Chefs Josh Boutwood and Hylton Le Roux explore the limits of the Filipino cacao on a two-night Auro-driven dinner at Solaire’s signature steakhouse Finestra
How much more can we love chocolate?
There are seven new ways, that is, if you make your way on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 to Solaire Resort Entertainment City’s signature Italian steakhouse Finestra, where Hylton Le Roux, Solaire’s South African executive chef, and The Moment Group’s Josh Boutwood are collaborating on a four-hands menu exploring the limits of cacao.
Over the bar at Finestra one leisurely afternoon when Hylton and Josh invited a few friends over to have a taste of their forthcoming four-hands collaboration, I asked Josh, whose own dining concepts Helm, Savage, Ember, and The Test Kitchen are top-of-mind brandnames among the most discerning in Manila’s dining scene, if he ever felt like overextending himself whenever he would venture into culinary collaborations like the two-night four-hands dinner engagement at the end of the month. He said he welcomed the challenge. “I love that!” he beamed. “I love every opportunity to get creative, to think outside the day-to-day box, to do things like this when you really have to expand on the creative process, working in kitchens I have no personal connection to. I clearly become a different person doing this, like you know Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
The chocolate dinner, a pet project of Solaire and Finestra, is in partnership with Auro, the multi-awarded tree-to-bar chocolate brand, which started out as a passion project, committed to elevating the Filipino cacao beans by working directly with local farmers. In this second iteration, according to Hylton, the aim is to raise the bar after the successful debut featuring the creations of Solaire’s own kitchen, and there was no shortlist of chefs to choose from—it was just Josh. “Obviously, he’s a very talented chef,” explained Hylton. “Very successful restaurants and a very nice guy, too.” Except for a couple of meetings to discuss the collaboration, he and Josh had never worked together before—“and we agreed to do something we each had never done before,” Hylton said, adding that he too found the challenge exciting. “I like to figure things out. I like to be surprised by the things I do. In this case, I wanted to make sure we use everything in cacao, from the pod, the husk, and the fruit to the by-products like butter and chocolate. It was a deep dive into the how of chocolate.”
I love every opportunity to think outside the day-to-day box… to expand on the creative process, working in kitchens I have no personal connection to. I clearly become a different person like, you know Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
josh boutwood
What was originally posed as a challenge for the two chefs, individually and together, to come up with original, innovative dishes circling around the Philippine cacao turned out to be easy, effortless, natural, therefore delightful. Such rapport has produced culinary creations that should prove as delightful on your senses with each of the seven courses infused with a surprising element of the local fruit, from its husk to many of its other parts with which each of the chocolate bars carrying the brand has wowed the world with bold, tropical flavors.
First served to open the palate is an oyster snack with horseradish and cucumber, paired with a glass of lovely 2019 Condrieu “Les Terrasses du Palat,” glowing with refreshing hints of apricot, jasmine, peach, and apple and a subtle coating of honeysuckle at the finish. Personally, Josh finds the combination of oyster and chocolate among the most surprising in this culinary expedition.
It is followed by a chocolate disk ravioli filled with creamy goat cheese, cocoa pulp, and an olive sphere that bursts out at first bite. Take it with a swallow of the medium-bodied 2018 Olivier Leflaive Puligny Montrachet, whose notes of freshly baked bread and toasted nuts provide a complement to the rich, buttery dish.
What’s next is champorado and risotto, not one or the other, but both, with adlai as the main component. Made with 100% tablea from Auro Chocolate, this creamy dish, paired with 2011 Bodegas Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva, is made savory with spuma, a foam of dried fish.
The first of the main courses is a seabass poached in cocoa butter and miso. With a slow-roasted miso tuille leaning on the side of the fish, it is served sprinkled with roasted seaweed on a quilt of gabi puree and a vibrant 2015 Dierberg Pinot Noir to play up the salt-and-sweet dance on the palate.
Simplicity is a grand affair, packed with flavor and depth, in the dry-aged duck breast that follows, drizzled with chocolate duck sauce and matched with a rich and silky 2018 Domaine Rostaing Hermitage red, whose toast and mocha notes with blossoms of raspberries and blueberries help turn this dish into an experience.
I wanted to make sure we use everything in cacao, from the pod, the husk, and the fruit to the by-products like butter and chocolate. It was deep dive into the how of chocolate.
Hylton Le Roux
The short rib, the last of the main courses, is dry-aged in cocoa butter for two weeks, smoked in cocoa husks, dusted with cocoa butter, and served with a dash of almond puree, chocolate, and local bugnay berry. Of his explorations, this is Hylton’s most unexpected discovery. “I’m sure someone somewhere has done something like this before, but I never have,” he said. To bring the flavorful nuances to the fore, the sommelier pairs it with a 2018 Giacomo Conterno Gattinara ‘Nervi.
A three-part dessert from Solaire’s executive pastry chef Ben Haslett brings the meal to its conclusion. The trio consists of a smooth and indulgent Auro White Chocolate Basque cheesecake, baked cocoa cream Auro Regalo 50% chocolate cremeux made of chocolate feuillete with orange confit and cinnamon ganache, and an Auro Agravante 70% gelato Don Papa honey cake with pineapple jam, ginger, and lime espuma. Don Papa Dark Rum helps orchestrate the sweet finish.
using different cacao percentages from Auro Chocolate’s line of chocolate products
These culinary masterpieces from chefs Josh Boutwood and Hylton Le Roux will be served for dinner with the flourish of a one-of-a-kind experience at Finestra at Solaire on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Call 8888-8888, email [email protected], or follow Solaire’s social media pages @solaireresort on Facebook and Instagram. www.solaireresort.com/en/chocolatefestival