From sweet to savory

Chocolate has long been the domain of desserts, candy and sweet beverages, but cocoa can do more than satisfy your sweet tooth. Operators also are using chocolate to bring an earthiness to a variety of savory dishes.

“[Chocolate] adds a smoothness to the dish,” says Vern Bauer, executive chef for Thomas Cuisine Management at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, in Boise, Idaho. “It adds a surprise. People taste [a dish that uses chocolate] and they recognize the flavor but are still pleasantly surprised when they find out it’s chocolate.”

Even though Bauer has found success with using chocolate in savory dishes, he says his customers don’t necessarily want to know it’s included. “There’s a bit of a stigma with calling out its use in savory dishes,” he says. “We used some chocolate in our chili and more people bought it when we didn’t call it out than when we did. But it adds a depth of flavor that people like.”

Coffee meets chocolate

Pairing coffee or espresso with chocolate was a natural at Starbucks headquarters’ SODO Kitchen. Rick Stromire, general manager for Bon Appétit at the account, says the chocolate is a key component in the rub that goes on the cafe’s rotisserie chicken and beef.

“We do a cocoa/espresso rub, which also features cayenne, garlic, salt and pepper,” Stromire says. “We use that on our rotisserie chickens, which we then serve quartered with a choice of sides. We’ve also used that rub on sirloins and pork. [I find] that chocolate works really well on slow-roasted proteins. It brings out the rich coffee flavor as well.”

Another popular dish is the cafe’s chocolate-braised brisket, which features espresso, the cocoa rub, bitter dark chocolate, onion, garlic, diced carrot, celery, fennel and red wine. The brisket is braised in the mixture for about three hours, sliced and served over potatoes or polenta.

SODO also uses chocolate in its mole at its taqueria station. “We usually use a dark, bitter chocolate,” Stromire says. “Our mole features tomato, tomatillo, pumpkin seeds, chilies, garlic and ginger. We serve it over chicken or top it with plantains. [With dishes like mole] you can introduce people to chocolate without it being really sweet. That shows customers how it can be utilized in other types of cooking.”

Mole is also a way to break out of the traditional ground beef taco grind at Rex UNC Healthcare, in Raleigh, N.C., according to Executive Chef Ryan Conklin.

Conklin has created a turkey mole taco, which is part of a new concept called Rajas Fresh Latin Flavors. For the taco, turkey breast is cooked in a traditional mole sauce, which includes chocolate. The turkey is then pulled and reheated in the sauce. The tacos are served with a variety of salsas. “It’s a great twist on tacos because in the healthcare segment, tacos usually mean only ground beef,” Conklin says. “When we do this turkey mole with this braised meat, it’s much more flavorful. I think the chocolate creates a real depth of flavor. It’s not delivering sweetness in these preparations; it’s giving an earthy taste to the dishes.”

Chocolate also makes an appearance in the hospital’s coffee-bronzed pork tenderloin. Conklin’s team adds cocoa powder to espresso, ground coffee, salt, pepper, brown sugar and a little fresh thyme to make a rub. The tenderloin is then seared and roasted in the oven to create a nice crust on the meat. That dish is served over farro with sweet potatoes. Another similar dish is the hospital’s Yucatan-spiced flank steak, which uses a rub made from cocoa, cayenne pepper, chipotle, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. The steak is roasted and served with a chimichurri sauce over the classic pairing of rice and beans.

Enhancing flavors

At the University of Montana, in Missoula, Executive Chef Patrick Browne likes to use chocolate because it adds a bitter component and a complexity to savory dishes.

“We do a braised short rib with rosemary and chocolate,” Browne says. “There’s also some red wine in there, which works well with the chocolate. It gives a deeper flavor and it’s something people aren’t used to having in [savory applications.] It pairs well with the richness from the beef. We use a bittersweet chocolate for that dish and we actually mix the chocolate in with the braising liquid.”

Browne has also found inspiration for pairings with chocolate from celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s list of creative food pairings.

“One of the pairings he called out was white chocolate and caviar,” Browne says. “So for a wine tasting we made an unsweetened white chocolate velouté. It naturally has a little sweetness from the white chocolate, but we made it savory with a strong concentrated vegetable broth. Instead of using butter to mount a sauce, we just used the chocolate because it’s got so much cocoa fat. We mounted this white chocolate and then we served it with a Montana paddlefish roe. So you got that salty sea flavor from the caviar going with the richness from the chocolate.”