not just desserts: everything is beautiful at the ballet

The Grand Tier is offering five new desserts created specifically for ABT’s summer season (photos by twi-ny/mdr)

“Everything was beautiful at the ballet,” Sheila, Bebe, and Maggie sing in the Tony-winning 1975 Broadway musical A Chorus Line.

That’s just what I finally found out twice in the last month.

Of all the artistic genres I’ve covered over the last twenty-three years for twi-ny, classical ballet, opera, and the philharmonic are rarely among them. I’ve seen the New York Philharmonic only a few times, including “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” in which the NYP performed the score to such Looney Tunes musical shorts as What’s Opera, Doc?, Rabbit of Seville, A Corny Concerto, and Rhapsody Rabbit. I’ve been to the opera only a handful of times, usually to see any of William Kentridge’s adaptations (The Nose, Wozzeck) or, most recently, Champion, because protagonist Emile Griffith bought tires from my father in Brooklyn at Commercial Tire on Utica Ave. & Ave. D. And, although I attend all kinds of modern, contemporary, and experimental dance, I’ve taken in the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre at Lincoln Center a mere once or twice apiece.

My wife, Ellen, has had NYCB tickets with my mother’s cousins (the daughter of a beloved uncle) for many years; the three of them share a subscription with excellent seats, the first row of the balcony. On May 23, my cousin’s husband couldn’t go, so I was asked to join them, and I am thrilled that I went. The “Contemporary Choreographers” bill for that evening at the David H. Koch Theater consisted of Pam Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics, Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth with Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle, William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman Pas De Deux with Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia, and Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle), four choreographers I am very familiar with.

It was Fête des Fleurs night for the Young Patrons Circle, so the Koch was filled with fashionably dressed couples between twenty-one and forty. The program was terrific, highlighted by Mearns and Angle’s dazzling duets.

Ellen has also occasionally gone to ABT at Lincoln Center with one of my aunts, who was married to my mother’s older brother and was instrumental in influencing my musical taste when I was a kid, introducing me to numerous rock and folk legends. She now has several physical and psychological health issues; up to about a year or so ago, my cousin would take her to their box at the ballet and to a Yankees game, where she would perk up and enjoy herself. That’s no longer possible, so my cousin offered Ellen tickets to three of the five summer matinees, the first on Juneteenth.

I wasn’t originally going to go, but then I received an email informing me that the Grand Tier Restaurant at the Metropolitan Opera House has added five unique desserts, one for each of the ballet presentations. With my sweet tooth calling out, I inquired whether it would be possible to try the dessert created for Onegin, choreographer John Cranko and composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s adaptation of Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin’s 1833 novel in verse about unrequited love, jealousy, and class. The Met Opera last staged the nearly four-hour Eugene Onegin in the 2021–22 season; my only knowledge of the tale was through Dmitry Krymov’s radical interpretation Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” in our own words at BRIC in January for the Under the Radar festival.

I was expecting to get a bite or two of the Pavlova before showtime; as many of you know, I never eat anything before an event, because of my OCD and IBS/Crohn’s. However, executive chef Florian Wehrli, executive pastry chef Kara Blitz, and executive sous chef Howie Green invited us into the roped-off Grand Tier, which is not open prior to matinees, and brought over each of the five exquisite, gorgeously plated desserts.

“Everything is beautiful at the ballet,” I thought to myself (lactose intolerance be damned).

Executive sous chef Howie Green, executive chef Florian Wehrli, and executive pastry chef Kara Blitz take a well-earned break at the Grand Tier (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

As Florian, Kara (whose home base is Lincoln Ristorante, next to the reflecting pool and Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure sculpture), and Howie guided us through each confection, the Swiss-born Florian, who lives in New Jersey with his family and rarely has the opportunity to see the ballet or opera, pointed out how difficult change can be with Met and ABT aficionados, who can get quite attached to the status quo of both the food and the performance. “We’ve got to be careful,” Florian said, explaining how hard it is to update the menu. “Everybody nearly strangled me,” he added, sharing what happened when he considered removing such favorites as fresh berries, beef tenderloin, and crème brûlée. Among the new items he is praising are the Sweet Corn Gazpacho, Stuffed Squash Flowers, and Bison Carpaccio.

For the ravishing Onegin, which ran June 18–22 and featured Thomas Forster as the title character (who ultimately receives his just deserts), Aran Bell as the poet Lensky, Catherine Hurlin as Olga, Jarod Curley as Prince Gremin, and a fantastic Chloe Misseldine as Tatiana, the Grand Tier is offering Pavlova — named for Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova — a light cornflower meringue shell topped with diplomat cream, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. It would have fit right in at the party being held at the bewitching country estate on the edge of the woods designed for the ballet by Santo Loquasto. It certainly elicited a Pavlovian response from me; every time I go to ABT or any version of Eugene Onegin in the future, my mouth will likely salivate for this exceptional treat.

Chloe Misseldine and Thomas Forster perform in ABT’s lovely Onegin (photo by Rosalie O’Connor)

For the New York premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works (June 25–29), inspired by the Virginia Woolf novels Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves, Florian and co. have created a Stone Fruit Galette, an octagonal pastry layered with fresh fruit (we had thinly sliced peaches) and lavender frangipane that was delightful. They’ve developed something appropriately half-frozen for Kevin McKenzie and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (July 1–6), a dense and delicious Mint and Chocolate Semifreddo with cocoa nibs. For the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet (July 9–13), choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan to Sergei Prokofiev’s score, the trio of chefs has prepared a luscious Cardamom Panna Cotta, chilled Italian custard with orange marmalade and finished with a coconut sablé.

“The way I see food, especially in an environment like this, all of this has been done before, but a lot of things have been forgotten about, a lot of those things have to be brought to today’s day and age,” Florian said, understanding how the Grand Tier needs to balance tradition with innovation, particularly when it comes to younger generations who might not know much about ballet and opera (and fancy restaurants). Florian, Kara, and Howie have addressed that concern with their dessert for Christopher Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate (July 16–20), which is based on Laura Esquivel’s magical realism novel.

The Met Opera facade, including the George Condo sculpture, has been reimagined as one of five new desserts at the Grand Tier (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

They’ve reimagined the classic French Opera Cake, coming up with dark chocolate slices layered with almond Joconde cake, espresso cream, and ganache, served in two rectangles inspired by the columns on the facade of the Met Opera House, completed with a gold-colored berry in the middle, referencing George Condo’s thirteen-foot-tall gold-leaf bust Constellation of Voices, which looks out over Josie Robertson Plaza with two bulging eyes, as if they can’t believe they just ate five decadent desserts — before the ballet even began.

Meanwhile, inside the Met Opera House, there is a dazzling constellation of music and movement, leading to a mouthwatering finale.

I will forever think of my dear cousins when I go to NYCB and my aunt when I visit ABT (next up for me is Like Water for Chocolate) — along with these memorable desserts.

As the trio of dancers also sing in A Chorus Line, “Everyone is beautiful at the ballet. / Every prince has got to have his swan. / Yes, / Everyone is beautiful at the ballet.”

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