Italy’s Sweet Lady

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Name: Jeemal Pongyan

Age: 26

Occupation: Lead cook at Michelangelo’s Restaurant

Residence: Born and raised in Sacramento

What is tiramisu?
The translation for tiramisu is “carry me up,” which is attributed to the coffee and rum the ladyfingers are soaked in. It's a semifreddo—Italian for half-cold partially frozen desserts, including cake, ice cream, fruit and custard.

What are the primary ingredients?
We use a very standard recipe from Tuscany: Italian ladyfingers (delicate sponge cake), espresso, rum, real mascarpone cheese, a little vanilla, heavy whipping cream, whipped egg yolks. At the end, I dust it with powered cocoa. We use biscotti for garnish.
Some people add syrup on it, chocolate chips, chocolate slivers—different ways to sweeten it up—but ours is sweet from the cheese. All you should taste is a little egginess, creaminess of the cheese, coffee and a bit of the rum.

What might people not know about tiramisu? How is Michelangelo’s tiramisu different?
You don’t cook tiramisu and you don’t add much sugar to it—mascarpone cheese is pretty sweet on its own. We use ladyfingers from Italy. We use real egg yolks and that's the ingredient that solidifies everything. I think that's why [some] people use cream cheese, but you have to use real egg yolks, which people can be iffy about.

What do diners like about the tiramisu here?
 Fresh cream, fresh cheese, the ladyfingers are from Italy. You can taste that it's fresh.

Are there different variations?
In the summer, I take peach nectar and a little bit of the rum and I use that instead of coffee and it takes a tropical form. I also make it with strawberries. You use the fruit instead of the coffee and you add just a little bit of lemon to the mascarpone.

Michelangelo's Italian Art Restaurant
1725 I St.
Sacramento, CA 95811
www.sacartz.com