Actually Pretty Awesome

Actually Pretty Awesome: The Buttermilk Panna Cotta at SPQR

Photo: Sara Remington

Chef Matt Accarrino’s already gotten a lot of love this week, having started the week by winning the big prize at Cochon 555, which means he heads to Aspen next week to compete in the Grand Cochon against all the chefs who won in every other city. But we thought we’d pile on a little extra love today, and this time for something a lot simpler (and less carnivorous) that he’s featuring on the menu at SPQR: a buttermilk panna cotta with honey spuma. It’s a beguilingly simple dessert, and not the sort of thing we’d leap to order, but it was plopped down in front of us at a lunch on Tuesday hosted by Plate Magazine, and we were in love. The flavors are light, with a silky, barely sour note to the custard and the perfect amount of salt in the whipped cream topping, and these meld gorgeously with the sparingly sweet honey spuma. It’s the most perfect expression of “milk and honey” you’ll ever taste.

It’s served with some delicious butter cookies on the side, but those are just a distraction from the heavenly balance of the panna cotta, cream, and honey.

We already knew Matt could do pasta, and meat. And now we know he can handle dessert too.

Earlier on Actually Pretty Awesome:
The Egg Sandwich at Blue Fig
Lolo’s Mexican- and Turkish-Influenced Small Plates
The Tripe and the Pickles at Bar Tartine
A Dinner of Small Plates at Frances
The Fondue Service at Fondue Cowboy
Brunch at Barndiva

Actually Pretty Awesome: The Buttermilk Panna Cotta at SPQR