying something new and different.

Providing the constantly changing desserts demanded by Southern California diners can mean hiring expensive chefs, and moderately priced restaurants are feeling the pressure. To fill the gap, new companies like the year-old Two Chefs on a Roll, create desserts in their own kitchens and deliver them to various restaurants. Lori Daniel and Eliot Swartz, a husband-and-wife team, now enjoy specializing in chocolate desserts like their American Dream Chocolate Cake; you’ll find it at many restaurants, under all sorts of different names.

But no matter what you call it, dessert in Los Angeles is certainly hot. You may find yourself tempted by classics or by new flavors, but in the hands of L.A.’s dessert masters, as Laurent Quenioux likes to say, “Anything sweet is good.”