Koko Black’s annual Winter Evenings of Chocolate were held in Canberra on 6-7 August 2013.
This is a 5 course dessert degustation ($80) basically reconstructing a selection of the individual chocolates that can be bought at Koko Black into a yummy dessert. This year’s theme was truffle season, and many of the desserts were based on the truffle chocolates.
1st course – Champagne truffle – White Cream de Cacao and Marc de Champagne Granita, spritzed with sparkling white wine and a dark chocolate swizzle stick. Sadly, I couldn’t try this as I don’t drink alcohol but my friends at the table all seemed to enjoy the refreshing cocktail. The chocolate swizzle stick was a cute touch.
2nd course – Yuzu truffle – Chocolate choux pastry, yuzu gel, chocolate creme, citron fizz. The profiterole-like pastry was filled with delicious creme, the yuzu gel was quite citrus-y and the ‘fizz’ gave the overall dish a nice tangy kick.
3rd course – Liquid salted caramel truffle – caramel mousse, salted caramel centre, chocolate soil. My favourite, and the majority’s favourite, of the night. The chocolate ball was made by constructing 2 halves of the ball, filling it with mousse and the liquid caramel, and fusing the two together into the ball and finishing off by spraying with atomised chocolate. The chocolate soil was impressive – made up of 3 components of which crystalised chocolate is the only one I can remember. Absolutely DELICIOUS – wish they had this on their permanent menu! Forgot to ask them how long it took to make.
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| The inside – liquid caramel goodness! |
(Koko Black’s 2012 dessert degustation night had a very similar dessert in terms of presentation).
4th course – Gianduja Truffle – Warm chocolate fondant baked with a runny Gianduja hazelnut centre. A basic warm fondant with gooey ooziness in the middle.
5th course – White chocolate truffle – Caramelised pear and white chocolate panna cotta, pear crisps, chocolate madeleine, truffle honey gel. I’m not a huge fan of panna cotta, its usually the last of the desserts that tempt me, so I only had half of this. Presentation is pretty awesome though. The chocolate madeleines had a strong truffle flavour, and being a big fan of truffle, I gobbled these up. Loved the thinly sliced crunchy pear crisps as well – wishing someone would make these in bulk so I can snack at work 🙂
The Koko Black dessert degustation is something I plan on going to annually. This year’s delectable dishes were just as good as last year’s. The pastry chefs provide speeches, describing the theme, what they’ve done and what each dish is made up of. They clearly love what they do and even took the time to answer our questions at the end of the session. The waitstaff are also very professional.
Best of all, each person gets a goodie bag of chocolates to take home!
A delicious treat and I think the $80, though a bit steep, is worth what you get on the night. Sweets and dessert lovers out there should look out for this next year.
Foodgasm 9/10
