Pastry world, meet your rock star.
Oh. We see you've met.
Elizabeth Falkner, owner/founder of San Francisco's beloved Citizen Cake and the edgy, just-opened Orson, has been getting a little attention. Well, more than a little. In 2006 she was Bon Appétit's Pastry Chef of the Year, and lately she's been all over the telly—Martha, Iron Chef America, Top Chef.
Spiky-haired and blow-torch wielding, Falkner's got star power. And with her trademark creative iconoclasm—she's known for deconstructing classic desserts and then rebuilding them, flavor by flavor, with multiple, dazzling components—she's got the stuff to back it up.
Tiramisu? Not for Falkner. Try tiramisushi, a cocoa roulade sponge cake filled with mascarpone masala and rolled sushi-style, topped with mocha-rum dipping sauce, fruit ribbons, and biscotti chopsticks. (She actually uses a bamboo sushi roller. Day-um.) American Apple Pie? How about Apple of My Eye, a Franco-German-influenced tarte tatin with cheddar-pecan streusel, cinnamon ice cream, and savory balsamic reduction.
Both concoctions appear in Demolition Desserts, Falkner's excellent first cookbook, which is graced with gorge-ous photographs and spunky illustrations of a character named Carime, an alter ego for Falkner drawn anime-style by her brother Ryan. It's a fantastic read, with plenty of basic info about ingredients, tools, and processes to get you up to speed before you start reducing this and quenelling that.
Even Falkner's most elaborate desserts are adapted for the home kitchen. She provides helpful make-ahead timelines for each component and a minimalist version of each recipe, for beginners or folks with time constraints. Check out the first chapter—A Study in Chocolate Chip Cookies—for a first-hand look at Falkner's creative process.
Cherries of the Corn. A Chocolate Tart Named Desire. Bananas Foster Kane Split.
You have seen your future, and your future is
Falkner.