Like many others, I have a sweet tooth. It is part of my northern upbringing, as it was with JR, who once told me that if there were fewer than three different home-made cakes or biscuits waiting for her on her return from school, she would be disappointed.
I have also long been aware of the importance of the dessert as the final dish of any restaurant meal. It, and perhaps a little petit four, constitutes for us sweet-toothers our last and longest-lasting memory of the time we have spent in a restaurant, as well of course as the bill. And I have to admit that, although I try not to look at the menu before setting off for a meal, I am somehow drawn to looking at the dessert menu. In an era of briefer menus, this section often offers the prospect of more variety. I also like my meals to end on a refreshingly citrusy, slightly acid note. Will this pastry section oblige?
I had questions of this sort for the Frenchman who joined me across the table for a recent lunch at Portland. He is Vincent Zanardi, slightly older and greyer than when I first met him 20 years ago, but still with an engagingly mobile face. I first met him at the fantastic but long gone L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in West Street, Covent Garden, when he was the pastry chef in a team led by chef Frédéric Simonin.
Zanardi explained, ‘I had been part of the team which opened the original L’Atelier in the Hotel Pont-Royal in St-Germain in Paris, which was a restaurant that certainly changed me and was extremely successful. This was partly because we were, every single one of us, in awe of Robuchon who was an amazing chef. But it was what he said at the outset that I have never forgotten. He said, “We’re here to cook for our friends”. It was a phrase that put us all at our ease.
‘And that was before the extraordinary changes he introduced: an entirely open kitchen with the chefs doubling up as waiters and carrying the finished dishes to the customers who were watching us all the time. They had their effect on me and so many others. Before that, we had been used to cooking in kitchens that were dingy and tucked out of sight. Suddenly, we were on show all the time; we had to smarten up. And the whole process made me so much more confident. It transformed me from a shy Frenchman into a far more confident individual.’
In 2011 Zanardi was lured away by chef Alberico Penati, who was then the chef for Robin Birley, at that time planning the opening of his club, 5 Hertford Street, with a nightclub, Loulou’s, in the basement for whose dessert menu Zanardi was responsible. Zanardi has never left Robin Birley’s empire, although its expansion means that the air miles have accumulated. His current title is executive head of bakery and pastry for Birley Bakery at RB Holdings. These now include the fine-wine lovers’ club Oswald’s, Maxime’s in New York, and a branch of Birley Bakery on each side of the Atlantic: in Cale Street, Chelsea in London and on E 69th Street in New York. And if the current rumours are to be believed, another club and bakery will open in Palm Beach, Florida, where Zanardi is due to visit shortly.
The set-up is similar in both London and New York. The sites of the shops themselves are too small, and too expensive, to include production, which is carried out respectively in Battersea in London and the Bronx. From the Battersea site early every morning deliveries leave with bread, pastries, cakes including their renowned mille-feuille, and ice creams for the bakery and the clubs’ kitchens.
‘Neither site is without its particular challenges’, Zanardi smiles wryly when asked which site is the more difficult. ‘We employ around 20 in Battersea but about a third of them are not trained bakers. Finding them in the wake of Brexit and then COVID is not easy at all. In fact, one of the challenges facing the baking industry at the moment is how we can introduce more automation into production while improving the overall quality.
‘In New York, it may be a bit premature to say as we have been open only since September 2025, but the challenge over there is getting the similar quality of produce, such as the candied oranges we buy from Sicily, to what we are used to in Europe. Over there, we get excellent-quality milk for our coffee, meat, steaks and some vegetables, and now we’ve got the Échiré butter to make the croissants. But the biggest difference in my experience so far is that Americans consume far more enthusiastically than Europeans do!’
As he tackled his mille-feuille of coffee, cream and Marsala at Portland, he explained his choice of favourite dessert, a challenge for any pâtissier. ‘I am French, although my paternal grandfather was Italian, and consequently I will never say no to a chocolate mousse as long as it is made correctly [see recipe below]. But my favourite dessert of all has to be the Gâteau St-Honoré because its execution depends on the chef’s ability to cook all the ingredients to the limit. The puff pastry must not be overcooked or bitter, but dark and crumbly. Then there is the crunch of the caramel and the sweetness and softness of the crème pâtissière and the Chantilly. It is a dessert which brings out the best in whoever has made it because unless you are brave enough to cook your ingredients to the limit you fail to extract their full flavour.’
I’ve always thought that to be a good pastry chef, like a good goalkeeper, you have to be a bit mad because your role is so different from the rest of the team’s. Pastry chefs are never really part of the brigade because they have to start early in the kitchen and finish late so they are always apart. I floated this idea to Zanardi.
‘Yes, there have been occasions when the head chef has come along and told me that things have gone wrong with this particular table and I have to try and win them back. And I have to put on a dessert buffet almost. But madness? I don’t believe so, just a bit different. An altogether sideways approach to the rest of the brigade is necessary and is an extremely valuable addition. To be a successful pâtissier, you need all the qualities of a top chef – stamina, working with the best produce (which was something I also learnt from working with Robuchon) – but you have to have that extra quality that comes from really wanting to create the very best dishes.’
Is that why Birley baguettes (£3.10 each) still taste so good on their second day, I wondered? Zanardi explained this unusual quality in his baguettes, which normally are supposed to be consumed on the day they are bought. It’s because they are proved over a couple of days.
Thinking of all the sweet things eaten over Easter, I wondered whether this was the busiest period for the bakery but he reported that Christmas is still busiest, ‘because of demand from corporate businesses. But one thing I have noticed is how much demand there is for everything we produce at Thanksgiving in London – and it’s growing.’
Vincent Zanardi’s chocolate mousse
Ingredients
- 170 g dark chocolate (around 70% cacao)
- 115 g caster sugar
- 150 g egg whites (room temperature)
- 40 g egg yolks (room temperature)
- 120 g whipping cream (35% fat)
- 1 cup hot espresso (optional but highly recommended)
Method
1. Preparing the eggs
Bring the eggs to room temperature before starting. This simple step prevents the whites from splitting the mousse later; cold whites are the enemy of a smooth texture.
2. Melting the chocolate
Melt the chocolate gently over a bain‑marie or in the microwave in short bursts. Once melted, stir in the hot espresso, which deepens the flavour and enhances the natural bitterness of the cocoa. Let the mixture cool slightly; it should be warm, not hot.
3. Whipping the cream
Whip the cream softly, just until it reaches a creamy, lightly aerated texture. Set aside in the fridge.
4. Whipping the egg whites
Whip the egg whites until they begin to hold their shape. When they start forming peaks, gradually add the sugar to create a glossy, stable meringue.
5. Bringing the bases together
Stir the egg yolks into the warm chocolate‑espresso mixture until smooth. Fold in the meringue in three additions, working gently with a spatula to keep the mixture light and airy.
6. Finishing with the cream
Fold in the softly whipped cream last, delicately, to preserve the mousse’s silky texture. This final step gives the mousse its signature lightness.
7. Resting
Spoon or pipe the mousse into glasses or a serving bowl. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours to allow the texture to set fully and the flavours to deepen.
Birley Bakery, 28–30 Cale Street, London SW3 3QU and 20 E 69th St, NYC
Image of Zanardi with honeycomb by Ben Story.
