WHEN Chef Gene Gonzalez did his first chocolate-inspired dinner at his Café Ysabel in the early 1990s, the review was short on praise. This only egged him to do more experimentations, until he debuted an all-chocolate menu for his confreres at the International Food and Wine Society Philippines Branch in 1996 at their monthly gathering. Since then, his chocolate dinner has become an (almost) annual tradition at Café Ysabel—the invitations coveted, the reviews no longer mixed but unanimously approving.
The challenge each year has been to come up with an increasingly interesting menu, not as much to top the previous one (although that is the goal), but to delve deeper into chocolate territory. At the chocolate dinner’s seventh edition in November last year with the members of l’Ordre Mondiale des Gourmets Dégustateurs, Mr. Gonzalez ventured into the realm of single origin chocolate. And to push the envelope even further this time, he decided to limit the chocolate selection to that produced only in the Philippines.
Tablea, the compact chocolate tablet that is melted to make those cups of rich tsokolate for sipping or dunking churros into, has always been the introduction to Philippine-made chocolate. But while it is still a mainstay in the local chocolate repertoire, Philippine confectioners have since expanded their offerings to include those made with locally grown ingredients. Still, some have gone entirely local by growing the cacao beans themselves, wholly embracing the bean-to-bar ideal. Magdalena’s Cacao Beans Chocolates began producing 70-percent cacao-bean chocolates in 2011 from the cacao trees on its property in Magdalena, a small town in Laguna. Kablon Farms in Davao has about 20 hectares planted to cacao trees. It has been making tablea since 1980, but began producing pure dark chocolate in 2010. Malagos Chocolate is part of the Malagos Agri-Ventures Corp., a family-owned group of businesses in Davao that include cutflowers, the celebrated Malagos cheeses and, now, chocolate—from cacao beans that are grown and processed on its farm. The Puentespina family’s venture into cacao started in 2003, when Roberto and Charita Puentespina rehabilitated the existing cacao trees on the farm that they leased in Malagos, Baguio District, Davao City. In 2012 the Puentespinas began making cocoa liquor from their own cacao harvest and from cacao beans sourced from the small landholdings of about 40 farmers, also in Malagos. Theo and Filo and Risa’s Chocolate do not grow their own cacao beans but make their confections just the same from cacao sourced in Davao and South Cotabato. At Mr. Gonzalez’s Filipino Chocolate Dinner, the highlight was as much on these producers as on that which they had made. Cocoa nibs, tablea, cocoa butter, dark and white chocolate, cocoa liquor—all went into the making of dinner. Predinner nibbles saw chocolate and smoked chilies on crispy bacon and a blue cheese gougère with a chocolate-tomato mayo. Malagos cacao pods figured in the fresh cacao sorbet. There was pita bread studded with cocoa nibs. Milk chocolate foam crowned the suam soup (traditionally made with freshly grated white corn, but Mr. Gonzalez roasted the corn for this version). Parrot fish was napped with a cocoa butter sauce and served with chocolate-flavored noodles. The hands-down favorite was the main course—roasted wild boar steak with foie gras, pumpkin purée and chocolate demi-glace with guava confit.
That chocolate enhanced, rather than dominated, the flavors of the dishes was the cue for the wine pairings. The softly sweet, fizzy Aimery Blanquette de Limoux with savory chocolate biscotti and the roasted corn suam soup topped with milk chocolate foam. The Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Riesling 2013 with the cocoa butter-sauced parrot fish and chicken galantina with white chocolate lemon mousseline. The Corte Riva Merlot 2007 (made by two Filipino winemakers based in California) with the roasted wild boar steak and chocolate demi-glace. With dessert, the usual supersweet-wine with chocolate pairing was eschewed for a lighter but nonetheless sweet wine—the Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d’Asti 2012. And then with the sampling of hand-made chocolates in pure and praline forms, it was rock ’n’ roll pairing. The Corte Riva Merlot with the 70-percent dark-chocolate truffles. The Michele Chiarlo Moscato d’Asti with the dark-chocolate nuggets studded with bits of dried guyabano. Or how about the Blanquette de Limoux with the milk chocolate laced with calamansi rind?
This time, Café Yabel’s all-chocolate dinner celebrated the glory of artisanal Philippine chocolate.
