By Gus Saltonstall
A dessert from a bakery on the Upper West Side was just named the best in the United States by The Food Network.
“Food Network Top 10,” a series that ranks the 10 best food items in different categories from across the country, aired its episode on “Sweet Treats” on June 30.
The best dessert in the nation? The banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery, which has a location at 200 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of West 69th Street.
“When we filmed with Food Network in March, we had no idea where Banana Pudding would land in the Top Ten ranking,” Magnolia Bakery’s CEO and Upper West Sider Bobbie Lloyd wrote on Instagram. “After watching last night’s Top Ten Sweets episode, we’re so honored to see it was chosen as #1.”
Lloyd has lived on the Upper West Side for nearly 30 years, and you can check out West Side Rag’s conversation with her here: Why the West Side: Bobbie Llyod, Chief Baking Officer of Magnolia Bakery.
The desserts were selected and ranked by chefs Esther Choi, Ayesha Nurdjaja, Owen Han, Kardea Brown, Rocco DiSpirito, and others.
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Magnolia Bakery’s Upper West Side outpost has a dedicated banana pudding bar for customers.
The dessert is made with vanilla pudding, bananas, and vanilla wafers. Magnolia Bakery first opened on Bleecker Street in 1996 and has had a location on the Upper West Side since 2008.
You can find out more about Magnolia Bakery — HERE.
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“Best dessert in the nation”?! Features instant vanilla pudding and Nabisco Nilla wafers!
I suppose this dessert appeals to people for reasons of nostalgia, which is pretty much like most things at Magnolia. If you long for your mother’s dry, tough cupcakes, this is the place to go. I’ve never been able to understand this bakery except through a lens of nostalgia, but I guess it does it for some people.
Recently I walked by the UWS location and saw a photo of a sliced cake that was was outrageously bad looking that I took a picture of it to show a friend who’s a culinary instructor. The texture of the cake was both dense in spots and looked like Swiss cheese in others. Not really what most bakers would be aiming for! But if there’s a market for their product, more power to them.
Exactly! And just so people don’t think you are joking, here are the ingredients, per their own recipe book:
“A 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk, 1.5 cups of ice-cold water, a 3.4-oz package of instant vanilla pudding mix (like Jell-O), 3 cups of cold heavy cream, 4 to 5 ripe bananas, and an 11-oz box of Nabisco Nilla wafers.”
Ultra-processed baby food.
I hear Gerbers has made an offer. 😉
LOL
Fun dessert? Sure. Best in the nation? Perhaps the judges were a panel of five-year-olds.
Love the tiramisu, pastries and cookies at Epices bakery
It’s…fine.
SMH. Better than the banana pudding you can get down south? New Orleans etc are you kidding me? It’s like a 7/10 too sweet imo.
How is something seven-tenths too sweet?
I believe that’s 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.
It doesn’t say that, or anything like it. It says “7/10 too sweet” — a fraction (7 over 10), or seven tenths, too sweet.
How can something be seven-tenths too sweet?
I’m sorry, but NO. Seriously? Do the judges have tastebuds? I like the desserts from Citarella way more and they’re just regular baked goods. I wonder who’s best friends with who?
If there is no chocolate in it, it ain’t a contender.
The Food Network is a swamp of mediocrity. If you’re googling a recipe, skip over anything that appears on their site. Magnolia Bakery’s products are sickly sweet, and the banana pudding is inexplicably popular. I’m happy for NYC, but also embarrassed.
I couldn’t have put it better. The Food Network is mostly for kitchen spectators when like refer to themselves as “foodies,” which to me is a term that most often means “I don’t cook, but I eat anything that someone tells me is good or popular. Tastebuds and discernment, optional.” Sigh.
However, there is a no-fail delicious brisket recipe on Food Netework.
NO SUGAR, EITHER!
Is that the one made with Coca-Cola in the gravy?
of note, they also featured a local cookie place whose products I find unbalanced between cookie (cakey, too much) and fillings (sometimes only a little bit in the middle)
Private equity ruined Magnolia.
It made it worse, but the original location, to me, was all environmental charm with dry cupcakes, but it was at least cute (and I can see the nostalgia for some). But now, private equity allows you to have a very dull reproduction anywhere in the country—or even in Dubai, I believe. Snore.
Goes to show you that the Food Network has no real credibility for rating food.
That banana pudding can’t even touch the toes of Amy Ruth’s banana pudding.
“Touch the toes” – that’s good!
YEARS ago….and I mean when they opened, that pudding was DELICIOUS! I don’t know what happened-did the recipe change from the original?-but IMHO it is now Inedible 🙁