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- The Palm Beaches of Florida are typically associated with the great beaches, warm weather, golfing, and fishing.

However, for the past two years that I've lived here, I've noticed that every restaurant here has an amazing dessert menu.

(slow jazzy music) - "Travels & Traditions with Nicholas Wolf" is a series of programs in which Nicholas travels around the world, discovering what people eat, why they eat it, and how their classic dishes are prepared.

Warning, these are not programs you should watch on an empty stomach.

I'm Burt Wolf.

- And I'm Nicholas Wolf.

- In this series of "Travels & Traditions" shows, we will be traveling around the world, bringing you stories from some of our favorite restaurants.

- I'm very excited to join my dad and continue the legacy of "Travels & Traditions".

- I'm kind of excited myself.

- Dessert comes from the French word, (speaks in foreign language), which means to clear the table.

It refers to the fact that dessert was typically served at the end of the meal.

However, my father says, "Life is too unpredictable to have dessert last."

I agree.

In Europe and the United States, the idea of concluding a meal with a sweet dessert became popular in the 1920s.

In the grand scheme of things, desserts are fairly new.

The word bistro is used to describe a restaurant that developed in Paris, France.

In 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the city was occupied by Russian troops.

The troops ate at restaurants and yelled, "Bistro, bistro," which in Russian means quickly, indicating that they wanted their food served as fast as possible.

In the 20th century, bistros became a staple for Parisian cuisine, and today, I'm in Jupiter, Florida to check out my local bistro.

(light upbeat music) Paul is a chef and owner who trained for nine years at the Savoy Hotel in London, and that's a pretty big deal.

Bistro is famous for its chocolate souffle.

And when my dad, Burt Wolf, overheard I was cooking souffle, he wanted in.

But first, here's a little background on souffles.

The earliest recipe for a souffle dates to 1741.

But they became famous in the early 1800s when a recipe appeared in a cookbook by the famous French chef Marie-Antoine Carême.

- So first of all, we make our pastry cream.

We add two ounces of butter and two ounces of flour.

- Is that called a roux?

- It is called a roux.

It's gonna be a blonde roux.

- So you're gonna let that condense down and turn into a paste?

- Yeah, and we're basically trying to cook out the flour.

We add our milk.

- [Nicholas] And what are you using?

Just whole milk there?

- Whole milk, yeah.

- How many you think you could eat in one sitting?

- Talking to me?

(group laughing) - So now-- - Oh yeah, here we go.

- Turn down the heat.

And now I add my egg yolks and my sugar.

This is basically pastry cream now.

So, now I'm gonna put this just to chill off a little bit.

So now we do our egg whites.

So a little bit of corn starch, and now some confectioner's sugar.

And in the meantime we'll just coat our souffle mold.

So it's just unsalted butter.

And then we make sure it goes all the way up to the top, so that helps the souffle rise, otherwise it'll stick.

And then we'll sugar.

- Comin' out.

- So we got pastry cream and we add our cocoa powder.

- [Nicholas] So here we go, chocolate now.

- [Burt] All the air is now whipped in.

- Yeah.

So they say you should be able to turn upside down.

- Wow.

(group chuckling) That's serious.

- First of all-- - Look at that.

- Take a spoon.

You have to fold in, but at the first spoonful, you don't fold in.

- Oh, I see.

- [Chef] You have to aerate it a little bit.

- Okay, I see, interesting.

And then you put more in and fold it over.

- Fold it.

The mold.

So now we place this in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

- [Nicholas] While it's cooking, Chef mixes 40% heavy cream and 70% dark chocolate to make the sauce.

- You just whisk this together.

And that's our, basically our chocolate sauce.

And then we also serve a little bit of whipped cream if you'd like to do it.

- All right, I'm being put to work already.

I'm not complaining.

I get the get the reward.

- So then we place this in our little ramekin.

Garish it with a little bit of mint.

And here we have our chocolate sauce.

- [Nicholas] I think I might just drink that as hot chocolate.

Wow.

(laughs) It's double the size.

That's some serious souffle.

Oh, of course, powdered sugar.

- So we open it here, pour the chocolate sauce inside.

- [Nicholas] Look at that, like a little soup.

- [Chef] A spoon full of whipped cream.

- Of course.

- And enjoy.

- Let's go.

- Chooses your weapons.

- I'll choose this one.

Let's go for it.

- Go.

- It's very hot.

Everyone for themselves.

(laughs) - Oh, I hate that.

