For those who love savory dishes, dessert is certainly the least appreciated course when dining out. Yet its presence on a menu is particularly important, because it represents the end of the meal, the final act, the last memory that forms in the mind before leaving the restaurant.
Chefs are obviously well aware of this, and for this reason, they are paying ever greater attention to new products and combinations that go beyond the simple union of flour, butter, sugar, and various spices. Ideas that arise from exploring new and original paths, creating desserts capable of breaking away from the classic vision of the dessert served at the end of a meal, made with icing, chocolate, and various creams. These experiments and revolutionary interpretations have created some of the most unusual desserts ever seen: from potato mousse to confit tomatoes, let's discover together the most curious desserts highlighted by the 50 Best.
1. Laminaria Digitata – Le Coquillage, Saint-Méloir-des-Ondes
At Le Coquillage in Brittany, chef Hugo Roellinger offers seafood cuisine with a Japanese influence, based on slowly aged local seaweed. Dessert follows this trend: a scallop shell encases a creamy, salty ice cream infused with Laminaria digitata, a local kelp, layered on hazelnut miso paste, elderflower, dried seaweed, smoked caramel, candied kombu, and, to finish, Oscietra caviar. An infusion of herbs, flowers, and seaweed completes this calming and harmonious experience.
2. Chiaroscuro – Al Gatto Verde, Modena
A name, in this case, for the dessert created by chef Jessica Rosval of Al Gatto Verde, one of the restaurants associated with Massimo Bottura. The dessert is a clear reference to the Renaissance chiaroscuro, used by artists such as Caravaggio and Leonardo, in which a play of light and shadow creates an effect of depth and dimension. Contrasting the intensity of a caramel and charcoal cream, enriched with smoked marrow and black pepper, is a passion fruit semifreddo, covered in gold leaf, for a bright and fresh touch.
3. Dabai Tart – Dewakan, Kuala Lumpur
At Dewakan restaurant, chef Darren Teoh‘s dessert looks like chocolate, but it isn't. However, it shares a similar production process with one of the world's most beloved ingredients: the dried seeds of the dabai fruit are slowly ground for three days using a stone grinder, a process very similar to that which turns cocoa beans into chocolate. These are then placed in a tart shell made with umbut, the edible heart of the coconut palm, baked and glazed without flour. In his kitchen, Teoh seeks to showcase little-known Malaysian ingredients, resulting in a dessert reminiscent of chocolate in texture, aroma, and intensity, but with a completely new flavor, giving diners an incredible surprise effect.
4. Warm Potato Mousse – The Clove Club, London
At The Clove Club, chef Isaac McHale offers a dessert in which the potato takes center stage: a warm potato mousse, made with a siphon, accompanied by chilled caramel ice cream. The tuber is presented, on the same plate, in different consistencies: as a jam base, as a crunchy fried potato meringue, or even as purple potato tuiles. The result is a seemingly neutral base yet rich in flavor, where the intense flavors of coffee and white truffle emerge. The dessert follows the rhythm of the seasons and has been offered, since 2017, only when the ingredients are at their peak.
5. Tomato and Sobrasada – Coda, Berlin
A place that began as a dessert bar couldn't help but give birth to a noteworthy dessert, especially one created by chef René Frank, voted Best Pastry Chef in the World in 2022. Today, his restaurant, Coda, offers unconventional cuisine, often blurring the lines between sweet and savory, featuring confit tomatoes, caramelized tomatoes, and tomato ice cream. Everything is topped with a creamy macadamia milk sauce, a stark contrast to the spicy sobrasada —a spicy salami—and a cracker as a crunchy base.
6. Horseradish and Watercress – El Chato, Bogotá
Perhaps the last thing you expect in a dessert are vegetables. Yet, chef Álvaro Clavijo has literally built a dessert around them. A horseradish is accompanied by meringue and apple sorbet, with a cress cream and a cucumber flavored with huacatay, hoja santa, and freeze-dried apple. The result is a dish that plays with spiciness, acidity, and bitter notes.
7. Burnt Milk Ice Cream – Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo
It might seem like the simplest and most common on this list, but chef Víctor Arguinzoniz‘s ice cream is literally milk that tastes of embers, in a restaurant where fire is the key element. The milk is smoked in clay pots, then left to reduce overnight in an oven with oak bark before being transformed into ice cream. Served with fresh beetroot juice, the dish takes on a delicately sweet and earthy flavor.
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