Sweet Beat

Blue Bottle Pastry Chef Caitlin Freeman Takes a Lot of Inspiration From Art

The Modigliani portrait, and the nectarine pavlova it inspired.
The Modigliani portrait, and the nectarine pavlova it inspired.

Caitlin Freeman has been creating gorgeous, inventive desserts for the Blue Bottle Coffee Bar at SFMOMA for a few years now, and we’ve shared a couple of them with you — including her famed Mondrian cake — during that time. She takes inspirations from the artworks that are both indirect and literal, like the knitted blue doily underneath this dessert inspired by a Matisse portrait containing a blue sweater. Now Food & Wine has featured Freeman in the April issue, in anticipation of her upcoming book Modern Art Desserts, coming out April 16. They had her create a group of Italian desserts modeled after works of art, including a nectarine pavlova after Modigliani’s Portrait of Lunia Czechowska, and a strawberry tartlet on vintage china modeled after Giovanni Battista Moroni’s “Portrait of a Woman With a Fan.” [Food & Wine]

Blue Bottle Pastry Chef Caitlin Freeman Takes a Lot of Inspiration From Art