Lisa Reisman Photos
Devil’s Diet beet salad with goat cheese panna cotta.
Leave it to Alba Estenoz, widely known in these parts as the celebrated pastry chef at Zinc, to feature a beet salad with goat cheese panna cotta as a way of introducing The Devil’s Diet, the new dessert bar on the Howe Street side of The Novella apartment complex at the corner of Chapel.
“That’s Alba,” said former Zinc events manager Elizabeth Ciarlelli, when told of the addition of the custardy panna cotta to the tangy goat cheese in the salad.
“She’s probably one of the most outrageously creative people I’ve ever met.”
“I thought we should offer something a little more than dessert, so people can have a more complete experience,” said the diminutive, pixie-haired Estenoz, 55, of the sandwiches, salads, and tapas that complement the array of petit-fours, macarons, and eclairs staged under the glass dome on the counter.
Take-out and delivery orders will prove crucial to the ability of local restaurants like the Devil’s Diet to weather the Covid-19 pandemic. Call 203 – 666-889, visit the restaurant at 1245 Chapel St. (Howe Street entrance), or visit the restaurant’s website or place orders through Grubhub, Uber Eats, or Snackpass.
Devil’s Diet owner Alba Estenoz with husband Joel Silverman.
The storefront on Howe near Chapel.
The story of the Devil’s Diet begins in her uncle’s pasteleria in the small town of Miajadas, Spain, about 35 miles west of her native Merida.
Estenoz told the story while demonstrating how she puts together the beet salad with goat cheese panna cotta.
Estenoz remembered being entranced by the sweet scents and creams, the aroma of a sponge cake baking in the oven, the flakiness of the pastry.
“He would give me certain things to do, and then I got to try everything,” she said. “Then I forgot about it.”
Fast forward to Ithaca, N.Y., in the early 1990s. By then, Estenoz had married. She and Joel Silverman met at the University of Seville, where he was doing a semester abroad. She was studying cultural anthropology. It didn’t inspire her.
“The system is very strict, so there’s not a lot of room for exploring,” she said, as she strained the candy-striped beets before laying them out on a plate.
In Ithaca, she said, “Joel was working, and I was by myself a lot, so I started cooking, really for the first time. We would have little dinner parties with our friends, and I saw that was something I really enjoyed, cooking, and also making people happy with food.”
Silverman, a lecturer in American Studies who’s currently director of academic and educational affairs at Yale, recalled a particular dinner party.
“We had our friends over, and they were co-owners of Stella’s Cafe in town, and one of them told Alba, ‘This is amazing, you should cook professionally,’” he said. “That sparked an idea.”
Not long after that, the two moved to Austin, Texas, where Silverman was pursuing a Ph.D. The plan was that Estenoz would go to culinary school.
It didn’t happen.
“Joel was a graduate student, and of course someone needs to work, so I got some jobs at restaurants,” she said, “I always asked if they would let me be in the kitchen. They always said, ‘Well, we don’t have anything now, but why don’t you try hostess or server for now?’”
The promises turned out to be empty. Estenoz despaired. Then a position opened up at a popular restaurant. “They told me you can be a busser if you want, and if anything opens up here, we’ll let you know,” she said.
She enjoyed bussing, picking up what she could in the kitchen. Then came word that the new pastry chef at a sister restaurant was looking for an assistant.
“They asked me if I wanted to do it and I said yes, but I don’t know anything,” she said, as she added some chopped onions and then, for a little crunch, Maldon sea salt flakes. “They said, ‘It’s OK.’ So I went over and I did everything she told me to do.”
The counter at Devil’s Diet.
She took to the work immediately. “It was so much more creative,” she said, her voice rising in delight. “Not that you can’t be creative with food, but with desserts, you can take your time making them, there’s no rush, and it’s just a pure pleasure.”
Not long after, she learned that this pastry chef was moving on to another restaurant.
“She told them that I could take over, which was not true of course,” she said, bringing out a tray of goat cheese panna cotta “pebbles,” as she called them.
She showed up early in the morning and stayed all day, “working as hard as I could.” At night, she watched cooking shows and read books. “I was expected to do everything, the desserts for the dining room which was large and then for the banquets, so that was a lot of work and I was terrified a lot of the time.”
