Chocolate for grown ups
As much as I love chocolate, I tend not to order chocolate desserts in restaurants. They are likely to be the least imaginative of a chef’s offerings, meant to satisfy a single-note sweet-tooth craving and often described with that overused chocolate adjective: “decadent.”
But all this week, since I was lucky enough to try the food of Nieves Barragán Mohacho, who presented some of the dishes from her Michelin one-star London restaurant, Sabor, at L.A.’s Chi Spacca on Tuesday, I’ve been thinking about her chocolate dessert.
This was no “death by chocolate” cliche but a complexly flavored chocolate and blue cheese cheesecake with a salt-sprinkled dollop of cream on top of a circle of Arbequina olive oil. The blue cheese didn’t aggressively present itself but rather revealed itself slowly as one of many intriguing layers melding with the salt and sweet of the cheesecake brought together by the olive oil.
Of course, chocolate, olive oil and salt are not unfamiliar flavors in Barragán’s native Spain, where the combination is often served on bread as a snack or dessert. José Andrés has a recipe in his book “Tapas: A Taste of Spain,” and in 2014 former Times Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter published a recipe for Andrés’ elevated take of the dessert, Pan Con Chocolate, with chocolate flan, caramelized bread and brioche ice cream as its components.
As for the blue cheese, it’s not unheard of for Spain’s Cabrales cheese to be served with pieces of dark chocolate. And British chef Heston Blumenthal famously made a blue cheese-and-chocolate coulant partly in homage to France’s Michel Bras, who pioneered the molten chocolate desserts we now see around the world. (Watch Blumenthal make his blue cheese-chocolate dessert in this excerpt from his “Kitchen Chemistry” cooking series).
Barragán’s take is more mousse-like than a coulant but with more complexity than an ordinary chocolate pudding. It showcases her penchant for bringing together contrasting flavors — for instance, her wild berry tartaleta, in which the berry reduction was served beside a heady whiskey cream and dotted with super-tart lemon.
“Her cooking is very specific and pinpoint,” said Armen Ayvazyan, who can be found behind the stoves at Chi Spacca these days after the closing of the Barish at the Hollywood Roosevelt. “I think she’s inspired by a lot of Japanese cooking,” an influence he noticed in some of the restaurants he visited recently in Spain’s Basque country.
He brings up the sushi-like seared tuna Barragán served at Chi Spacca fanned around a sauce smartly based on ajo blanco, or white gazpacho, with almonds for crunch. He also admired the skill of her monkfish tempura served with a sauce of sweet chili jam aioli for dipping — one of my favorites of the night.
Afterward, I longed to try more of Barragán’s cooking. Maybe she’ll follow through on the thought she expressed that night to possibly open a place in Los Angeles — she loved our farmer’s markets and seemed inspired to cook here more. Until then, the closest we might get to that chocolate dessert without going to London is to return to Chi Spacca where one of the desserts is chocolate mousse served with crisp sourdough bread, cocoa-candied almonds and, yes, a drizzle of olive oil.
The scent of a vegetarian
Susanne Rust has a terrific story that examines the question: Do vegetarians smell different than meat eaters? It’s a surprising and fascinating read.
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