Fillings & Emulsions
Adalberto Diaz learned meringue from a grandmother in Cuba who had no oven, and the case at Fillings & Emulsions is still mostly meringue, sponge cake and fruit.
Why go
Diaz baked his first cake at nine in a pressure cooker, because the family had no oven, and he ran a bakery out of his home in Cuba for five years when private business was illegal there (Deseret News). He left at twenty-eight, sat two weeks in a Texas immigration center, and has lived in Utah since, apart from a short spell in Florida (Salt Lake Tribune). He cooked at Granato's and taught pastry at Utah Valley University before opening his own shop, and he describes it as an eclectic Latin bakery with a French flair
(Deseret News).
Fillings & Emulsions opened in August 2013, and the bakery's own page credits Diaz with the American Culinary Federation's Pastry Chef of the Year title the year before (Fillings & Emulsions). Food Network has had him on since 2015: Holiday Baking Championship that year, Best Baker in America in 2017, a win on Bake You Rich in 2019 and the Ultimate Baking Championship in March 2026 (Deseret News). The James Beard Foundation put him on its Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker semifinalist list in 2025 (James Beard Foundation).
The coffee is Cuban and Diaz explains it better than anyone: in Cuba, most people don't have espresso machines, so we used to get the crema on top by getting the first drops of coffee that come out into a little metal mug, and with a spoon, we basically scrape brown sugar against the walls of that little carafe to create a foam with the coffee and the sugar
(Salt Lake Magazine). The beans are a Brazilian, Ethiopian and Colombian blend roasted by Eric Hammond at Twin View Coffee and delivered at least twice a week. A cortadito here is a double shot with a thin line of sweetened condensed milk, and the cafe con leche is a double shot over a glass of milk made from the house condensed milk.
In February 2025 Diaz folded his two shops into one room in the old Granato's building on 300 West, a food hall shared with other cooks, and his brother Angel Diaz Labrada painted the walls with murals taken from the architecture and colors of Cuba (Deseret News). Brian Maas is the head pastry chef and Mike Woods bakes the macarons (Fillings & Emulsions).
Order this / avoid
- Order: a croissant with a cafe cubano, which is what Diaz tells you to have.6
- Order: the Cuban breakfast, a piece of baguette with butter dunked in a cafe con leche; Diaz calls it cafe con leche y pan con mantequilla.6
- Order: the macarons, which have their own chef.8
- Order: a fruit tart, glazed passion fruit, peach or key lime.1
- Avoid: ordering a cafe con leche and expecting a latte. It comes on condensed milk, and it is sweet by design.6
What locals & experts say
- Lydia Martinez, Salt Lake Magazine:
Fillings and Emulsions is a Willy Wonka-esque dreamscape (if Willy Wonka made macrons) disguised as a Cuban Pastelería.
7 - Court Mann, Deseret News, on the tarts in the case:
It's not hyperbole to call them works of art.
1 - Adalberto Diaz, on the shop's own coffee menu: the cafe con leche
can be made with steamed milk, but that is just a latte.
6
Good to know
- When: Monday to Saturday, from early morning into the early evening, and dark on Sunday.
- Booking: none. It is a counter, and the shop takes orders online for pickup.
- Where: 1395 South 300 West, the old Granato's building south of downtown, which the Tribune and the Deseret News print as 1391. One building either way.
- What kind of room it is: a bakery counter inside a shared food hall, with a Cuban coffee bar and a few Cubano sandwiches beside the pastry.
Verdict
could-visit — Adalberto Diaz made the James Beard pastry list in 2025 and has been winning on Food Network since 2019, and Lydia Martinez calls the shop a Willy Wonka dreamscape disguised as a Cuban pasteleria. I have not found a critic who has sat down and reviewed the pastry itself, and nothing I have read prints a price. Go for the cafe cubano and a croissant, and tell me about the macarons.