Galavante’s recipes are directly inspired by the places that we travel to around the world. Paris was my first love, before I ever even set foot in France. Throughout the past 25 years since visiting as an exchange student, I’ve settled into a comfortable routine of routing through Paris for a few days on my way back from Africa, where I build pop-up hotels throughout the continent for clients and spend a lot of time volunteering. I almost always stop by the Costes brothers’ L’Avenue and Hotel Costes, where I break my no-sweet diet and go for the cheesecake.
Galavante’s recipes are directly inspired by the places that we travel to around the world. Paris was my first love, before I ever even set foot in France. Throughout the past 25 years since visiting as an exchange student, I’ve settled into a comfortable routine of routing through Paris for a few days on my way back from Africa, where I build pop-up hotels throughout the continent for clients and spend a lot of time volunteering. I almost always stop by the Costes brothers’ L’Avenue and Hotel Costes, where I break my no-sweet diet and go for the cheesecake. When L’Avenue opened at Saks in NYC, I was still not a baker, so I’d walk the 45 minutes from my house, there and back, to justify eating my cheesecake.
This recipe was inspired by L’Avenue, and my craving for their crust. I’ve never been a big dessert person, but I like this cheesecake recipe because it integrates a touch of sea salt into the crust and cuts back on the sugar in the filling. Whereas most cheesecake recipes relegate the crust to the bottom only, this one gives you the option to envelop the cheesecake’s sides, or at least halfway up, with a thick graham cracker crust. The recipe can be made entirely vegan, which in fact, tastes just as good or better than the full-dairy version, but where I like to cheat a little bit is in the crust by using regular butter in lieu of a vegan version. As the French would say, “Fait comme chez toi”— make yourself at home and make this recipe your own. And anyone can make this, including those of us who are notoriously bad bakers.
