Recipes No-Bake Chocolate Custard 4.0 (1,350) 2 Reviews This supersilky chocolate custard appears regularly on the dessert menu at Rubicon in San Francisco. Nicole Krasinski suggests serving it slightly chilled.Plus: More Dessert Recipes and Tips By Stuart Brioza Stuart Brioza F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: State Bird Provisions (San Francisco) Experience: Rubicon (San Francisco); Savarin (Chicago); Park Avenue Café (Chicago); Tapawingo (Ellsworth, MI) Education: Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY) What was the first dish you ever cooked yourself? Probably a big bowl of popcorn with fresh garlic butter and Parmesan cheese. I still cook that today. What is the most important skill for a cook to have? I would say for sure knowing how to layer flavor, striking balance within dishes with acids and salts and creaminesses and textures. It's a really important skill. What's your favorite cookbook of all time? Flatbreads & Flavors, by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford. It's sort of like a wanderlust adventure through these rural parts of the world that celebrate breads and dishes that center around these breads. I love the Sichuan flatbread—it's this great ropy kind of flatbread. It's supereasy. We've adopted a version of that for the restaurant. What do you eat straight out of the fridge? My ultimate favorite—are you ready for this?—is a corn tortilla that I toast over the gas burner. I rub it with butter, and then I stuff it with sauerkraut and Pecorino. I eat this over the sink because it drips. It's a guilty snack. What's the most cherished souvenir you've brought back from a trip? In Cambodia a few years ago, there was this roadside stand selling palm sugar. They made these little bowls out of coconuts, right on their property. The palm sugar didn't last very long, obviously—we used it. But the coconut shell totally did! Now I use them as salt containers. Instead of saying, “Pass the salt,” it's “Pass the coconut.” What's your hidden talent? Prior to opening State Bird I had a ceramics studio where I make some various plates and bowls and things like that, just for pleasure and a hobby. I've done it for the past five or six years now. When I was the chef at Rubicon, I would go once a week, on Tuesday mornings, to clear my mind, and be taught something versus being the one teaching. When Rubicon became no more, I just filled my time with that. I do have a passion for handmade anything, folk art, for sure. I did plates and bowls and what I call the “blate,” which is a bowl-plate. I did some things on the wheel and then I started getting really into mold making and making my own molds. Then developing recipes for glazes. I got into the science of it. I bought a number of different elements that go into glaze making. I guess I got pretty serious. We started off using some of it at State Bird, but they all break. Replacements are a bitch.2003 Best New Chef Bio Why Because of his commitment to bringing the Mediterranean to Michigan through his use of the most amazing local ingredients. Born Cupertino, CA, 1974. Education The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY. Experience Savarin and Park Avenue Cafe, Chicago. Why he became a chef "In high school, I had a job in a restaurant. I used to skip classes to work there. The chef taught me how to make confit, how to break down a chicken. I'd cut my hands every which way. But I never called in sick." Favorite warm-weather activity Riding his motorcycle in search of ramps (wild leeks). "In early spring, you can pull over and walk 10 feet off the road, and everywhere you look you'll see tons of ramps." Most memorable dinner Michel Bras, a three-star restaurant in France. "You stay overnight and listen to the cowbells outside your room. I was like, Where am I? I'm in a three-star restaurant, listening to cow bells." Won Best New Chef at: Tapawingo, Ellsworth, MI Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines and Nicole Krasinski Nicole Krasinski F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: State Bird Provisions (San Francisco) Experience: Red Hen Bread (Chicago), Rubicon (San Francisco) Recipe you are most famous for?The ice cream sandwich. It's a frozen sabayon sandwiched between two macaron cookies. Instead of making the macarons in little circles with piping bags, we cook the batter on a sheet pan, pour the sabayon on it, sandwich the other half-sheet on top, and then cut them into rectangles. We've probably done about 15 different flavors at this point, like an Earl Grey sabayon with dried fruits. Who is your food mentor? Nancy Carey, of Red Hen Bread in Chicago. I was an artist, studying photography, and needed a summer job. She was kind enough to let me work there. By the time I left, I was running the entire bakery. I had 75 employees. She was a former artist herself and is still one of my very best friends. The biggest thing I learned is that in the service industry, it's just as much about knowing how to work with people as it is about food. Favorite cookbook of all time?[Chef-husband Stuart Brioza] and I have about 500 cookbooks, but Claudia Fleming's The Last Course is probably my top one. She showcased desserts that were complex in their balancing of flavors, but still simple. It really informed the way that I learned how to make desserts. What's your current food obsession? Booze in desserts. We use these two really cool products made locally by Sutton Cellars: vermouth and a vin de noix, a green walnut liqueur. For a while I was making a sauce with damson plum jam and the walnut liqueur. I add the vermouth to whipped cream, like a kumquat orange blossom cream. It doesn't taste boozy. It's almost like umami. It gives it depth. What is the most cherished souvenir you've brought back from a trip?When Stuart and I went to Europe the second year we knew each other, we traveled all over the place on the Eurail. We went to this crazy flea market outside Budapest and picked up a set of really beautiful forks and knives. They represent so much of our life and are so special to us. We have an artful display in our kitchen and they're part of that. What is your talent besides cooking?I'm a die-hard yogi. I do a pretty awesome koundinyasana. If you could take Mario Batali out to eat, where would you go?To this sweet little Sardinian family-owned restaurant called La Ciccia. It's kind of a bizarre vibe: white tablecloths and kitschy paintings, but all the servers are Italian and the food is just so wonderful. Favorite store-bought ingredient?Brown rice syrup. I use it to replace corn syrup in certain recipes, like chocolate ganache and fudge. It has a stronger flavor, so you can't use it in all recipes. What ingredient will people be talking about in five years?Fermented things are going to be going strong for another five years. The Japanese style of burying things in a mixture of yogurt and miso is the next level, as opposed to just making sauerkraut or making kimchi. What do you eat straight out of the fridge, standing up? Pickles, like the spicy dill ones made by Bubbies. My true love as far as snack-y things is to make a BAP, which is a butter-and-pickle sandwich. Josey Baker of The Mill has a super-straightforward white bread that we're buying at the restaurant, and I usually take a chunk of that home to make my BAPs. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on May 10, 2017 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Amy Sims Total Time: 20 mins Yield: 2 Ingredients 1/4 cup milk 3 tablespoons sugar 1 large egg yolk 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, plus shaved chocolate, for serving Pinch of salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup heavy cream Pinch of ground cinnamon Directions In a small saucepan, combine the milk and 2 tablespoons of the sugar and heat until steaming and the sugar is dissolved. Put the egg yolk in a small bowl and gradually whisk in the hot milk. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the chopped chocolate and salt and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the butter. Pour the custard into 2 shallow bowls and refrigerate briefly, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the heavy cream with the cinnamon and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar until softly whipped. Dollop the cream on the custards, sprinkle the chocolate shavings on the cream and serve. Make Ahead The chocolate custards can be prepared through Step 2 and refrigerated overnight. Serve the custards chilled or at room temperature. Rate it Print