The Torched-to-Order Baked Alaska Gets a Modern Twist at NYC’s Gage & Tollner

When Gage & Tollner first opened in Brooklyn in 1879, the most popular dessert wasn’t on the menu. “Can you imagine making baked Alaska back then? It makes my skin crawl,” laughs Pastry Chef Caroline Schiff. The stiff-peaked mound of flambéed meringue over ice cream was served at other New York City restaurants at the time, like Delmonico’s, “but it had this mythical quality, like did it...