Sweet Simplicity: Rhubarb

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings is giving a perennial Fiola favorite - the zuppa inglese - a spring makeover! Chef Tom is now offering a vanilla-mascarpone custard set with pectin, served with plump segments of blood oranges macerated in sugar and extra virgin olive oil, topped with sweet and tart rhubarb-limoncello granita.

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings' Spring Panna Cotta

Sweet Simplicity ... Cherry Blossoms!

The city will kick off the National Cherry Blossom Festival later this month with the peak bloom dates expected the last week in March. In honor of these delicate and beautiful blossoms and as as celebration of this beloved springtime celebration, starting the week of March 11 Pastry Chef Tom Wellings will be offering two cherry blossom themed desserts:

• Vanilla Panna Cotta with Cherry Blossom Honey and Toasted Marcona Almonds
• Macarons with Amarena Cherry and Cherry Blossom Buttercream

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings

Sweet Simplicity: Ricciarelli

Ricciarelli at Fiola 

As part of the Tuscany tasting menu, Pastry Chef Tom Wellings is serving up ricciarelli, the classic almond cookie from Siena whose origins date back to the 14th century. Ricciarelli are said to be shaped like the almond eyes of madonnas by Renaissance painters.  Chef Tom's ricciarelli are made with almond meal, ground bitter almonds, sugar, egg whites, and almond extract. The ricciarelli are served with a creamy vanilla milkshake. Available as part of the Tuscany tasting menu, Monday through Thursday in Fiola Bar and Lounge only.

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings

Sweet Simplicity

Babà al Rhum is a classic Neapolitan pastry with Polish roots that came to Naples by way of Paris. Confused? Such is Italian, and Neapolitan, history. The babà was invented by a Polish king whose daughter Marie was married to Louis XV of France. According to the legend, this former king dipped a slice of kugelhopf (an Austrian pastry, half-brioche and half panettone) into a glass of Madeira, and what would become the babà was born.

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings' Babà al Rhum.

Variations in the dough technique and the liquor used to soak the pastry evolved the Babà from the courts of Versailles to the streets of Naples into what we know today; a yeasted buttery cake soaked in rum. 

Fiola Pastry Chef Tom Wellings' version of this iconic dessert is a plump dome, which is proofed, baked, then soaked twice in a sweet syrup flavored with lemon and orange zests, vanilla bean and dark rum. Finally the Babà are dipped in blood orange glaze. 

To accompany the Babà, Chef Tom makes a caramel flavored with Szechuan peppercorns, which is combined with juicy pineapple rounds and then cooked slowly for approximately 40 minutes. Spicy, sweet and somewhat acidic, Szechuan peppercorns impart an intoxicating hint of pine and cedar.

Pastry Chef Tom Wellings