14 MAIN STREET
TARRYTOWN, NY 10591
(914) 703-6550
CHEF/OWNER: JILL ROSE
Here’s the sort of thing that people don’t realize about the glamorous world of restaurateurs: Often, their work is pretty grim. In 2004, when Chef Jill Rose was pulling together what would become one of Tarrytown’s chicest spots, Chiboust, she found herself kneeling on the sidewalk in a strong, off-river January wind, bolting together a pastry case that she had bought on eBay. Says Rose, “I told my mother, ‘Listen, I just signed this lease and I want you to come see it.’ My mother walked in and she cried,” laughs Rose. “And then when I was finished renovating, she walked in and she cried again. I was mortified. In her mind, you know, like a brick wall—she’s of a different generation—that rustic, organic feel was not desired. If you have a brick wall, it should be painted. It should be perfect. I’m saying, ‘It’s finished!’ She’s saying, “No, it’s not finished. You’re not going to make it.’”
Rose’s long, 12-foot-wide space had previously been a Laundromat. Its dirt basement had not been fully excavated—or, not sufficiently excavated for Rose’s needs—and its soaring ceilings were decapitated by a dropped ceiling. Though a serious pastry chef coming out of Manhattan’s Lespinasse and La Caravelle, Rose performed as much of the renovation labor herself as she could.
“It’s funny because I was actually looking at some spaces in the city but I was living in Tarrytown, and there was just nothing here—nowhere to eat. There were a lot of Italian restaurants like Lago de Como, which I liked—it had some good years and then it fell by the wayside or went downhill. I was living here and it was, like, on my day off, ‘Where do I go? There’s nowhere here to eat.’ One day I saw a for rent sign and I thought, ‘Huh. This town could use a restaurant.’” The idea that the space had previously been the town’s dreariest business, its Laundromat, was a positive for Rose. “I thought it would have good plumbing and electric and could probably handle a bakery oven and whatever I would need for a restaurant.
“I wanted a dessert-centric restaurant to take advantage of what I brought to the table in pastry, and I thought my reputation from the city would help in launching a restaurant. That’s where I saw myself being most beneficial. Knowing that a small restaurant can’t afford to have pastry chefs, I wanted that focus to be here at Chiboust. It wasn’t something that had really been done in the suburbs.
“When I first started cooking, I was doing cooking—I wasn’t doing pastry—and I have an affinity for the savory side. I always wanted to get back to that. I wanted the food to be simple and not complicated, clean, and, basically, a neighborhood bistro. You know—with good desserts.” With characteristic independence, Rose adds, “I didn’t aspire to do more than I thought that I could produce.”
(SERVES 6–8)
For the nut base:
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted and crushed
½ cup light brown sugar
⅓ cup melted unsalted butter
For the chocolate cognac cream:
1 cup Belgian chocolate “Extra Bitter” (72 percent cacao)
6 egg yolks, room temperature
3 tablespoons brewed espresso
1 tablespoon cognac
1¼ cups heavy cream
To make the nut base: In a stand mixer blend the almonds, brown sugar, and butter until the mixture is fully combined. Press into the bottom of an 8-inch round cake ring to form the base of the cake.
To make the chocolate cognac cream: In a double boiler (or very carefully in the microwave, being sure not to burn), melt the chocolate. In a medium-size bowl whip the egg yolks. Incorporate the chocolate, espresso, and cognac with the yolks and blend well. Separately whip the heavy cream until it holds soft peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the cream into the chocolate mixture. Do not overmix. Spread onto the nut base and chill for 1–2 hours. Unmold the cake ring and garnish with shaved chocolate.