Each day, she said, “I thought I would get there and they would say, ‘thanks for all your help but we found someone who is a real pastry chef.’”
Terror aside, there was a certain exhilaration at the steepness of the learning curve.
“The fact is I wanted to learn everything because I had no formal training,” she said. “That was exciting because I don’t know anything about it and suddenly I had to figure it out on my own and then I was saying ‘oh wow, this is fun.’”
She stayed for six years, working until the day her son was born, in 2000. When she returned from maternity leave, working full-time proved a challenge. “My hope was that when I came home and napped, he would nap, but he wasn’t in agreement.” She tried part-time. That wasn’t working either.
After two years in Madrid to be closer to Estenoz’s parents, the young family settled in New Haven’s Ninth Square.
It was while working as the pastry chef at Union League Cafe that she heard a position was open at Zinc.
“I really liked the chef, there, Denise,” she said, referring to Denise Appel. “I respected her, her talent, and I felt like I could do what I wanted to do.”
To hear former events manager Ciarlelli tell it, the two were kindred spirits.
“Both of them see an ingredient, and they turn it into something else and you just shake your head,” she said. “And Alba, she’s mastered the scientific principles of the craft. That, combined with her over-the-top creativity, is what makes her so special.”
Alba Estenoz, with candy-striped beets.
In the summer of 2019, Estenoz broke her ankle. It required surgery. It also got her thinking.
“It was my dream for a very long time to create a social place where people can relax and enjoy a treat with their friends, and not just sit alone with their computer or their phone,” she said, as mellow jazz filtered through the softly lit space.
During her convalescence, she formed a business plan. She found the space. She signed a lease with Trio Properties, landlords of the Novella apartment complex.
Then came the pandemic. The velvet couches and tete-a-tetes went into storage. Partitions went up between the physically distanced tables. Take-out became the norm.
The dream lives on.
Alba, with goat cheese panna cotta.
Post-pandemic, “this is a place where you can have some really nice pastries and a coffee and tea in the afternoon with your friends,” she said. “It’s also it’s the last place in the evening, if you don’t want the production of a three-course meal, just a few tapas that you share with friends, and then a drink and dessert.”
If the beet salad with goat cheese panna cotta is any indication, the Devil’s Diet will thrive. Here was a delightful balance of textures and flavors, animated by the tang of the goat cheese, and mellowed by the creamy panna cotta.
As this correspondent was finishing her salad, two Yale undergraduates wandered in.
“Cozy vibe,” one said, after ordering a cappuccino and a pastel pink macaron.
“Great desserts. Can’t wait ‘til everything reopens. We’ll definitely be back.”
Previous coverage of recommended take-out orders to help local businesses survive the pandemic:
• Today’s Special: Haci’s Napoletana Pie
• Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette
• Today’s Special: Nieda’s Moist Falafel
• Today’s Special: Qulen’s Vegan “Wings”
• Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl
• Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha
• Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup
• Today’s Special: Woody’s Steak & Shrimp
• Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa
• Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian
• Today’s Special: Mohammed’s Bhel Poori
• Today’s Special: Francesco’s Tortelli
• Today’s Special: Seikichi’s Sushi
• Today’s Special: Ketkeo’s Khao Poon
• Today’s Special: Mike Fox’s French Toast
• Today’s Special: Zhang’s Squirrel Fish Dish
• Today’s Special: Jessica’s Gumbo
• Today’s Special: Kenny Kim’s Vegan Ramen
• Today’s Special: Ernesto’s Venezuelan Arepa
• Today’s Special: Corey’s “Prison Reformer” Frank
• Today’s Special: Bryan’s Butter Chicken Pie
• Today’s Special: Jared’s Super Supreme Baked Potato
• Today’s Special: Craig’s Breakfast Reuben
• Today’s Special: Sunny’s Mackerel Sashimi
• Today’s Special: Jamshed’s Lemon Chicken
• Today’s Special: Dave’s Navratan Curry
• Today’s Special: Nicole’s Oxtail
• Today’s Special: Brisket Kansa-Lina Fries
• Today’s Special: Sandra’s Bourbon-Glazed Salmon