Look's Who's Popping-Up

‘The Dessert Architect’ Pops-Up For a Week at Porta Via

The Dessert Architect's take on rhubard crumble under strawberry ice cream
The Dessert Architect’s take on rhubard crumble under strawberry ice cream Photo: Porta Via

We were already predicting the proliferation of pop-up restaurants, but Time’s coverage this week of Ludo “Chef of the Future” Lefebvre should greatly speed up the process. To that end, we offer you a crazy dessert concept popping up at Beverly Hills Porta Via tonight and running through next Thursday. Which local chef is returning to the restaurant game after 25 years to showcase his sweet stuff here?

Cookbook author Robert Wemischner, who served gourmet goods to 90210 at his own Le Grand Buffet between 1976 and 1985, is the star of this show. Wernischner is making three multi-dimensional desserts for this “Dessert Architect” pop-up, dubbed after his book of the same name. Two of the dishes show South Asian influences, in a baby banana and fresh pineapple tapioca with a coconut tuile as well as a ”peanut sponge” of a salted peanut croquantine with tamarind. He’ll also fuse French and Southern U.S. tastes in a rhubarb crumble stacked in vanilla soup below a cylinder of strawberry ice cream.

Wemischner explains that he comes to Porta Via as a guest and likes the brownies and cookies, but clearly his desserts have more jarring ambitions that go well with the recent, noticeably cooler, transformation here. This stint will only be until May 13th, at which point the pastry chef might just return to being a regular, so make reservations if you want to catch him during his Beverly Hills kitchen homecoming.

Porta Via reservations at 310-274-6534.

‘The Dessert Architect’ Pops-Up For a Week at Porta Via