At San Francisco’s Peruvian fine dining restaurant Altamirano, the tuna sashimi is practically an abstract painting stroked with cilantro oil and bright orange splashes of passion fruit. My waiter explains the plentiful options for cocktails with maracuya, the Spanish word for “passion fruit.” Across the bridge in Oakland, the popular Colombian spot Parche just started serving a new Caribbean salpicon of blue crab and passion fruit. Further south in Silicon Valley, the sharp, sour fruit also rules the cocktail scene: the recently opened Eos & Nyx in San Jose serves a playfully-named Jean Claude Pandan, infused with pandan and passion fruit.
But the Bay Area is far from being the only region under the passion fruit spell. All over the U.S, restaurants and bars can’t get enough of the enchanting fruit, which comes into season from February to June and August to November, and the exacting tang it lends to just about any creation. Passion fruit has no limits, and the adoration of it most certainly isn’t new; over the years, it’s been spotted in pancakes, ceviche, and even chicken, and this year, tasting menus, pastry programs, and cocktail lists alike centering the tropical fruit.
If you’ve never come in contact with the fruit’s bright-yellow pulp, here’s a good way to describe it: it tastes like escapism. Which, amid recent economic and social uncertainty, might be just what diners need. “I’ve definitely seen passion fruit gaining popularity,” says Carlos Altamirano, the chef and owner of the eponymous San Francisco restaurant. “People are looking for citrus or exotic flavors, and passion fruit delivers that perfect balance of sweet and tart,” he adds.
Native to Latin America, passion fruit partially owes its rising star status to the new wave of modern, fusion-leaning Peruvian and Colombian restaurants in the U.S. There, the fruit is commonplace. Immigrant chefs who’ve brought it have helped familiarize diners with the ingredient.
Parche
But a fair share of credit is also owed to the Trojan horse that is the Pornstar Martini. The passion fruit-based cocktail originated in a London bar in the early 2000s, has been gaining visibility stateside and on social media, getting American palettes accustomed to the sweet-and-sour nuance of the fruit.
“Its bold flavor carries very well in cocktails, yet it has a good hit of acidity to keep everything in balance,” says Ryan Ota, the Beverage Director of M.O. Hospitality in San Jose, CA. “Because passion fruit stands out so well, you can use big, bold flavors that would otherwise wash out the other ingredients.”
Cue a whole array of cocktails riding the Pornstar Martini coattails. At bars across the country, passion fruit is frequently mixed with prominent spirits and pungent and spicy ingredients. There’s fermented mango and habañero at Bar Flores in Los Angeles, gin and yogurt at Jade & Clover in New York, and tequila and jalapeño at CanoeHouse in Kamuela, HI. “Here you can often find lilikoi growing wild in backyards,” says CanoeHouse bartender Jowell Cruz. According to Cruz, the continuous elevation of the Hawaiian food scene has, too, contributed to passion fruit’s popularity on the mainland. “Customers have definitely become more aware that these flavors are commonly used throughout the Islands,” he says. “Now, whenever they see passion fruit on a menu, they’re eager to try it!”
According to Ota, while fresh passion fruit is often expensive and seasonal, the availability of passion fruit puree from brands like Boiron and Perfect Puree made the ingredient more accessible. There’s also the addition to the discovery arc for the passion fruit liqueur introduced by the Dominican liquor company Chinola, which launched in 2014. “Frozen passion fruit delivers a high-flavor product at an affordable price that, unlike other fruits, doesn’t have a big drop-off in quality of flavor,” Ota explains. “The availability of these items has made it much easier to incorporate passion fruit into our programs.”
Chefs and bar managers also credit the fruit for its versatility. Its liquid, seed-dotted texture and distinctive flavor make it an ideal component in salad dressings, dipping sauces, raw fish dishes, and tart desserts. Even beef is fair game — at Uchi Miami, passion fruit hot sauce accompanies chef de cuisine Angie Hossain’s wagyu croquettes. “Passion fruit has subtle sweetness, floral notes, and bright color that give it a unanimous appeal,” Hossain says. “We add in habañero and generous amounts of ginger to the hot sauce to make the passion fruit more savory while giving the bite more depth.”
“When we decided to have four soufflés on the menu, it was one of the first flavors that came to mind,” says Lucy Blanche, director of pastry operations at the new maximalist Southeast Asian restaurant Twin Tails in New York. “Its flavor goes well with almost anything, from chocolate to herbs and spices paired with white chocolate and vanilla beans — it’s just magical!”
Similar decadent takes on passion fruit desserts have been popping everywhere. The fruit is particularly loved as an upgrade for beloved classic formats, pavlova and tiramisu alike. When the popular Bay Area mochi-centric bakery chain Third Culture wanted to celebrate its 8th anniversary, it turned to passion fruit to create limited-edition brûlée mochi waffles. The newest addition to the dessert menu at Luthun in NYC is a strawberry and passion fruit Malt Flan. According to chef Nahid Ahmedlan, passion fruit pulls the nostalgic flan “into the now. It’s a seasonal read on ingredient trends,” he said. Equally nostalgic, albeit reinvented, is chef Jackie Carnesi’s Kellogg’s Diner passion fruit tajín icebox pie with passion fruit curd, tajín meringue, and lime zest.
At twenty-eight Atlantic in Harwich, MA, pastry chef Erica Land just added a pineapple and passion fruit upside down cake to her menu. “It’s fast becoming the flavor of the moment,” says Land. Its “punchy acidity” and allure has made it especially popular in the Cape Coast, where tourists flock each summer to enjoy the region’s cool waters and eastern coastal cuisine. Passion fruit is a natural fit in the last few weeks of the season’s collection of edible delights, says Land. “It adds the perfect amount of sunshine and playfulness to every dish — like a fun vacation vibe no matter where you are.”
