Cronuts. Ice cream in soft waffles. Milkshakes topped with pretzels, popcorn and fairy floss. These were the dessert hybrids and OTT iterations of classic sweet treats that filled my Instagram feed a few years ago.
Fast forward to today and I’ve noticed they’ve graduated from cafés and have made it onto fine dining menus. Bistro George serves a banoffee sundae. Nobu Sydney has a mochi ice cream. And Otto Ristorante Brisbane serves a truffle ‘Gaytime’ and a tiramisu cannoli.
“Chefs are always looking for ways to be more creative,” says Steven Sinclair, head chef of Jacksons on George which houses Bistro George. “Although most of my menu is classic, creating a hybrid may establish a signature dish, setting your restaurant apart and creating something unique for diners.”
Gianna Ephraims, head pastry chef at Otto Brisbane, thinks restaurants serve dessert hybrids because they usually combine desserts diners know and love. By the time the diner reads the dessert menu, they’ve probably come across multiple dishes with ingredients or ways of preparation they’ve never heard of.
“Often quite full, maybe a little tired, they are less likely to experiment with an unfamiliar dessert,” says Ephraims. “Hybrids are a way to make people feel at home and a warming way to end a meal.”
To ensure her desert hybrids don’t feel gimmicky, Ephraims uses traditional pastry techniques. She says that though tiramisu tastes great on its own — creamy, punchy espresso, spongey and a bit boozy — it lacks texture. “When you put a cannoli inside, it’s perfection,” she says.
Beach Byron Bay serves a dessert with pineapple jam and gingerbread, a spin on custard tart. Head pastry chef Katrina Kanetani says plating plays a key role in making her dessert hybrids and spins appear more refined. The custard tart is baked and served upside-down in a bowl with pineapple jam underneath and a piece of pastry on top.
“For me, it’s about taking things to the next level and not only making the desserts great to eat but making them fun and with some ‘wow’ visual appeal for the end of the meal,” Kanetani says.
Nobu’s chef Harold Hurtada says he avoids his mochi ice cream becoming gimmicky by emphasising the traditional Japanese influence. The mochi ice cream is also house-made, which controls the quality. It’s made with cremeux, a sweet sauce made from eggs, milk and sugar, and wrapped in soft rice dough.
Hurtada says fine dining is always evolving and chefs are constantly creating unexpected and unique flavours, so dessert hybrids fit that. Kanetani thinks dessert hybrids popping up on fine-dining menus resulted from diners tiring of crème brulee and pannacotta and chefs influenced by Instagram, cookbooks and other restaurants.
Kost Bar and Grill in Queensland’s Broadbeach serves a dessert called ‘Hazelnut Rocher’ with toffee and caramelised chocolate. It’s the restaurant’s take on the Ferrero Rocher.
Dylan Roberts, group executive chef at Site Hospitality which owns Kost, says he can pinpoint the start of dessert hybrids to the invention of the zonut by Adriano Zumbo in 2013. Later called the cronut, the zonut is a mash of doughnut and croissant. Roberts says it introduced the hybrid dessert to Australia.
“I feel businesses are trying to find new hybrids as a way for more social media exposure,” says Roberts. “They’re a great talking point and opportunity to add a few more dollars to the price if they become popular.”
Dessert hybrids have evolved from a quirky Instagram trend to fine-dining-worthy. Chefs are increasingly experimenting with combining classic desserts to create unique, visually appealing versions that cater to diners keen for familiarity and novelty. No doubt they’ll continue to. Roberts put it: “Dessert hybrids are here to stay for a little while until we run out of the combinations.”
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