Who needs a cellphone camera when you have a pen and paper? Drawn to Flavor highlights local dishes and drinks in vivid watercolor. In these posts, Illustrator and journalist Josh Kramer tries to honor all the energy and creativity that goes into making food beautiful and delicious.

By DCist Contributor Josh Kramer

Chef Fabrice Bendano’s dessert interests span the globe, from Japan to Italy. However, he was born in Paris and is best known as a pastry chef at Alain Ducasse’s restaurants. Recently he returned to D.C. to reinvent the dessert menu at Le Diplomate (1601 14th Street NW), Steven Starr’s large French bistro with a pastry staff of nine.

Chef Bendano plays the hits: many of the dishes are classic French desserts like crème brûlée and apple tarte tatin. According to Bendano, too many French restaurants in America overwhelm delicate desserts with too much sugar. Instead, he said at recent dinner for media, it is important to balance flavor and sweetness. Sometimes he’s able to achieve this through innovation. For the tatin, for example, he confits the apple in maple syrup and butter.

However, Chef Bendano is not afraid of reinventing the wheel for other French classics. In his exotic vacherin, pear-shaped coconut meringues surround two sorbets: mango-passion fruit and coconut-lime-banana. The dessert is topped with whipped cream and sticks of pineapple that Bendano says were inspired by the children’s game that Americans call “pick up sticks.” The plate is accented by citrusy mango coulis and lime zest.

Illustration by Josh Kramer.