If a picture was worth a thousand calories, then you’re about to skip your diet just by looking at this modern-Victorian inspired dessert shop’s offerings that deliver both in flavor and in looks.
This recently launched dessert shop nestled on the ground floor of 88th Avenue in Banilad, Cebu City offers exceptional desserts influenced by Koreans, and is inspired by the owner’s father who is a diabetic.
Tasty Kreme is a proudly homegrown brand owned by a Cebuana entrepreneur with a culinary background. Gemma “Heart” Montalban-Yu’s love for desserts led her to open the dessert shop of her dreams. However, Heart’s father was diagnosed with diabetes, and is prohibited from consuming sweets.
“I felt sad for my father every time we ate out because he could neither enjoy nor even taste the desserts we ordered.”
So she did her best to create desserts that her father could enjoy; researched and looked for substitute ingredients like Erythritol as sweeteners, and came up with diabetic-friendly desserts—with the help of her friends from the medical field—which she offers at Tasty Kreme Gourmet House.
“I want people of all ages to enjoy desserts as much as I enjoy them,” she said.
Tasty Kreme Gourmet House’s main product: Sugar-free ice cream goblets, Cebu’s first luxury ice cream in a goblet—which takes guests on a whimsical journey of visuals and flavor—is inspired by one of Heart’s travels in Korea. It comes with various luscious flavors such as the Ube Lasagna Kreme made of mascarpone cheese, ube cake and ube ice cream; and Cloud Tiramisu Kreme, a layer of mascarpone cheese, tiramisu, vanilla s’mores cream, vanilla soft serve ice cream, peanut crunch and cocoa. Both flavors are garnished with edible 24k gold foil.
What was supposed to be a dessert shop, now offers more than desserts due to public demand.
“Since we opened, guests were asking if we had meals as well. So we started offering food so our guests can have it all.”
As a creative entrepreneur, Heart challenged herself and put a twist to some crowd favorites including its Chinese chori prawns, salted egg seafood and eggs prosciutto tasty krunch pizzas, peace ube ravioli, Kimchi spaghetti, and mango crispy tofu in peanut sauce, to name a few. It also offers non-dairy milk tea under its KremeTeas series.
Each serving is as presentable and luxurious-looking as the place’s modern-Victorian interior, which was designed by Heart herself. Customers can check out the fancy chandeliers, gold-framed chairs, Piero Fornasetti’s eccentric plate series’ “Tema e Variazioni” as wall decor, and some of Heart’s products from her boutique, Mademoiselle Clotherier which complements the whole place (you can buy some of the decor on display too).
The 30-seater dessert shop can also accommodate guests who want to get tattooed by tattoo artist Anne Regine Tornerso, a very good friend of Heart, in a private and enclosed spot.
“My friend and I decided to help each other out, so we came up with this idea of having tattoo sessions here at Tasty Kreme Gourmet House. While waiting for a client’s session to be done, he or she can order food or drinks,” Heart shared.
Tasty Kreme Gourmet House is open every day from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. S