P.F. Chang's China Bistro

Spring Rolls dessert turns out to be top banana in chain's plan to sweeten after-dinner sales

It's amazing how much this sells," says chef Christopher Byrd, pointing to the Banana Spring Rolls dessert, which P.F. Chang's China Bistro added to its menu last summer.

Byrd, the culinary partner at P.F. Chang's on West End Avenue in Nashville, Tenn., adds, "This dessert is a great contrast of hot and cold, yin and yang, on one plate, and it's definitely not what everyone else has."

The Banana Spring Rolls dessert features six warm bites of banana wrapped in crisp spring rolls, placed around coconut-pineapple ice cream, and drizzled with caramel and vanilla sauces.

It was developed at the company's Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters under the direction of Paul Muller, director of culinary operations and corporate executive chef, with Bob Tam, research and development chef. Unlike the situation at many Asian restaurants, desserts are part of the overall culinary strategy at the 84-unit P.F. Chang's operation.

"We're classically Chinese in our cuisine," says Rick Federico, chairman and chief executive, "but we treat dessert like most upper-end casual restaurants, versus how Asian restaurants treat them."

In fact, Federico says what most impressed his wife on her first visit to P.F. Chang's seven years ago "was that she could get a dessert." Chocolate always has played a big part in the P.F. Chang's dessert menu, such as the current Great Wall of Chocolate six-layer cake.

"We're always looking for different ways to present chocolate, and in this case we were looking for an opportunity to do a nonchocolate dessert," he explains.

Federico vaguely recalls the inspiration for the Banana Spring Rolls dessert.

"I was traveling somewhere and came across something that was basically a fried banana," he says. "I went back to chef Paul, and we discussed options that might fit an Asian flavor profile."

"I'd love to tell you that we thought of it out of our own brain power," he laughed, "but it was an adaptation we saw of a dessert product that was a fried banana and nothing else."

From there, Muller met with Tam. "We talked about what we could do, and I sort of let him run with it," Muller says.

Muller recalls that the dessert went through a number of revisions before he and Tam got what they wanted. It was then tested extensively, both internally and with customers, before gaining a permanent spot on the menu.

In developing the dessert, Muller says, "The ripe bananas are dredged in a Chinese five-spice-and-sugar mix and then rolled in our standard spring roll wrappers."

Federico feels the mix of coconut and pineapple ice cream gives the dessert enough of an Asian bent and still maintains a flavor profile that is pleasing to the customer.

The dish is a good example of the Chinese yin-yang philosophy that says certain foods should go with certain other foods to create balance.

"With Banana Spring Rolls, you have certain textures — the ice cream and banana are soft, the wrapper is crisp," Muller explains. "When you place the banana in the wrapper, you combine crunchy and soft texture, which balance each other. In addition, you have the warm bananas and the cold ice cream. So textures and temperatures are the yin and yang."

Yin and yang became part of Muller's vocabulary after he started at P.F. Chang's in 1995 and began making frequent trips to China to stay abreast of culinary trends in that part of the world.

"Yin and yang can be the type of food or flavoring, and it's certainly central to what we do here," Muller adds.

His overseas trips also helped him in writing the menu and setting up the kitchen for the Pei Wei Asian Diner, a P.F. Chang's concept that features freshly made Asian food.

The proof of the success of Banana Spring Rolls can be found at the store level. "We sell about 27 a day, and the food cost is excellent," says Byrd from the Nashville location.

Adds Muller, "Normally with a new item, the servers get behind it, and it sells well at first. But this hasn't fallen off. We average about 23 orders a day in every restaurant, which is spectacular for us with desserts."

According to Federico, price also contributes to the dessert's popularity.

"We think the last thing a guest gets placed in front of him should be a significant value, and at $4.95 this is a great value in a restaurant like ours." Operationally, Banana Spring Rolls presents a few challenges.

"It's not difficult to prepare; it's just time-consuming," Muller observes. "It takes a lot of prep time, and it has a shelf life of only a day at the most."

But, ah, the rewards.

At the P.F. Chang's in Nashville, the Banana Spring Rolls dessert emerges fresh from the kitchen in the hands of server Brad Withrow. As he places the dessert in front of his customer, Withrow says with pride, "You're going to love this."