Mm.

Just the way my mother never made it.

- (laughs) That is fabulous, chef.

It's not overpowering.

The chocolate comes in beautifully.

It's not overly sweet.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved key lime pie.

I'm holding a normal lime here as opposed to a key lime, because in 1926, a hurricane devastated all the key limes in Florida.

Key lime pie and South Florida go hand-in-hand, and it doesn't get more South Florida than a restaurant on the waterfront.

Lucky Shuck is both upbeat and relaxing.

Its high energy is offset by its peaceful location, facing the waterfront on Jupiter Island.

Chef Jenniffer Woo grew up in Miami.

She became intrigued by the culinary world while watching it on TV.

We're gonna start with the crust.

- We're gonna start with my crust.

- Gonna show me how it's done?

- [Jennifer] So we have graham crackers in the bowl.

- [Nicholas] Mm hm - I like to put toasted pecans.

We're gonna add sugar, cinnamon.

- Mm.

- Add some spice, and then melted butter.

And this is what's gonna bind everything together.

And then I just mix it with my hand.

Once it's added up, I like to squeeze it just to make sure that it's gonna form.

- Right consistency?

- Yes, sir.

- Okay.

- This is my tool that I like to use.

- [Nicholas] Preferred kitchen tool right here.

- Just to make sure that everything's pressed nice and tight.

- If it works, then stick by it.

- So this is my crust.

And then we're just gonna pop it in the oven.

So we're setting our oven to 350, five minutes in the oven.

- [Nicholas] Okay, we're back.

- Now we have to do the custard.

So, I put everything in here.

I first start with the condensed milk, and then I add all my acids.

- Okay, so you got key lime juice right there.

And that's different from the lime juice?

- Yes.

- So two different, some people don't know that, but key limes and limes are different.

- The key limes have like a little bit of floral.

And then I add yuzu.

Yuzu is a Japanese lemon and it has a super floral taste to it.

I'm just gonna blend this with my hand blender.

Slowly.

(blender whirring) All right.

Everything's nice and mixed up.

And that's our filling.

We're just gonna put this in our springform pan.

And then I just take a torch and we're gonna pop all those bubbles.

- Get a nice smooth top.

- Yeah.

Nice and smooth.

And then we're ready to go back in the oven.

We don't want scrambled eggs, so we put the temperature at 200 for two hours.

We're gonna cook this guy low and slow.

All right, two hours later, this custardy pie.

Yum.

We let this chill a little bit, and then we're gonna go ahead and take it out of the pan.

- That is true.

No one eats a hot key lime pie.

Beautiful crust.

Look at that.

Perfect 50/50 right there.

- Yep, balance, balance.

- [Nicholas] Jennifer combines egg whites, sugar, and a touch of coconut extract to form the topping.

- All right, so how you know that the meringue is good is you're gonna stick it up and-- - Looks good to me.

- Looks at the peaks.

Now I'm gonna fold in some powdered sugar.

We're incorporating the ingredient without like ruining all the air that we just incorporated with the whisk.

So everything's nice and incorporated.

Nice and glossy.

Now we're gonna top the pie.

(upbeat techno music) So now we're gonna torch it.

Nice and toasted.

Smells so good.

And then next, we're gonna bring my culture into it.

This is guava fluid gel.

And then we got pasture fruit notes all over the place.

And then, we're gonna make it pretty.

We just add violas, 'cause why not?

Now I think we're ready to eat the pie.

So I'm gonna cut you a slice.

- [Nicholas] Okay.

- After you.

- So I want to get everything in one bite.

So I'm gonna go a little bit of this.

- Be honest.

Let me know what you think.

- Wow.

That is really good.

- Not your average key lime pie.

- Definitely not.

Growing up in Ukraine, my mother's favorite dessert was honey cake.

The cake was never made in restaurants, so you had to make it at home.

However, I might have found a spot that lives up to my mother's home cooking.

Come on, let's check it out.

(upbeat techno music) The place is run by mother and daughter, Malina and Victoria.

They moved to the States from the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

- So let's start with butter.

- Take that in here.

- You can beat one egg.

Go with full egg, sugar, a little salt.

- One little pinch like this?

- Yeah, you can put more.

- Okay.

- And another pinch.

- Okay.

Okay.

- And another one.

And you can put baking powder.

- I see.

- Honey.

Just put all honey.

- The whole thing?

- Don't waste it.

Now, you're going to mix until all ingredients combine all together.

