• Morimoto

  88 Tenth Ave., 212-989-8883

  During his storied television career as an Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto has whipped all sorts of unlikely ingredients into edible shape. No wonder, then, that the dessert creation he calls “tofu cheesecake” is one of the best things we’ve tasted since, well, the Second Avenue Deli closed for business. The tofu is whipped into a kind of white chiffon and served with thin curlings of chocolate on top. It has an almond-biscuit bottom, along with condiments laid out on the plate, in the decorative Japanese style. Among these is a tuille made from the esoteric tofu-skin product called yuba, and mounds of candied ginger, grapefruit, and lime zest. Best of all, though, is the dipping sauce. It’s made with a healthy dose of maple syrup and coffee, which dissolves with the light cake in a most pleasing way when you put it in your mouth, leaving the faintest taste of sugar, chocolate, and, dare we say, tofu.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine