Dessert by Ford Fry’s Pastry Chef makes James Beard Foundation’s top 15 dishes of 2015

The James Beard Foundation has announced its favorite dishes of 2015. Included in its top 15 dishes of the year is one by Chrysta Poulos, pastry chef for all of Ford Fry's Rocket Farm Restaurants. Her winning dish: Mille-feuille crêpe cake with brown butter crêpes, caramelized Georgia apples and apple butter. The dessert was served at a dinner celebrating the best of Georgia at the Beard House in New York on Oct. 15.

Here’s how JBF staff described the dish: “Made with seemingly endless layers of crêpe upon crêpe, Chrysta Poulos’s iteration of the traditional French dessert, mille-feuille, swapped traditional puff pastry for the delicate, thin French pancakes. The pastry chef from Atlanta’s Rocket Farm Restaurants wowed diners with her stunning, sky-high beauty accented with whipped cream, caramelized apples, and a creamy apple butter—a study in both simplicity and classical technique. One bite of the delicate confection and even the most devoted Francophiles would approve of this departure from the classic.”

Poulos first worked under Linton Hopkins at Restaurant Eugene. She was part of the team that opened Holeman & Finch and later, H&F Bakery. She went on to 4th & Swift and then worked under Kevin Gillespie at Woodfire Grill. Poulos joined the Ford Fry team with the opening of  King + Duke, and has since come to oversee pastry for all of Fry’s restaurants.