Where Frank Sinatra's Hands-Down Favorite Cheesecake Came From

Frank Sinatra may have had a golden voice and great acting chops, but he also knew a thing or two about food, whether it involved dining out at his favorite New York restaurant, Patsy's, or reproducing his mother's marinara sauce, which he sold in the 1980s. This was also the same decade he discovered his all-time favorite cheesecake. As a New Jersey boy who spent lots of time in New York City, you might expect Ol' Blue Eyes' favorite cheese-based dessert would be from the East Coast, but, no, it was actually from California (although it does have a New York connection).

Sinatra's favorite cheesecake was the creation of Jan Rosen, a California restaurateur who, with her sister Michele, opened J.M. Rosen's in Santa Rosa in 1983, with Jan in the kitchen and her sister handling promotions. The sisters were originally from Long Island, moving to California in the mid-1970s. Jan's cheesecake was a true New York style version: luscious and airy with a shortbread crust. When Sinatra tried it, he fell in love and became the sisters' biggest cheerleader helping open the doors to some of LA's best-known restaurants at the time, like The Musso and Frank Grill and Chasen's, turning J.M. Rosen's into a wholesale bakery business, which is still around today.

Frank Sinatra had a taste for cheese-based desserts and another of his favorites was a lemon ricotta torte from Patsy's in Manhattan, but it was J.M. Rosen's cheesecake that seemed to get his tongue wagging. He got his first taste of Jan Rosen's cheesecake when the sisters sent one to their friend Dorothy Uhlemann, who was Sinatra's personal assistant. The sisters met Sinatra in 1984, and he continued to champion their dessert, turning not only several LA restaurateurs onto the cheesecake but also President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy, among other celebrities.

Jan and Michelle Rosen continued with the bakery business but also opened a fine dining restaurant, J.M. Rosen's Waterfront Grill, and later, Rosen's 256 North (now closed). Today, you can still get Sinatra's favorite cheesecake, not only plain but also in a variety of flavors, like mocha cappuccino and Neapolitan. The business has continued to expand, and its products can be found in places like Whole Foods Market or online. Sinatra, who died in 1998, may be gone, but his music and his favorite cheesecake live on.