Chika Tillman

Chef Chika Tillman’s New York City restaurant serves three-course dessert tasting menus—and nothing else. "I let ingredients talk," she says of how she uses only natural, fresh ingredients and manipulates them as little as possible. As such, featuring ice cream in her Spoonful seemed only natural.

Tillman let her favorite color shine through every element of composition. After preparing more than half a dozen ice creams in various shades of green, she ultimately selected four: basil, celery, lime, and Granny Smith apple. "These made me happy by color and flavor." The coveted green spoon subtly set between them was found by fortunate accident: an Italian supplier sent it by mistake. In her opinion, it is the perfect shade of green. So she hung on to it.