- I don't remember signing up for all this work.

Someone should call my agent.

- You have to do very good, so you don't want egg to cook.

Okay, you can hold, I'll cook.

- I'll let the pros take over right now.

- You didn't do a good job.

See?

- I didn't do a good job?

- See sides?

Look, look, look.

- My god.

- [Malina] You didn't pass the test today.

- I guess I'll stick to television for now.

- Okay, so this is a color, caramel.

Now we are going to put this into the bowl.

So now we're going to put flour.

- [Nicholas] I think she's doing the work now.

She doesn't trust me.

- Okay, okay, okay.

- (laughs) Now you'll let me go.

- Okay, try.

It has to incorporate all together.

Then when you feel that you cannot do the spoon-- - We switch to the hands.

- Yes.

Now you have to put all together in one bowl.

Combine all this.

Now we are going to divide.

So this is how you make layers.

And we have to put in fridge for one hour.

We have to roll this.

- [Nicholas] How big are you looking for these to be right now?

- Just thin, thin it out, yeah.

So it looks like the size of the plate.

- Not the most beautiful shape, but-- - It's okay, doesn't have to be.

We are going to make a perfect circle.

- Ah, with a pizza cutter?

- You want to cut?

- Sure, let's go.

And spin around?

- And we are going to bake all together.

It save us time.

And we need these pieces at the end when we are going to decorate the cake.

Couple more cakes and you pro.

We put oven on 355 for seven, seven, eight minutes.

- So here are our final... - Our final delicious cake.

(Nicholas laughing) - Very hot, watch out.

Now they crisp up, right?

- [Victoria] When it cools off.

- [Nicholas] So here we go, we have our layers ready.

- Cream today for honey cake is going to be sour cream and whipping cream, powdered sugar, and whipped vanilla.

It has to be very cold from the freezer.

- Let's check it out.

- Yeah.

See?

- It looks pretty good.

It's standing on peak.

So we're folding it over, making sure not to mix too much to ruin that beautiful fluff.

- Okay, so now we can put all together.

We take one layer.

Let's do with, two spoons.

Now you can put second layer.

- More cream?

- More cream.

Okay, now you put... (light upbeat music) - More?

And, second to last.

- Okay.

- And the final piece.

- Put the last one.

- Ta-da.

- Yeah.

- Little topping.

- Now it has to go in the fridge.

Okay.

- And here we go.

Voila, it's ready.

We had this in the fridge for overnight for 24 hours.

So all the flavors get soaked in.

- So this is the end from the circles that we made it.

And I put in a blender them until it's very, very fine.

- Honey cake breadcrumbs.

- Yes.

Okay, ready?

- Yeah, I'm ready.

- And look, how does that look?

- It looks like a mille-feuille, all those different layers.

That is beautiful.

Wow.

(light upbeat music) - And that's the moment.

What do you say?

- Wow, thank you.

- Wow, yes.

- That is beautiful.

- Good.

- It was a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it.

- [Malina] Yes, it definitely worth it.

- I'm in Palm Beach Gardens to check out a new location called Ela Curry and Cocktails.

After just one year of being open, they moved to a new location because it was so popular.

(light upbeat music) Cardamom is one of Chef Pushkar's favorite spices.

It's both sweet and savory.

He even named his new restaurant Ela, which is Sanskrit for cardamom.

Gulab jamun means rosewater berry.

It's a classic dessert that's popular in India.

It's made from milk solids that are reduced to a consistency of a soft dough.

It is often garnished with dried nuts to enhance the flavor.

Today the chef and owner, Pushkar, is cooking it.

This is not Pushkar's first time on the show, so he is prepared for any bad jokes I'm going to make.

- So what are we gonna start off with is adding this heavy cream gradually.

Start forming into a dough.

Now you wanna kind of wanna knead it where it stops sticking to the surface, to form a really, really nice perfect circular.

I'm gonna drop it.

- What are you cooking it in?

- I'm cooking this in a ghee.

Ghee is caramelized, clarified butter.

- So what type of size are we looking for here?

- [Pushkar] Yeah, that's a good size.

Make it tight like, yeah.

- Yeah, how you doing there, Dad?

- I don't know.

I'm working.

- All right, let's see.

- Who made a better one?

- That's too big.

You're doing better.

- Okay, okay.

(Burt crying) - Don't cry, come on, sorry.

- You have to drop it on the side so you're not splashing all that hot oil on you.

