Yohann Le Bescond

This Chocolate Coconut takes the cake, turning heads in the dining room of Stirrups, a Southern-inflected steakhouse. “It’s a reimagined Southern coconut cake, adding summery, Florida-style flavors,” says Yohann Le Bescond, executive pastry chef. “Trying to bring in different techniques and flavors was the challenge, and I feel like we succeeded in doing so. I am very proud of the look and how it reveals three different layers, each of them unique but working so well together.”

To create this coconut facsimile, Le Bescond starts by baking a traditional coconut cake batter in a sphere mold. He then places the cake in a larger sphere mold, covering it entirely with mango gel. Once set, it’s placed in an even larger mold and covered in coconut mousse. He freezes the mold, slices off the top and dips the dessert in chocolate. To dial up the coconut imagery, he brushes the chocolate with a wire comb. The final flourish is topping the dessert with bourbon-roasted pineapple and mango gel and dusting the plate with coconut powder. Vanilla-bourbon syrup is drizzled over the dessert tableside. “This dessert, with its unique look, was welcomed by our guests. Many of them were not expecting a ‘real’ coconut to arrive at he table, which is always a great surprise factor,” says Le Bescond.

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