At Esse Taco, NYC's Best Dessert Comes in Sundae Form

The Cornhusk Meringue at Cosme in New York City has been an iconic dessert since chef Daniela Soto-Ines developed it in 2014. The slightly savory, charred corn husk-infused Italian meringue arrives at the table dramatically cracked open — filled with a corn mousse and burnt vanilla whipped cream. At Cosme, a high-end, Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant from chef Enrique Olvera, the dessert costs $16. And now at Casamata restaurant group’s newest concept, Esse Taco, you can get it for $6 — in sundae-form.

Esse Taco opened in Williamsburg in early May with a focus on in-house nixtamalization and Mexico City-style tacos. Each of the tacos are uniquely stellar, from the mesquite-smoked mushroom with black beans and salsa tatemada to the pork loin “al pastor” with pineapple butter, a nod to the owners’ famous Mexico City restaurant, Pujol. Whether you order just one or “Todos Los Tacos,” you absolutely must save room for that Cornhusk Meringue Sundae.

When developing Esse Taco’s menu, the Casamata team knew they wanted to create a dessert that would be both easy to execute and utterly delicious. They threw around ideas for paletas, churros, and ice cream sandwiches, but they kept coming back to Cosme’s Cornhusk Meringue. “We love it, everybody loves it, and it’s very much us,” says Gonzalo Gout, Casamata’s director of culture. “So why don’t we just go for it?”

The Cornhusk Sundae at Esse Taco in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Natalie Black

This isn’t the first time Casamata has transformed the Cornhusk Meringue into a frozen treat. In 2022, they collaborated with Shake Shack to create a milkshake with corn cream custard and a husk meringue topping. With that dessert in mind, the sundae felt like a natural progression.

“I think the key to this dessert is that it’s very simple,” says Gout. “It’s something that has very distinct textures, but it especially has this relationship between sweet and savory that gives it this sort of corn on the cob with butter moment.” So in order to replicate the best things about the Cosme dessert, they needed to find a way to mimic its three core components: the vanilla whipped cream, the corn mousse, and the meringue.

Instead of whipped cream, they decided to turn the vanilla element into ice cream. “We wanted to make sure it was the best product out there, but making ice cream is no joke,” says Gout. As if it were kismet, Gout ran into his longtime friend, Fany Gerson, owner of La Newyorkina ice cream company. “I told her that we were struggling with the idea of making ice cream because it’s one of those things that’s super inconsistent, and she was like, ‘We’ll make it for you.’ I mean, who better to trust than a very dear friend who makes ice cream for a living?” La Newyorkina’s Mexican vanilla ice cream now acts as the base for the sundae.

The ice cream is topped with the corn mousse — almost identical to the Cosme version but whipped longer to give it a more light, fluffy texture — and a smaller version of the broken Cornhusk Meringue. Rather than producing the meringues in-house, a laborious task for a high-volume space, Casamata is sourcing them from Jesus Parea, a former Cosme pastry chef and current co-owner of Brooklyn Mexican restaurant Sobre Masa.

For a finishing touch, each sundae gets a sprinkle of charred corn husk powder. “The cold dust on the meringue makes it a little bit chewier rather than crunchier,” says Gout. “So it’s the same elements, different textures, [served in] a cup.”

In the next year, we’ll likely see more desserts hit the Esse Taco menu. Maybe a different sundae, maybe churros, or maybe even something in the vein of a “Choco Taco” (a likely second collaboration with Gerson — fingers crossed on that one). But no matter what, the Cornhusk Meringue Sundae will remain, and we wouldn’t even be surprised if it became as iconic as its very inspiration.

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