And then as they float and then the color is kind of getting darker, gonna make sure you're kind of rotating them too.

Look how, this is what you want.

- [Burt] Oh, beautiful.

- Get all that fat out.

Then you just drop it in here.

- Right in the syrup.

- Syrup has saffron.

Then you have a green cardamom.

They become like a sponge.

You have to taste along the steps, so here.

Go for it.

- Can I do that too?

- Yes.

(laughs) - You're allowed, you're allowed.

- [Pushkar] Let's do a little gulab jamun together.

- Cheers.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

- Gulab jamun.

(light upbeat music) Oh my god.

That is a beautiful dessert.

It's soft, it's soggy.

It has all the moisture in there.

It's a beautiful donut, chef.

In addition to eating tasty food, I also try and eat nutritionally rich food.

While this can become pretty tricky when it comes to desserts, however, cheesecake was actually served at the very first Olympic games in the ancient Greece, all the way back in 776 BC.

Greek brides and grooms used cheesecake as a wedding cake.

When the Romans conquered Greece, they changed the recipe for cheesecake by adding eggs and putting the cheese filling in a pastry.

Speaking of cheesecake, the place to go here in the Palm Beaches is The Wine Room Kitchen and Bar.

Come on, let's check it out.

(jazzy upbeat music) Their selection includes 1800 wines and 80 artisanal cheeses.

The place combines a traditional restaurant, a 100 year old speakeasy, a wine and cheese store, and a grand tasting hall.

They have a one-of-a-kind tasting system imported from Italy.

The executive chef is Blake Malatesta, who studied in Europe and worked with the great master chef, Paul Bocuse.

- Before we start with our base for the labneh cheesecake, we're gonna make our crust.

Take our graham cracker, melted butter.

It's a European style butter, 82% fat.

Nothing less.

Fat is flavor.

So we're gonna put down a cut out piece of parchment.

- [Nicholas] That's smart.

- And we're just gonna drop our breadcrumbs in.

- [Nicholas] So you're going in for a pretty thin crust there.

- Just enough to kind of give it a little texture.

And what I like to use after is a measuring cup.

And it's just a nice easy press down.

We let this cool off, we put this in the fridge.

Standard KitchenAid.

So this is a labneh, which is a Lebanese style yogurt.

And we're just gonna start it on low.

And as we incorporate our sugar, we're going to increase the speed.

You're gonna let it go till it beats the sugar into it.

You're gonna get it a little fluffy.

I like to use full fat sour cream.

This is a Ukrainian-style sour cream.

- Fat is the road that sugar travels, so.

(Blake chuckles) - Right.

- I like that.

- We're gonna let that mix up a little bit.

Six eggs.

We're gonna crack 'em into a bowl, and we're just gonna add it one yolk at a time.

Nothing over like a medium speed.

We're putting milk into this, whole milk.

We're going to put this on low, and we're just gonna lower this down.

And then we're gonna take my sieve, that way when it's going in, it's going into like a fine grain.

So you do a little bit at a time and you mix it in.

And now we've done that all on the bottom.

So now what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this and we're gonna bring it to the top.

It looks like a good consistency.

- [Nicholas] We have our graham cracker based crust.

- Graham cracker, cinnamon, butter, in the fridge.

We're gonna take our batter.

- Looks very pretty.

- [Burt] Nicely measured.

- We want it right below the rim, 'cause when we start cooking this, it's obviously gonna-- - Rise a little.

- Give a little, give a little height to it.

- Okay, let, let's pop this baby in the oven.

- Great.

(jazzy upbeat music) - Got our prized possession in there.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Good color on the top.

- Beautiful.

- As you see, some of the water's evaporated.

We left this rested for about 45 minutes.

Cool to the touch.

We're gonna take out this, our pan.

All right.

- Mm mm.

- All right.

We're gonna top it with a little bit of sugar, and just kind of let it get melting.

Once it starts to move, we bring it down a little bit more.

- I've never seen that before.

Smells good.

And what are we adding there, chef?

- This is a salted caramel.

(jazzy upbeat music) This is a golden berry compote that we make.

- Oh, look at that crust on top there.

Wow.

Mm.

That is phenomenal.

- Hard.

Nice.

- That is really good.

I've never seen that before, but it really does fit.

Definitely not your basic New York style cheesecake.

Adds a whole new dimension with that beautiful crust there on top, the brulee.

Great job, thank you.

- Thank you.

