How Charlotte’s Fine Dining Restaurants Make Room for Dessert

Mama Ricotta’s recently posted a reel of a slice of Cookie Butter Cheesecake that left me mesmerized. The wedge of New York-style cheesecake was marbled with swirls of speculoos, aka Biscoff cookies, and drizzled with a zigzag of caramel. 

FS Food Group pastry chef Megan Carraway was responsible for this masterpiece. The seasonal dessert was available at Mama Ricotta’s and its sister restaurant, Little Mama’s, through the holiday season. Carraway made between 40 and 50 cheesecakes a week between the two restaurants and says there were no leftovers to speak of.

If you’ve ever been to an Italian restaurant, you know to expect tiramisu, cannoli, panna cotta, and gelato on the dessert menu. They rarely deviate from those standards, for a few reasons. It’s difficult to introduce new desserts in the fine-dining space, for one. At a restaurant like Mama Ricotta’s, which has been open for more than 30 years, longtime customers come back for their favorites. They serve a Triple Layer Chocolate Cake and a traditional New York-style cheesecake, too—not because they’re authentic Italian desserts but because they’re reliable crowd-pleasers.

Americans are also heavy-handed with sugar, so our palates have become accustomed to sugar-laden treats like cookies, milkshakes, and ice cream. The cannoli at Carrabba’s tastes much sweeter than one at a trattoria in Rome. A cheesecake with ricotta and pecorino cheeses and served with a balsamic reduction can be a tough sell to American palates. 

“I think sugar can often be such a one-note flavor element that can overpower your palate and be hard to pair with cocktails,” Carraway says. “If we dial back the sugar in recipes, you can let other flavor elements shine through. I like to reduce the sweetness by using other types of sugar. Brown sugar that has a deeper molasses flavor and is slightly bitter. I like using honey when making caramels.”

Carraway, a Johnson & Wales graduate, jots down recipe ideas constantly but says new menu items take months to develop. It’s why she offers just a few seasonal features throughout the year. She’ll usually run a small batch to get staff feedback, make some tweaks, and see how it plates up on the line. If she can confirm that the ingredients are available and affordable, she gets marketing lined up and trains her staff to make it. That process takes a couple of months at a minimum, from inspiration to rolling out a new printed menu. 

Pastry Chef Megan Carraway

A lot of her inspiration comes from classic Italian American cookbooks like Cucina Simpatica, which FS Food Group owner Frank Scibelli recently lent her. “There are so many more traditional Italian desserts than tiramisu and cannoli,” Carraway says. “There’s a great tradition of nut-based tortes. They do flourless, simple presentations that are not terribly sweet. I’ve learned so much about how much broader Italian desserts are.” 

To put a twist on some basic cannoli a few years ago, she made a White Chocolate Almond Cannoli. Last Christmas Eve, she made a Chocolate Orange Tart topped with walnut mousseline. Both features did well. Occasionally she’ll miss, like the Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta she rolled out last summer. “I got it to where I thought it was perfect, and it just didn’t sell,” she says. “Maybe it wasn’t as eye-catching in photos. Everything has to be Instagrammable. We eat with our eyes, and there’s a certain flashiness that comes with being suited to social media.”

The Cookie Butter Cheesecake, however, checked all the boxes. It was sinfully sweet, the ingredients were affordable and accessible, it photographed well, and it was a crowd-pleaser. It wasn’t based on an Italian recipe, but it allowed her to show her range and creativity. “I only have so much room to change things on the menu, so it can’t be a dozen desserts long,” she says. “I have one spot out of five that I have to feel comfortable using as the wild card.”

RECIPE

Megan Carraway’s Poached Pears

“After the holiday season, I find it so refreshing to serve desserts that feature winter fruits. These poached pears are a lovely palate cleanser in contrast to the many rich desserts we enjoyed during November and December.”

INGREDIENTS:

4 firm pears

4 cups water

1 cup white wine
(I recommend an oaked chardonnay)

3/4 cup honey

1 bay leaf

6 whole black peppercorns

To serve: vanilla gelato, toasted almond slices

Instructions:

1. Peel pears.

2. Combine remaining ingredients (except gelato and almonds) in a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

3. Add pears to the pot, and simmer until easily pierced with a fork.

4. Set pears aside on a plate to cool.

5. Continue to simmer liquid to reduce by two-thirds to create a sauce, then remove bay leaf and peppercorns.

6. Serve the cooled pears with a scoop of vanilla gelato and top with a drizzle of the reduced poaching liquid and toasted almonds.