5 Chefs Share: What Are Your Guilty Pleasures?

The holidays are approaching and while everyone is preparing to sit down to a delicious home cooked meal, what’s really on everyone’s minds is the best course yet: dessert. We’ve asked some of our favorite chefs what desserts they like to indulge in. Pumpkin flan, spiked eggnog, and the classic pionono all made the list. What’s your guilty pleasure dessert this holiday season?

Victor Albisu

Del Campo’s executive chef knows a thing or two about Peruvian cuisine.

“I’m partial to a classic Peruvian pionono. It’s a light and airy rolled cake. It’s sweet and delicate and filled with dulce de leche, my favorite substance on the planet,” said Albisu of the cake, which is served on Del Campo’s brunch menu. But if you can’t make it for brunch, Albisu also serves pionono during the holidays and other special events. 

Jose Garces

“Turrón is a Spanish and Latin American holiday tradition. Made with honey, sugar, egg whites, and almonds or other nuts, it’s simple and sweet,” said Ecuadorian chef and restaurateur Jose Garces. “We always had a box of the stuff in our house when I was growing up, and it takes me back to happy times as a kid during the holidays.”

While the chef revealed that he does not make turrón himself, “I leave that to the experts,” he did share that La Tienda offers some great options, like this one here. The crunchy candy is a nice break between all of the cakes and cookies of the dessert table, and is easily addicting. [pagebreak]

Katie Button

Executive chef and owner of the tapas bar Cúrate; Katie Button is all about the eggnog during the holidays.

“Eggnog, while technically a cocktail or delicious nonalcoholic beverage, is more of a dessert to me than anything,” said Button. “It’s super rich and super creamy and spiked with a little bourbon. It makes the most decadent guilty pleasure dessert.

Eggnog also represents everything Button loves about the holiday season: getting together with family to share a meal and gift opening. What better way to utilize a punch bowl than for eggnog?

“Every Christmas, I make a big batch, set out a giant punch bowl with mugs around it and leave the bottle of bourbon next to the bowl so that each person can spike their drink to their liking,” said Button. 

Wilo Benet

Puerto Rican chef and restaurateur Wilo Benet admitted that, although he isn’t much of a holiday guy in general, he prefers to indulge in stuffing and cranberry relish before the turkey itself.

“I try to comply with the public expectation that every chef is going to be into the foods and celebrations of every season as per our overly commercialized calendars, so to speak,” he said. “For Thanksgiving, we do an organic turkey breast sous-vide, with a Spanish sherry gravy, orange, and Yuzu cranberry relish, local sweet potato and sofrito mash and my favorite, apricot and Italian sausage bread stuffing.”

After all of that, Benet offers a pumpkin souffle with spiced anglaise for dessert.

Santiago Puga

Santiago Puga is the executive pastry chef of Barton G. The Restaurant in Miami Beach, so you can bet he knows a thing or two about guilty pleasure desserts.

“My favorite dessert is pumpkin flan and my love for it is mostly driven by the pumpkin itself,” said Puga. “There’s magic behind any kind of pumpkin and squash family, especially when is picked at the farm itself, and endless variety of delicious dishes can easily be created out of a pumpkin when in season.”