- And I'll be here on the corner.

(both chuckling) - That's how you know it's a good dessert, if he runs away with it.

If you're in West Palm Beach and looking to play around the golf, The Park is the place to go.

However, if you're anything like me and miss your three foot putts, you'll have much more fun eating tres leches at their restaurant.

Tres leches cake is a light sponge cake that has been soaked in three kinds of milk.

It originated in Nicaragua during the 1800s and is now popular throughout Latin America.

The restaurant's floor to ceiling windows look out at a world-class 18-hole golf course, a sport that I am in the process of learning, as you can tell.

The executive chef at the house is Jason Van Bomel, and the restaurant's menu presents an amazing seafood selection.

But today, he's going to make a classic tres leches cake.

- First thing we do is we're gonna whisk our egg whites, that goes into the mixer, and sugar.

So this whisks to a hard, rigid peak.

Okay, we're gonna set these aside while we prepare the next step.

Now I'm adding the egg yolks and sugar.

So we'll let that go for 10 minutes.

I'm adding milk.

- [Nicholas] What type of milk are we adding there?

- This is whole milk.

- Okay.

So actually we've got four milks in here?

- I'd say you're right.

This is part of the cake.

- I guess we gotta change the name now.

- And vanilla.

Just going to whisk this until it's combined.

- Desserts are really about patience.

- [Jason] So now... - I thought that was hospitals?

- Chef adds the dry ingredients to a bowl, cake flour, kosher salt, and baking powder.

That beautiful fine texture.

- [Jason] So now we'll add the egg yolk mixture.

- [Nicholas] Now we're forming our beautiful dough.

- We're going to add our egg whites.

- [Nicholas] Chef uses a folding technique, so he keeps all the air in the egg whites.

- Just apply a little coat of oil.

I use a spray, which gets a nice even coat.

- [Nicholas] Get our non-stick surface on there.

- When it comes time to remove the cake, instead of having to try and get down the sides, you can just cut the edges and it comes right out.

- [Burt] Looks good enough to bake.

- Make sure it's in there nice and even.

Now we're gonna bake our cake.

- Let's go.

- This will go into a 325 degree oven for 25 to 28 minutes, and just until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Gonna take it out of the oven here.

- [Nicholas] Ooh, golden brown.

Let's go.

- It's cooled off to room temperature now, and we're going to put little holes in the cake.

Now we're going to put together the milks.

We're starting with heavy cream.

This is the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

- [Nicholas] Our last one.

Wow, that's a, that's a heavy one.

- Last thing that we add is a little bit of almond extract.

You whisk those until they're well combined.

All right, so we're going to add the three milks over the cake.

So give this about five minutes and then we'll make another addition.

- It's another one of those recipes where you say, "Don't try this at home."

- Once all the milk has been added to the cake, I'm going to cover this up, put it in the cooler, and let it sit overnight.

- Well, this is the magic of television, so (fingers snap).

Magic.

- Now we're going to assemble the dessert.

This is half a cup of strawberries that I diced up.

I'm adding a little sugar, some white balsamic vinegar, a little tiny bit of orange zest, and a little pinch of mint.

- [Nicholas] A little bit of green.

- Start off with our caramel sauce portion of the tres leches cake, strawberry relish.

- It's okay, you can eat it on a diet.

There's fruit.

- Ha.

- Serve that with a large amount of whipped cream and a little pinch of cinnamon.

- Okay, I am going in.

(soft jazzy music) That is fabulous.

Well, in my opinion, eating tres leches is much more enjoyable than playing golf.

But that decision is up to you.

I promised myself I won't eat any more tres leches until I finally break 90.

Thanks for joining me for just desserts in the Palm Beaches.

I'm Nicholas Wolf.

- [Burt] But wait, there's more.

For daily reels featuring interviews, stories, and recipes filmed during these shows, visit NicholasWolfTV on Instagram, or BurtWolf TV on YouTube.

(soft jazzy music) (soft jazzy music continues) - [Announcer] "Travels & Traditions" is made possible by Chemex coffee makers.

Makers of scientifically designed coffee makers and filters since 1941.

Pure design, pure flavor.

Chemex.

And by Artrepreneur, a global platform for artists, empowering artists to succeed and connecting art lovers, designers, and collectors with curated works.

Artrepreneur.com.

And by YP Foundation, helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare.

YP Foundation, And by Five Star Travel, Inc.

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

Five Star Travel, Inc.

(soft guitar music)