What makes a great chocolate dish? We ask chefs and chocolatiers
From savoury to sweet, cacao is used by chefs and chocolatiers to beguile the senses and satisfy the palate. A striking chocolate dish is different to every chef and diner. But like any favourite bite, it should be beautifully balanced and, ideally, textural too. From main courses to sweet finishes, excellently made chocolate creations allow the cacao itself to shine while complementing the other featured ingredients. Find out what these chefs and chocolatiers have to say about the perfect chocolate dish:
Nicco Santos, executive chef/owner of Celera
Chocolate is often associated with sweets, but its versatility knows no bounds. I think to create a great chocolate dish, it’s nice to balance its richness with a bit of restraint and more thought, like using chocolate with unusual flavour combinations and textures to create a harmonious, indulgent experience. I also enjoy working with chocolate in savoury dishes, where it adds depth, complexity, and richness to sauces, marinades, and purées.
In Celera, we use chocolate primarily as a vessel for flavour. One of my favourite ways to use chocolate is cooking dark chocolate with black garlic because it complements its bold and bittersweet notes. We fold in dark chocolate and black garlic in a purée for our lamb and with caramel for our bonbons. We also pair dark chocolate with fresh lavender in our tart to extend a feeling of being hugged since its flavour lends a very soothing nose and finish. It’s our subtle way of giving thanks for dining with us.
Ines Castañeda, culinary director of Roots
For us at Roots, a great chocolate dish is one that truly showcases the essence of cacao, allowing its textures to reveal their natural acidity and floral notes. Over the years, we’ve come to see cacao as more than just a key ingredient in chocolate-making, after much knowledge exchange with producers in the Philippines and Peru. We now appreciate it as a resilient, multifaceted fruit—one that offers complexity far beyond sweetness, expanding our understanding of its full potential. We highlight cacao in two signature dishes: one savoury, through our mole, and one sweet, in our chocolate dessert.
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Photo: Tetiana Bykovets/Unsplash
Fonso Sotero, pastry chef of Lampara and Papillon
Setting the stage for the dish depends on the type of chocolate you’re using, the textures you’ll be using, the consistency of your components, and the temperature—be it savoury or sweet. After all chocolate is a sensory experience that activates all senses. It all starts with what type of chocolate you’ll be using, and how you want that person to feel as they take their first bite. It needs to be a full well-rounded experience and it should not leave you halfway. A higher percentage means more bitter and acidic tastes, and a lower percentage means sweeter and milky. When I’m using dark (70 per cent and above) I would play around with salty, aromatic spices, citrus or infused cream components. For a lower percentage, I would use something fruity, and earthy (tea leaves or caffeine, nuts). Currently, I’m really enjoying working with white chocolate, and its versatility. I avoided it a lot cause it’s just plain sweet. Now, it’s easy to infuse more bold and direct flavours which opens up more opportunities for a chocolate dish.
Pia Lichaytoo, chocolatier/founder of Pia’s Chocolate
Chocolate’s magic is most evident in how it transforms a dish. The balance of flavour, texture, and presentation is key to making a chocolate dish exceptional. The quality of chocolate as the foundation is very important. The heart of any great chocolate dish is the chocolate itself. It needs the perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness. It is also a celebration of textures, whether silky and smooth, crunchy, or fudgy. Presentation also plays a crucial role in what makes a chocolate dish great. Chocolate has a natural elegance. It is both a treat for the mouth and the eyes, and its presentation should reflect that. Finally, the perfect finish. A great chocolate dish lingers and leaves a lasting impression.
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Photo: Rodrigo Flores/Unsplash
Chele González, chef/partner, Gallery by Chele and Asador Alfonso
You can take many approaches, from a very pastry approach, filled with tempering and pastry, or you can do something savoury. I did four years of research on cacao, to understand this tropical fruit. You need to give value to the cacao itself, to make whichever component you are using, shine. For me, I don’t come from the pastry side of things, I developed dishes with cacao in all its forms, from the fruit’s meat to chocolate too. But always, you need to respect the personality of the chocolate. You can be very creative with cacao.
Patrick Go, executive chef of Your Local
I personally think that chocolate is one of the most complex ingredients there is. It can be floral, citrusy, fruity, bitter, sweet, smokey, or nutty. A great chocolate dish should be a full-bodied, well-rounded dish. In a savoury dish, I usually use chocolate to round out the flavour of a sauce, to give it a smooth mouthfeel, and to balance out the taste with its citrus or smokey note.
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Photo: Nathana Rebouças/Unsplash
Don Baldosano, head chef of Linamnam MNL
A crucial element for a great chocolate dish would start with balancing the flavours of a well-made chocolate, then supporting it with various textures. Texture for me is vital for any chocolate dish, as chocolate is deep and intense. Having different textures in a dish always helps carry the flavour. The most crucial element of a great chocolate dish is of course having good chocolate to begin with, using good beans properly fermented with the right notes of acidity. Balancing your chocolate is also very important, then pairing it with something salty, acidic and bitter always brings out more of the essence of chocolate.
David Amoros, executive chef of El Born
The most important thing is the quality of the chocolate: it should be a chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa, but not too much sugar. And you have to know how to combine it with other ingredients that enhance its flavour. For example, chocolate and nuts, or chocolate with citrus fruits. In Catalonia, we use chocolate not only for desserts and sweet dishes, but also used to cook stews and to give them depth and flavour. One of the desserts from my childhood is toasted bread with virgin olive oil, dark chocolate, and sea salt: a simple bite, but with high-quality ingredients, which shows us that sometimes the simplest dishes, but cooked with heart, can be the most delicious.
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Photo: Photo by Sigmund/Unsplash
Kerwin Go, executive chef of People’s Palace; Head chef of Blackbird at The Nielson Tower
A great chocolate dish should be something you wouldn’t want to share with others. Whether it be a decadent chocolate cake, a dark chocolate truffle or a bar of Cadbury fruit and nut, it should spark joy, give you comfort, and leave you satisfied.
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