Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Tiramisù—the classic Italian layered dessert—is a lot like pizza: Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.But “pretty good” doesn’t cut it for us. For this version, we wanted to create a centerpiece tiramisù, kind of like a dessert <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/the-ultimate-beef-wellington">Wellington</a> or <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/pate-en-croute">pâté en croûte</a>. Drawing inspiration from classic icebox cakes, we came up with a more set and sliceable tiramisù (thanks to the power of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/the-science-of-xanthan-gum">xanthan gum</a> and gelatin) that strikes a happy medium on the difficulty scale between our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/quick-and-easy-tiramisu">Quick and Easy</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/ultimate-tiramisu">Ultimate Tiramisù</a>.

Tiramisù Icebox Cake