Café Boulud’s stunning grapefruit givré is the highlight of its dinner menu. It’s also an import from New York. Ghaya Oliveira, the young Tunisian-born executive pastry chef at Manhattan’s Bar Boulud, has been lauded for her refined and innovative desserts, but none more so than this one (you can even watch her make it with Daniel Boulud on YouTube).
The frozen shell of a grapefruit is filled with sorbet, fresh grapefruit segments and rose-flavoured Turkish delight, and then topped with a thin sesame cracker that’s torched to seal the package, along with fluffy threads of halvah. The result is a cerebral yet satisfying play of textures and temperatures. Who cares where the idea came from when it tastes this good? $12.
Café Boulud, 60 Yorkville Ave., 416-963-6000, cafeboulud.com
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