When pastry chef Noelle Marchetti tells people she’s from New York, their minds go to the city by default. In truth, Marchetti grew up in the Hudson Valley, a region brimming with farms that sparked her interest in food because it was growing all around.
“My grandfather really loved being in the kitchen,” Marchetti says. “He really loved to bake. He would push the boundaries of these recipes and sometimes they would turn out, sometimes they wouldn’t. It really pushed me to be interested in pastries because it’s so scientific.”
Marchetti attended the Culinary Institute of America (just across the river from her hometown of Kingston), where she received her Bachelors in baking and pastry management.
Ultimately, she landed at Yolan, an acclaimed Italian restaurant from James Beard Award-winner Tony Montuano (also behind MICHELIN-starred Spiaggia) inside Nashville’s The Joseph hotel.
Marchetti is a big part of that success having received a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for outstanding pastry chef in 2023. Marchetti and the restaurant’s efforts have again been in the spotlight recently thanks to Food & Wine Magazine readers ranking Yolan the best restaurant in the country.
That’s all the more reason to check out Yolan’s seasonal menu, particularly Marchetti’s creations. Read on to learn about five of her dishes.
Signature Foccacia
A meal at Yolan is accompanied by a basket of housemade breads, one of which is the signature focaccia. The recipe begins with Margo, a 13-year-old sourdough starter that comes from Noelle’s mentor in the Cayman Islands.
“She’s an island girl,” Marchetti says of the sourdough starter, “she’s well traveled.”
The bread is leavened without the use of yeast, relying solely on the fermented sourdough starter. The result is a unique taste with a sour flavor that takes five hours to prepare. “We start it very early in the morning around 5 am. It goes in the oven around noon, and then she’s out for dinner service,” Marchetti says.
The focaccia flavor changes seasonally alongside the menu, which often highlights different regions in Italy.
Caramella di Formaggio
This savory-sweet hybrid is served as a pre-dessert, acting as a bridge between the mains and the dessert courses. Caramella di Formaggio, Marchetti’s cheese-forward Italian dish, has a Grana Padano cheese custard, candied kumquat-quince gelée, and an olive oil crisp made with Margo.
“If you think about when you get a cheese board and you make that perfect bite of cheese and jam and cracker, that’s what we’re trying to achieve there,” Marchetti says. “Every bite you have something crunchy and creamy and a little bit chewy from the jam.”
Pomegranate-Raspberry Sorbetto
The menu at Yolan changes often, but there’s always a vegan sorbetto on hand. The pomegranate-raspberry is a recent standout not only for its flavor, but also for its striking magenta color.
“Winter is so hard to get quality berries and fresh fruit, so we have to look into other areas of things that keep well from the summer,” Marchetti says. The team at Yolan preserved raspberries at the end of summer last year and paired them with wintery pomegranate seeds to tie it all together.
The dish is assembled with shaved ice on the bottom and a scoop of sorbetto topped with dark chocolate and sea salt.
Mele
Italy influences nearly every dish at Yolan, but the Mele pays homage to Marchetti’s childhood. The refreshing dessert pairs poached apples (a popular Hudson Valley crop) with crispy pavlova, a lemony foam, and clarified apple butter. It’s finished with a quenelle—a poached, oval-shaped dumpling—of Brinata cheese gelato to add a sweet and milky texture to the creation.
“We like to ignite balance, which is why you’ll always find in the items that are more sweet, that there’s some salt or maybe a crisp fruit,” Marchetti says. “We try to think about what those balances look like and how we can touch your whole palate.”
Kellie Walton Benz is a food, drink and travel writer based outside of Nashville. Follow her adventures and eats on Instagram at @kellie.benz.
