Rainbow coloring has become a visual assault on perfectly delicious, albeit stubbornly beige, foods with the rise of social media bait eating, accosting everything from waffles to pasta. They rarely taste as loud as they look on Instagram. That same flash over substance applies to a more historic multi-hued food, too: the rainbow cookie. Born before social media, Food Network, or even television, rainbow cookies have long been more attractive than certifiably good — often a menagerie of industrialized chocolate, overly sweet jam, and way too much artificial almond flavor.

But recently, a fresh crop of New York chefs is remaking the iconic rainbow cookie with more deference to craft than nostalgia. Almond paste and jam gets made in-house, and higher end chocolate comes into play. Less traditional ingredients such as caramel appear, and experimental cooking methods go into them, too. For some chefs, it’s a way to renew dignity in a classic immigrant food — and to make a product they actually want to eat and serve.