Pastry chefs begin and end a meal. They bake bread that's usually customers' first taste of a restaurant and create a lasting impression with dessert. Devin Braddock, the 27-year-old corporate executive pastry chef at Blue Collar and Mignonette, two of Miami's most intimate and popular eateries, has worked her way up to Miami pastry royalty. Her grandmother, a former executive pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton in New York, taught her at the age of 6 to mold almond paste into the shape of an orchid. After a stint at Johnson & Wales, Braddock dove headfirst into Miami restaurants, where she scored gigs at hot spots such as Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, Michael's Genuine, and Alter. Today find her at Danny Serfer's string of restaurants. Her sea salt and chocolate chip cookies are toothsome, with just the right balance of sweet, salty, and gooey. Then there's her chocolate cake, comparable to a pillowy slice of heaven. Oh, and her pies. They, too, are a delight.

Mr. Bing's technicolor food truck rolls around Miami peddling a frozen treat like no other. It's called shaved ice cream. Paper-thin ribbons of sweetened frozen cream are shaved off a huge cylindrical block at superhigh speeds. The consistency is comparable to frozen cotton candy, while the appearance is similar to a carnation. Here, the Taiwanese-inspired dessert comes in a variety of flavors, such as coconut and green tea — an homage to the treat's Asian roots — as well as chocolate and original sweet milk. Then come toppings such as Pocky sticks, mini marshmallows, and crushed Oreos. There's no guilt involved either. A standard 3.5-ounce serving of Mr. Bing contains about 100 calories.