Malika Ameen, pastry chef at Chicago's late, very lamented Aigre Doux, is about to bake for a wider audience. She is one of the participants in Bravo's upcoming Top Chef: Just Desserts, which begins airing on September 15. I recently talked to her about the show, the state of restaurant desserts, and her upcoming online cookie business: R.K.: I know you can't talk much about the show itself but what was your reaction upon hearing the news that you were selected to be part of the competition? M.A.: I was just beside myself. There was this elation that just took over, followed by shock. My inner voice was saying "Is this really happening?" R.K.: I'm excited that there seems to be, fittingly, such a strong female presence on the show, especially since too many of the cooking competitions devolve into a kind of boy's game. Is there a strong female contingent on the program? M.A.: It was a lot of fun to be on a show with so many accomplished female chefs. I think it will be very interesting for the "Just Desserts" audience to see how the minds of female pastry chefs differ from savory chefs. The women on the show all have very strong, dynamic personalities. R.K.: Okay, let's get down to dessert itself. Why do you think so many dessert menus in American restaurants, and particularly upscale restaurants, have become so robotic, dishing up the inevitable creme brulees and panna cottas, and that awful wedge of flourless chocolate cake? What strikes me is there is so little actual baking on those menus. M.A.: I think you see that in a handful of kitchens but not all. There is a lot of pressure for pastry chefs to perform and bring in dessert sales and things like creme brulee are usually best sellers. But I think there is something of a backlash now and we are seeing a lot of unique and different desserts on menus. As chefs, our passion is to create dishes that excite us and which we in turn want to share with our diners. R.K.: Do you see any dessert trends developing currently? M.A.: Last year the craze was comfort food in both savory and pastry. I think this year we are seeing more refined versions of that craze, so pastry chefs are doing lots of simple desserts that evoke memories but they are using really excellent quality ingredients, like a single origin chocolate, or twists with spices and different flavorings. R.K.: What is your favorite dessert, the one you love to eat and the one you love to make? M.A.: My favorite dessert to eat, and to make, is a killer chocolate cake, layered with bittersweet ganache. The one I was probably most famous for at Aigre Doux though was the sticky toffee pudding with a Devonshire cream sorbet. I also loved creating and developing different cookies for our cookie plate; we had them on the menu year round and I was always working...

The fading glory days of summer and our C.S.A. have combined to bring a lethal amount of zucchini into the house. Perhaps you can relate. Garrison Keillor's joke about the super-abundance of zucchini in late summer may be on its way to becoming the next Proust's madeleine in literary-foodie circles. (Oh, you weren't aware of the existence of "literary-foodie circles"? Yeah, maybe I need to get more.) But in case you haven't heard it, here it is: "Why do the inhabitants of Lake Wobegon lock their cars in the month of August? So their neighbors won't leave bags of zucchini on the back seat." Fortunately, I have discovered a secret weapon for the speedy and delicious dispatching of marauding zucchini, and it is this: A perfectly easy, perfectly delicious recipe for chocolate-chip zucchini cake. As the Managing Editor here, I try to think of all the recipes in the Epicurious database as my adopted children, to be lovingly and equally tended to whatever their strengths or flaws may be, but I have to admit it: This one's a favorite child. I've made this zucchini cake recipe three times already this summer, and every time, it's flawless. The cake is buttery and firm, sweet but not too sugary, and it really couldn't be easier, since you probably have all the ingredients already in your cupboard. Most importantly (to me, anyway), it's moist without being dense and doughy, as zucchini bread can too often be. Zucchini bread just never quite does it for me: Too thick, too dense, too mushy, too much. And "too much" is exactly the problem we're trying to solve to begin with. I'm aware that I'm throwing down a gauntlet here. Zucchini bread recipes are legion and many of them are quite good. But let's put this question up for debate: Who wants to eat bread when you can eat cake?