Doughnut Plant's Mark Israel On Shiso Doughnuts

Doughnut Plant won the Sweetest of Sweet award by popular vote at the New York City Wine & Food Festival's Sweet, so we caught up with owner Mark Israel afterwards.

He was slightly shocked and a little lost for words. "It's so sweet of everyone to vote for us," he said, "especially at this Sweet festival. There's a lot of sugar here." Ha.

As for new flavors at Doughnut Plant, expect pumpkin and apple (ditto almost every other dessert purveyor). Israel, however, is really getting into some other ingredients. "I just go to the market, and I usually like to buy things I've never heard of, or something new, or whatever looks beautiful, and I kind of make something up." He'll be experimenting with new flavors (like the recent green tea doughnut) at the Chelsea Hotel location, he tells us.

What he's into now? Shiso. "Two or three people are selling it in the green market," he said. " I actually did the shiso glaze for the first time in Japan. We did shiso, we did yuzu, and we did black sesame — all these kind of Japanese flavors. I brought them to the United States when the Japan store first opened six years ago and people kind of freaked out a little bit. So maybe I'll do them again, because I think people are a little bit more open to it."

Trust us, Mark, we're ready for that shiso glaze.