When I think about summer, I remember splish-splashing around with my sister in our backyard pool. For me, summertime always meant family, fun, food, and sweet treats. As I’ve gotten older, I still gravitate toward delicious desserts. My go-to Midtown Atlanta spot is Bar Margot inside Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta .

Executive Pastry Chef Daniella Lea Rada

There, Executive Pastry Chef Daniella Lea Rada creates top-notch confections for hotel guests and regular outside customers alike. The award-winning Venezuelan- born culinary artist is sure to win over palates worldwide with her sweetest course yet.

Here, we talk to Lea Rada about the dog days of summer and the why behind her brand-new treats to try.

HOMBRE: Tell us about the inspiration behind these summer desserts offered at Bar Margot.
Danilla Lea Rada: When I think about summer, it automatically takes me to my childhood. My summers in Venezuela were always fun, my parents were always taking us to the beach. So I want these desserts to be fun, you know? That’s my inspiration for all of these.

H: What can you tell us about the Dark Chocolate Ice Popsicle – and the standout desserts below?
DLR: I love dark chocolate, but this dark chocolate that I’m using is an 80% Komuntu chocolate. It’s 80% cacao, so it’s a very organic chocolate, and it’s a celebration of the hundred years from Valrhona.
What I feel is so beautiful about it is that it’s so intense, and that’s what I like about dark chocolate—the intensity, the fruitiness. I believe a lot of people feel intimidated by dark chocolate. But this one is different. This chocolate is going to change your perspective. And then
we pair it with a pecan praline to give it a taste of Georgia. It will give it a sweetness of the whole—like balancing the robustness of the dark chocolate and the sweetness from the praline.
This is my way of opening their minds and saying, ‘It’s beautiful, it’s creamy.’ It’s still sweet, but it has a lot of body to the chocolate.

H: Why add the gold flakes to it?
DLR: Someone once told me that in Chinese culture, a chip of gold will bring you good luck. So every once in a while, I like to add a little bit here and there just for fun. I like the way the gold flows and gives movement to the dessert.

H: The WOW Ingredient?
DLR: It’s the chocolate for sure and it has a double crust. So we dip it in chocolate, and then we spray it, and that gives it that earthy texture. So you’re going to find the crunchiness from the dip and the cream from the ice cream.

H: The Coconut
DLR: My inspiration is my childhood. My parents used to take us to Marina Grande Beach. When my dad took us there on Sundays, he would always get his fancy truck, and my sister, mom, and I knew that we were going to the beach. It was a special trip for us. There was an ice
cream cart at the beach and I fondly remember hearing the truck’s bell ring. We’d go over to the cart where they’d actually open a coconut shell, and that’s where you’d find the ice cream. So this is my inspiration. It’s the same, and it has mango, passion fruit, and nasturtium leaves that are very fresh and minty. Here, we use coconut puree so it lowers the amount of sugar because when you talk about ice cream, it could be very sweet, but we go to the opposite side. Then with the pineapple and mango, it balances that freshness.

H: WOW Ingredient?
DLR: The coconut ice cream. That’s going to be the one because I want it to resemble cracking open a coconut.

H: Peach Frangipane Tart
DLR: This is a peach tart with white chocolate and fennel ice cream. It’s so fresh. It has a mascarpone peach filling, mascarpone cream, and fresh peaches because we’re in peach season now. And this leaf is coriander root.
The portions here are small, and I feel like pastry is trending to more healthy, more balanced, more fresh, and definitely smaller portions. I like when people order one dessert, then order another one, and then share. You can taste different things.

H: WOW Ingredient?
DLR: Fennel. I soak fennel with milk and then two days later, I press it to get fennel oil and a fennel milk, which helps to make the ice cream base for the white chocolate and fennel ice cream.

H: Three Textures
DLR: I wanted to do a three-textured dessert. Something where you do not have to eat much, but it’s just about silently enjoying it. This one is lemon verbena granita, so we squeeze the juice, and we scrape it—it’s like shaved ice, but it’ll melt faster. This is a little bit finer, so it’s usually good to clean your palate in between dishes. And then you’re going to find a yogurt ice cream that we make here—I love yogurt ice cream, and this one is a foam. The yogurt has an acidity and the lemon verbena is very fresh. It’s one of my favorite herbs in the world. You’ll find it in all of my desserts. And I love working with teas because the rooibos tea gives it a sweetness.
And strawberries and rooibos really pair well together with the lemon verbena. It’s like freshness equals summer.

H: WOW Ingredient?
DLR: The strawberry, the rooibos, and the granita because, when you try a little, it’s not really that sweet, but it’s very fresh, so it melts very quickly in your mouth and on your tongue. It’s so subtle. Sometimes you need a palate cleanser, so that’s what this is.

We were joined by Yoon Choi, chef de partie at Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, to discuss the final dessert.
H: What is the inspiration for The Peach Snowflake?
Yoon Choi: I grew up in South Korea. And during summertime, if you walked into any café, they sold this. I just remember from my childhood, my family would go to a café and we would share this dessert. So I wanted to elevate it to match the Four Seasons aesthetics. We use champagne gelée, mango, peach compote, almond and white chocolate crunch, and fresh peaches. And then you can pour the ruby peach sauce on top of it. I would take each component, and then as it gets lower, just mix everything to get all the flavors in one spoon.

H: WOW Ingredient?
YC: The shaved milk ice. It has a hint of sweetness, and it melts in your mouth. Plus, it’s a little creamy from the milk.
DLR: People should come to Bar Margot because we’re fun, we’re interesting, we are different, and that’s what you’re looking for—the experience itself. If you’re open and you want to try something different, I’ll give you a small portion of dessert but it will be very impactful and full of flavor.

For more information on Daniella Lea Rada’s desserts at Bar Margot, visit Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta.