In February, Deirdre Balao Rieutort-Louis posted an Instagram Story from a Muni window featuring the Bay on a sunny day. “Not my usual commute,” she captioned the video. Balao was on her way to Dalida in the Presidio, where she recently took over the dessert program. This was a departure in more ways than one; Balao’s previous workplace was chef Peter Hemsley’s now-closed, Michelin-awarded Aphotic in the SoMa. How would the experienced pastry chef pivot from a theatrically dark fine dining restaurant serving oyster ice cream and fish sauce chocolate bars to a bustling crowd favorite celebrating Eastern Mediterranean cuisine?
Dalida’s new dessert program debuting Tuesday, March 4, is the answer; six intricate dishes that marry Balao’s signature style with chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz’s commitment to regional flavors of Turkey and beyond. “It takes me a couple of weeks to get into the groove,” says Balao of the transition. “It’s interesting for me because this culture has unfamiliar aspects that I’m discovering.”
Balao, who is French and was raised in the Netherlands, has been a part of the Bay Area restaurant scene for close to two decades and previously worked at Spruce and Gary Danko. She was a part of Palette, Hemsley’s ambitious SoMa project before it became Aphotic. At Dalida, which previously didn’t have a designated pastry chef, Balao collaborated with Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz on elevating street food classics and “deep dive” desserts. “I want to spotlight lesser-known Eastern Mediterranean desserts,” she says. “Everyone knows baklava, but I want people to come in and experience something different.”
Tavuk gogsu brulee. Isabel Baer
Chocolate date rollet. Isabel Baer
Visneli ekmek. Isabel Baer
A good example of the collaborative approach would be the tavuk gogsu brulee, a Turkish milk pudding made with shredded chicken breast. A delicacy that used to be served to Ottoman sultans and is popular in the country to this day, it utilizes chicken meat to thicken the pudding’s texture. Balao processes the chicken multiple times and thickens it with rice flour and cornstarch, rolling the mixture into a dainty roulade and adding a caramelized brulee effect and a scoop of tangy strawberry-lemon sorbet.
Another is the visneli ekmek — a traditional and simple Turkish sour cherry bread pudding elevated to new heights. At Dalida, slices of house-made milk bread are soaked in sour cherry and strawberry juice, sandwiching anise cream, and served with amaretto and toasted almond ice cream, plus boozy cherry and strawberry compote and anise meringue dotted with dried sour cherries. The latter — a study in textures and contrasting, yet complimentary flavors — is a good example of “boundary-pushing approachable,” Balao’s way to describe the personal touch she brings to each restaurant she joins. “Customers often expect a bit of nostalgia when it comes to dessert,” she says. “With this one, I went for the look and feel of a Red Velvet cake, but in the end the dessert is challenging people’s perception.”
In both dishes, and throughout the dessert menu — which also includes the chocolate date rollet, a rolled, barely-sweet chocolate sponge filled with a date and walnut spread, and the maximalist, shareable California kunefe — Balao’s affinity for slightly savory desserts comes through. An inclination, says Sayat Ozyilmaz, he fully shares. The roulade features a miniature puddle of honey-sweetened date vinegar, which adds an unexpected kick. In the kunefe’s filling, traditional mild mozzarella is mixed with pungent raclette cheese from the Nicasio Valley Cheese Company. “The best raclette you can have outside of France!” Balao says. The dessert’s fruit topping and soaking syrup flavor will change seasonally.
Isabel Baer
In addition to the a la carte desserts, Balao also took part in creating a separate menu of whole cakes — as Dalida hosts frequent celebrations and private events, the team had decided to add the option to the menu, offering guests a choice between a chocolate hazelnut Turkish coffee cake and a vanilla lemon cardamom cake, both of which can be lightly customized according to the client’s wishes. “Making cakes is something I love,” she says, “and usually at restaurants it doesn’t work. But when we launched the cake program for events, we sold four in the first week alone.”
The transition to Dalida has been filled with joy for the pastry chef — working on the restaurant’s dessert menu has been a good challenge, forcing her to simplify, distill, and “not overdo.” The fine dining scene, Balao says, has been “brutal” for the last year or so. Her husband Vincent Balao is the beverage director at the one Michelin-star Kiln, and she has many friends in the industry. Seeing Aphotic’s closure was “definitely very sad,” she comments, adding that for her next career move, she followed her heart. Balao and Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz go way back — they went to school at the Culinary Institute of America together, and Balao was eager to join their team. “Dining habits are changing, and maybe it’s for the better,” she says. “I’m excited to see where Dalida is going to go next.”
Pastry chef Deirdre Rieutort Balao-Louis at Dalida Isabel Baer
Dining and Cooking