, or just have a small space to work with—all of which could be contributing to the dessert’s current popularity. The dish can fill out a dessert menu when there isn’t a pastry chef laminating dough and piping pastry cream in the kitchen. Plus, the renditions being created by chefs around the country are as inventive as some of the best pastries. At Ryla, the ability to send out the dessert without extra staff is part of the appeal, says Asapahu.
“Our kitchen at Ryla is really small, so you always have to think about what you can get the most bang for your buck for,” Asapahu says. “And panna cotta, or those kinds of set desserts, are just something you can make and then pop into the fridge. Atin Los Angeles, pastry chef Genevieve Gergis has had a crème fraiche panna cotta on the menu since the restaurant opened in 2012. “I think it was the second or third thing I did for Bestia years ago,” Gergis says.
Panna cotta may be the great equalizer of desserts: It can be as simple or fancy as you want. While some restaurants keep it classic with vanilla, berries, or citrus, others are using the dish as a vehicle for showcasing flavors you might not expect in a traditionally Italian dessert.in Austin, for instance, the panna cotta is flavored with toasted oats and meant to evoke Honey Nut Cheerios. Chef and co-owner Fiore Tedesco considers the panna cotta a staple.
Like Tedesco, other restaurateurs and pastry chefs see panna cotta as a medium for seasonal flavors. Panna cotta “is a good canvas if we want to have something on the menu that’s herbaceous or floral,” says Bryce Gilmore, the chef and partner of the Odd Duck. “The cream really takes on whatever flavor you want to infuse in there.”