Sweet success: knowing your members' dessert tastes.

Low fat is out, organic is in ... but desserts are in demand. The grand finale to the dining experience, they can either be traditional comfort foods or new creations that wow the diner.

Familiarity might breed contempt in some things, but with desserts it's still the old standards that are the top sellers. According to the 1999 Restaurants and Institutions menu census, apple pie remains the most popular pie variety, appearing on nearly half of all menus. The same survey rated cheesecake as the top cake "good seller."

A reflection of our longing for simpler times, the trend in desserts right now is a return to the basics, where simple ingredients, flavors, preparation, and presentation appeals to club members and chefs alike. But simple doesn't have to mean boring. Club chefs are using their own talents as well as outside vendor's products to create quality and quantity desserts that excite the taste buds and soothe the soul.

"What was old is new, and so called comfort foods are back over more architectural and contrived desserts," said Joseph McKenna, CMPC, Associate Professor in Baking and Pastry Arts at the Culinary Institute of America.

"Before, there was so much experimentation that chefs were creating confusion cuisine," he said. "The goal is to retain the integrity of the apple, for example, rather than overpowering it. Now good flavors like apple and cinnamon, caramel and vanilla are back in business," he said.

Going into fall and winter, heartier and richer desserts, like chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and cheesecake will return to most club menus along with warm bread puddings and cobblers with ice cream. Chefs utilize the fruits of the season and region, but apples are plentiful almost everywhere in the fall, and an apple pie a la mode, apple tart, or warm apple souffle served at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY, offer comfort and variety. Every club has its own traditions, and at the Cherokee Town and Country Club in Atlanta, GA, the southern fried apple pie is a must in the autumn.

Heavy Creme

Many chefs take dessert standards that diners are comfortable with and put their own special twist or variation on them. Otis Haynes, ACCA, the executive pastry chef at the Dallas Country Club, knows his members like creme brulee, so he also makes a hazelnut creme brulee and a strawberry creme brulee. A popular daily dessert is his caramel custard, and he also makes sure that there is a wide variety of pie available including chocolate, pecan, key lime, apple, and cherry. "Our older members have been eating the same thing for years, basic things that we stick to. If there's no chocolate cake or pecan pie, we hear about it," Haynes said.

It's not unusual for club members to bring their own recipes in for the chef to make, as if the chef is really cooking just for them. For chefs it's about balancing tried and true traditional desserts with new taste temptations to please their younger and older members.

"Diners are more likely to take a chance with something new when it's combined with a flavor or preparation they're familiar with," said Chris Northmore, CMPC, executive pastry chef at the Cherokee Town and Country Club in Atlanta, GA. "A good chef will use their own creativity to sense and predict their member's wants and desires," said Northmore.

An award-winning chef, Northmore has worked at the Cherokee Town and Country Club for 14 years and has a good idea of what will appeal to his members. He and his staff make almost all of the desserts for the casual and formal dining rooms, banquets, and private parties. He even makes all of the wedding cakes. In the casual dining restaurant, there's a variety of cakes, pies, and tarts designed seasonally; items found in any upscale bakery.

"We prepare comfort style desserts to more classical pastries; a very mixed menu that appeals to every end of the spectrum," he said.

"In our casual dining restaurants, people might be in a hurry so there's less time to eat dessert. We might run 25 percent sales, which we are trying to increase," he said.

The formal dining restaurant menu features mainstays like creme brulee as well as signature desserts like almond praline basket with ice cream and berries, and five to six other desserts that will change each week or so. All plated desserts, they might include an espresso coffee creme brulee tart with Cuban chocolate sauce, or a deep-fried yeast dough with a warm chocolate ganache center.

Taking It Outside

Northmore has the freedom to experiment and the backing of a membership who appreciates his talents and makes dining a priority. He works from a dessert station within the kitchen capable of producing hot and cold desserts and elaborate set-ups on the level and scale of fine dining restaurants. Haynes and Westchester's Country Club Executive Pastry Chef Sezere Prince also makes the majority of desserts in-house. Many club chefs and pastry chefs, however, have limited facilities and staff and must look to vendors to supplement their dessert production.

"We don't have the storage facilities or space to create our desserts, so we are more limited by what we can do in-house," said Johnathan Mayer, Executive Chef at Belle Haven Club in Greenwich, CT.

Mayer and his staff do make their own souffles, cheesecakes, cookies, blondie's creme brulee, apple and blueberry crisps, mud pies (Oreo cookie crust with espresso coffee ice cream covered with a semi-hard chocolate coating), bananas foster, and strawberry Romanoff. A popular dessert is the homemade pound cake, which is sliced, toasted, and served with vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce.

"Our members come here for simplicity; they want to relax. It's a casual club for the entire family and our members feel at home here," he said.

Sometimes for special parties or events, Mayer buys more complicated desserts like tortes and tarts and a raspberry mousse cake from vendors. He also turns to Pearl River, an upscale bakery in New York featuring the creations of Michael Hu, formerly the executive pastry chef at the Waldorf Astoria.

Richard Gabriel, executive chef at the Greenwich Country Club, also turns to Hu's Pearl River for tarts, mousse cakes, and special orders like mocha torte.

"When I use products from Michael Hu, I always feel like he's working for me in my kitchen and that's always an added bonus" Gabriel said.

For the majority of desserts, Gabriel tries to do as much in-house as possible, making what he refers to as "can't miss" desserts like lemon curd tart, flowerless chocolate cake, bread pudding, desserts that are easy for the staff to handle. Rice pudding is made fresh every week and seasonal cobblers with homemade gourmet ice cream go over very well

"Desserts should be simple, there can't be too much going on. There has to be harmony and balance. Cobblers with ice cream offer something sweet, something crunchy, and something cold," he said.

"Right now the individual three inch is the up and coming hottest thing," said Diane Laudano, co-owner of Jordan Paige Foods in Brandford, CT. Jordan Paige Foods is a distributor that carries many individual desserts from Bittersweet Pastries, in Orangeburg, NY. Founded by Phyllis Trier in 1984, Bittersweet's desserts are found in many restaurants and private clubs across the country.

"I grew up in the Midwest and always baked pies, but they are really a commodity. A tart is really an upscale pie. They fill the needs of chefs because they're high quality, hand-decorated, and don't look mass produced," Trier said.

The Raspberry Almond Tart and the Cabernet Pear Tart are big sellers as are the mini-tarts -- 3 1/2-inch butter cookie tart shells filled with apple, pecan, lemon, double chocolate, mountain berry, and key lime. The mini truffle cakes are single serving versions of the company's classic Chocolate Truffle Cake and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake. Their Chocolate Saucy Cakes are soft chocolate cakes that create their own warm chocolate sauce when microwaved. They come in three different flavors: original chocolate, topped with chocolate ganache; chocolate peanut; and chocolate turtle, topped with caramel, pecans, and chocolate ganache. The company's new line of Rustica Tarts are individual four-inch hand formed tarts filled with fruits like apple, cranberry walnut, and apricot plum.

"These individual desserts are easy to plate and taste as good as they look," said Trier.

Galaxy Desserts in San Rafael, CA, also produces individual mousse cakes, tarts, cheesecakes, and other pastries. Part of the popularity of individual pastries is their visual appeal, but they also offer practical benefits such as portion control to chefs and their staff.

Club chefs want quality ingredients in the desserts they purchase from vendors, but they also realize that distributors and vendors see the dessert industry from a national scale and are aware of the trends as well as the their foodservice needs. If they aren't aware of a certain company, they rely on their distributors to let them know what's hot, or who has creative ideas.

Even if a chef doesn't use that much outside product for desserts, he or she may turn to a vendor for creative garnishes or plating ideas. Prince uses Chocolate a la Carte to add a special touch to the dessert plates for big parties, and Mayer turns to St. Clair Ice Cream Company for special garnishes for weddings and other special occasions.

Founded by Rena and Rick Pocrass in 1986, Chocolates a la Carte in Valencia, CA, is one of the leading companies making high quality couverture chocolate designs that are used at hotels, restaurants, and country clubs across the country. It's creations include a variety of marbleized chocolate shapes like seashells, swans, tulips, boxes, and pianos that are used by chefs to add fruit, mousse, or sauces.

St. Clair Ice Cream Company in South Norwalk, CT, makes a wide variety of miniature, small, medium, and large seasonal creations from all-natural ice creams and sorbets. The miniatures are about 1/2-fl. oz. each and one- to 1 1/2-inches long and come in four shapes, berry, nut, peach, and pear. Several flavors such as deep-dish apple pie, black raspberry, and peach ice cream; or blackberry, apricot, passionfruit, and tangerine-mango sorbet are available.

