Really, you can have them all

THERE’S dessert, and then there’s dessert.... And then there’s more dessert.

Not satisfied to send out just one showstopper at the end of a meal, L.A. pastry chefs are parading course after course of dessert. And we’re not talking about just a few extra mignardises.

They’ve solved the pressing after-dinner conundrum in which you have to make a heartbreaking decision on just one dessert when there are so many tantalizing choices.

Providence pastry chef Adrian Vasquez has started offering a five-course dessert tasting menu, which recently included shaved carrot with coconut gelee and passion fruit curd; yogurt-cucumber mint sorbet with cantaloupe soup; warm blackberries, polenta streusel and corn ice cream; apricot gelee and fennel ice cream; and raspberries with chocolate cremeaux -- a melt-in-your-mouth quenelle of dense, creamy chocolate custard -- and raspberry foam.

At Water Grill, pastry chef Koa Duncan’s four-course dessert tasting menu will be condensed into a planned have-it-all-at-once selection of four desserts on one plate. That way, says Duncan, “people don’t have to wait for each of four courses to come out.” Desserts might include a “Dapple Dandy” plum and Tahitian vanilla bean Bavarian with plum sorbet and compote and vanilla syrup, or a chocolate espresso tart with candied lemon peel, espresso sauce and lemon hazelnut ice cream.

In true French fashion, everyone who orders a dessert at Ortolan can expect an avant dessert (pre-dessert) and then post-dessert petits fours from chef-owner Christophe Eme. Eme is himself making desserts again after the departure of pastry chef Ron Mendoza this summer. Currently, the avant dessert is baba au rhum filled with vanilla cream and berries, served with fresh currants.

This way people “don’t need to wait for the dessert before enjoying something that gives pleasure,” he says.

And at Sona, it’s not listed on the menu, but diners can request the three-course dessert tasting, says sous pastry chef Karen Yoo. “At our restaurant there’s a high emphasis placed on the dessert course,” Yoo says. Desserts make up a third of the tasting menus, two for the six-course tasting and three for the nine-course.

But is more than one dessert too much dessert?

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a complaint about people getting too many desserts,” Yoo says.

And Providence’s Vasquez says, “I don’t think it’s too much at all. The portion sizes are very reasonable.

“Lately we have people coming in just for dessert.”

Vasquez envisions dessert right in the middle of dinner, a la Chicago’s Alinea restaurant, in which a 24-course tasting menu runs the gamut from savory dishes to sweet, back to savory, then sweet again.

But for those who skip dessert altogether, he says, “I’m offended. Why didn’t you order dessert? I really would like to know.”

-- Betty Hallock

Small bites

* A new Hungry Cat is expected to open in Santa Barbara by year’s end. David Lentz, chef and co-owner of the Hungry Cat in Hollywood, plans to split his week between the two; he has hired Dylan Fultineer from Blackbird in Chicago as chef de cuisine. The 50-seat space will include an open kitchen and a raw bar. “The menu will be primarily seafood like Hollywood but more rustic,” Lentz says.

The Hungry Cat, 1535 N. Vine St., L.A., (323) 462-2155

The Hungry Cat, 1134 Chapala St., Santa Barbara, www.thehungrycat.com

* Josef Centeno, who was executive chef of the late Meson G, has taken over as executive chef this month at Opus Restaurant (no longer Opus Bar & Grill), located in the landmark Art Deco building that also houses the Wiltern Theatre. Centeno says his global-ingredient-driven menu will include dishes such as sesame-crusted jack mackerel with celery, tarragon and gooseberry gastrique, and yellowtail sashimi with lardon, geoduck clam, preserved lemon and avocado-buttermilk sorbet. Tasting menus and a bar menu also are available.

Opus Restaurant, 3760 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (213) 738-1600.

* A transformation is underway at Netty’s in Silver Lake. New owner Gloria Felix expects to close escrow this month and open Restaurant Felix in October. Felix has worked as a line cook at A.O.C., Lucques, Grace and Jar, and as executive chef at Blair’s. During the transition, she’s doing Sunday brunch at Netty’s. “It’s a way for me to introduce myself to the neighborhood,” she says. Felix says the new restaurant’s concept is “fresh, seasonal, organic California with Spanish influences.”

Restaurant Felix, 1700 Silver Lake Blvd., (323) 662-8655