A recent NRN article  highlights some interesting finds about the continued popularity of miniature desserts. Small bite desserts have been successfully making their ways into menus across the globe, from fast food chains to fine dining establishments.

Bite-sized desserts are fun, delicious, and easy to eat. Adding small-bite desserts to your menu can also help create some buzz and traffic to your restaurant. Not sure where to start? We’ve created a list of some mini dessert ideas to help get your creative-cooking juices flowing.

• Cheesecake bites: present your guest with a sampler plate of mini cheesecake bites topped with different sauces and fruit. Alternatively, offer a fried version with house dipping sauce.
• Mini cannoli cups: create a mini cannoli tart-like shell and add cream filling, sprinkling in chocolate chips or other garnishes to finish.
• Berry trifle shooters: layer in traditional trifle ingredients in a small skinny shot glass.
• Pie pops: just like a lollipop, but way more delicious. A small bouquet of pie pops can certainly bring out some smiles! Try offering classics like cherry, apple, and blueberry.
•  Mini vanilla filled beignets with coffee: Warm, fluffy, and sweet: mini vanilla cream filled beignets are fun to eat and pairs well with a side of coffee.

The small dessert menu possibilities are endless. And remember, good things do come in small packages!

Synergy Restaurant Consultants is pleased to announce that expert pizza consultant Tim Green will join the firm as Resident Pizza Expert. “Joining a restaurant consulting group boasting 25 years of experience is fantastic,” says Tim.

“We have known Tim for over 15 years and he is one of the foremost knowledgeable people in the industry when it comes to pizza,” remarked Dean Small, Synergy Founder and Managing Partner of the international food consultancy. “We could not be happier to welcome Tim Green to the Synergy team.”

Tim has been extensively involved in the art of Stone Hearth Cooking, specifically for pizza, since 2001. His focus has been different styles of pizza, from traditional Neapolitan to the classic American style. He is well versed in all things pizza, from the dough to the fuel. Due to the differences in cooking on a stone hearth oven using wood, gas, coal, or a combination has the pizza, Tim has been brought in by pizza restaurateurs looking to better understand their pizza.

Tim has worked with hundreds of pizza concepts, from QSR and institutions to corporate cafeterias, VPN Certified Pizza, full service dining, casual pizzerias, and fine dining restaurants. His primary areas of work have been dough development, production, and the managing of dough. At the centerpiece of this work is oven operations: the understanding of oven technicalities and temperature management is critical in ensuring a consistent product. Tim believes that the key to a successful pizza operation is the continued training and development of staff to understand all aspects of building a great pizza.

Tim’s experience stems from 25 years in the hospitality industry working in various resort hotels around the country. He is a 1981 graduate of Johnson & Wales College (Providence, RI) with an Associate Degree in Hospitality.

Synergy Restaurant Consultants is a culinary-driven, excellence-obsessed and operations-focused consulting group with a comprehensive knowledge of all disciplines in food and beverage service.