The small and medium include fruits, flowers, mushrooms, seashells , apples, lemons, and peaches. The sorbet can be used as a plated intermezzo and are a delicious accompaniement in sorbet or ice cream, cake, cookies, and flesh fruit, or as a visually appealing garnish. The large desserts weigh three- to five-fl, ozs., and are approximately three- to four-inches long. They include pear, orange, and banana. The Pear comes with vanilla ice cream (with or without Poire William in the center) and a chocolate stem.

Using outside products and garnishes certainly affects the bottom line, but it's really a matter of time, staff, and facilities. Just because a chef can make things by hand doesn't mean it's efficient in terms of time, staff, and supplies.

Walking the Tightrope

To use or not to use a vendor's products depends on many factors unique to each club, but for Trier high-end products can be a huge help to club chefs in the formal dining rooms, banquets, and private parties.

"Unlike a hotel or restaurant that has daily usage, a club might have two or three parties in one week, and then hardly anything the next week. If they can't maintain an expensive pastry department, we really fill a void," Trier said.

Often times it's a very challenging tightrope to walk, dealing with the logistics and budgets while creating appealing desserts on a daily basis. "Because of their time management and staffing issues and bringing the club in on budget, all chefs have the same dream, find something individual and something homemade-looking that will please their members," said Laudano.

"I've come to learn that I don't make the judgements; I'll put it out and see what happens," said Northmore. "Sometimes I'll think that something will be a big hit and it isn't. But that's okay. I have to keep experimenting to remain fresh at my craft."

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It's not just children who enjoy the holidays and festive desserts. Adults, too, become more adventurous and take advantage of the season by indulging in fancy desserts and pastries. At the same time, though, they also take comfort in the traditional holiday favorites and smells that remind them of their childhood. Club chefs satisfy both desires by adding a festive twist to old favorites and using vendor's products and party favors to make the holidays a special occasion.

While fall might mean football season to many club members, the whiff of the holidays is already in the air. Pumpkins make the scene at this time, and the traditional flavor is used in pies through Christmas. But club chefs do more than the traditional pumpkin and pecan pies for their holiday desserts. The dessert menu or buffet at a club might include a pumpkin sour cream cheesecake or pumpkin layer cake with milk chocolate mousse.

One year, Chris Northmore, CMPC, Executive Pastry Chef Cherokee Town and Country Club in Atlanta, GA, put out all traditional desserts on the Thanksgiving buffet, but found the members were more interested in trying the different desserts. They wanted the chocolate and pumpkin bread pudding, different mousse cakes and pies.

Just as families create their own traditions, so do clubs. At the Belie Haven Club in Greenwich, CT, homemade cinnamon rolls with peppermint ice cream are served around the holidays. The cold winter nights and less sunlight make diners more interested in heavier items, and many chefs and vendors utilize fall flavors and liquors in their desserts.

Club chefs are most likely to utilize outside vendors for their special holiday parties and they generally go all out for the annual Christmas party. Since they are once a year events for the entire membership, club chefs put out all the stops to add excitement and fun to the celebrations.

Bittersweet Pastries' bourbon pecan tart is perfect for the holidays, although it sells well all year long. Other popular items include an apple crumb tart, a lattice pumpkin tart, a cranberry walnut cheese tart, and an eggnog mouse that has a border of green holly leaves and green berries.

Vendors like St. Clair Ice Cream Company provide many creative seasonal garnishes and desserts. Chocolates a la Carte offers a chocolate Santa's boot, sleigh, Christmas tree, and candy cane for holiday garnishes. This year, the company is offering a Christmas box, with "Happy Holidays" etched out of the dark chocolate and the look like they are frosted in snow. St. Clair Ice Cream Company's seasonal specialties, include Christmas trees and ice cream turkeys made out of sorbet or ice cream, Yule Logs and snowballs made out of vanilla or coconut ice cream with chocolate center and coated with flaked coconut or chocolate.

Executive Chef Jonathan Mayer outsources Yule Logs filled with mocha mousse, marzipan and meringue and each member receives some type of party favor at the Christmas Ball. Last year it was a chocolate box with a ribbon tied around it. Northmore used an outside vendor to create a Christmas Wassail Ball for 800 club members and decorated each plate like a Christmas tree ornament.