Best of
the Twin Cities
Spoon and Stable’s Diane Yang is regarded as a master of desserts in this town. Her technical wizardry can alchemize sugar into crumbles and crèmes, whipped clouds and shards of brittle. But her real gift is in the delicate balancing of flavors, in knowing when a dessert should punch and when it should purr. Each plate arrives as composed and thoughtful as a painstakingly pored over canvas. That is a given in Yang’s world. But while the Black Sesame Crumble openly plies you with the familiar delights of chocolate custard, peanut brittle, and streaks of caramel, the Honey and Cream Cake poses a subtler pleasure: a delicate, layered slice of cake edged with cubes of wine-poached pear, topped with a quenelle of sweetened condensed milk ice cream, and then cloaked in a mildly sweet cream. Lest you think dessert is optional, the bill at Spoon and Stable comes with a tin of petit fours — mini macarons, bite-sized biscotti, wafers of white chocolate brittle or toffee. You will not escape without a taste of Yang’s mastery.
