Swissness Chocolate Bar at Manila Peninsula

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Last August 2, 2012, Thursday the ten-day festival of Swiss cuisine and fun at The Peninsula Manila commenced. Their lineup of activities include:

* Old Manila - Three-course menu, Degustation menu
* Escolta - Swiss Buffet, Schueblig Eating Contest (Aug.5)
* The Lobby - Chocolate Bar (Aug.2,3,4,9,10 & 11), 8pm
* Kitchen Party on August 9 at 6pm
* The Gallery - "Timeless: Swiss Landscapes"
* Lucky Draw for a Trip to Zurich onboard Swiss International Airlines, Victorinox Swiss Army watches and a knife, wines from Werdenberg International Corporation and Jewelry from Hans Brumann

For inquiries or reservations, please call 887 2888 or e-mail: diningpmn@peninsula.com.

Dubbed as Swissness, I went on the opening day to try their Chocolate Bar at The Lobby of the Hotel. Manila Peninsula invited Top Pastry Chef Anil Rohira to prepare Swiss Felchlin chocolate pastries and confectioneries. Award winning Chef Rohira is the current Export Corporate Pastry Chef of Felchlin. He travels around the world conducting chocolate pastry classes and tours chefs to their company's factory in Switzerland. The company is one of the leading Swiss chocolate makers that provides chocolate to hotels like the Manila Peninsula.

Felchlin adheres to this values:

Felchlin not only stands for a single product but for consistent thought and action with regard to quality, which permeates the entire company. The formulated and practised values are thereby our driving force from both within and without.

                                                                        Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

This chocolate fountain is on one of the tables set-up for the buffet. I like its sweet, smooth and silky texture, a good dip for the strawberry and mallows. It would be nice if  there were  more varieties for the dips. The table also contain ice creams - truffle and rocky road with various toppings (I like the dark chocolate topping.)

Chocolate cakes and pastries

This is the other table set-up for the Chocolate Bar with Manila Peninsula's big nougat bar, their own toblerone bar - Penougat. This table contain most of the chocolate pastries.

                                                                                       Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

My starter plate: dipped mallow and strawberry and chocolate bread pudding. The texture of the bread pudding is a bit rough with bitter hint of the chocolate.

                                                                                   Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

Crispy mocha, the covering is crispy barquillos and it has a overpowering mocha taste, a bit sweet for me.

                                                                                      

                                                                                           Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

Chocolate Cremeux and Chantilly is one of the best pastries that I liked best. The Chef introduced this lengthily to some of the hotel guests who was at the bar getting their fill of the chocolate desserts. There are 5 layers into it and a combination of different cocoas (white and dark coming from different origins Americas and Africa). I intentionally turned it to its side to see its bottom and lo, some mixed nuts underneath. The combination of the chocolate mixed well with its crumbly and crunchy nuts.

Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

Orange Chocolate Cream 

(I also like the mix of sweet sour orange and creamy chocolate.)

Chocolate Intenso

Passion Milk Chocolate

Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

Sacher Torte this cake I enjoyed well compared to the Black Forest Gateau ( I found a little bit soggy, perhaps several days old from the shelf? The bread part is disorientingly coarse.) Anyway the torte was fantastic, the smell is fragrant cacao with bitter sweet taste. The chocolate lollipop is also good with those in shot glass mousse called Exotic  Chocolate adventure, fruity cocoa moussed mixed with passion fruit and other fruit jelly.

Source: Uploaded by user via pete on Pinterest

Black Forest Gateau

More fotos here - http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/chocolate-bar-2012-manila-peninsula/

Top Pastry Chef Anil Rohira: Up Close and Personal at Manila Pen

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Swissness is Manila Peninsula's ten-day festival of Swiss cuisine and fun that started today August 2, 2012. Among their exciting lineup of activities is a Chocolate Bar at The Lobby that will run from  August 2,3,4,9,10 & 11 starting at 8pm.

Upon taking my reserved seat, I was told by the F&B Manager that Chef Anil Rohira went out for the night. A bit upset, I focused my attention instead to the smorgasbord of delectable chocolate pastries and confectioneries. But after sometime, lo and behold the chef came in to check his chocolate bar. That made my night, I both enjoyed the wonderful chocolate creations and the company of the creator himself for a chat.  

with Top Pastry Chef Anil Rohira of Felchlin, Switzerland

On Manila Pen’s Chocolate Ladies

I am very impressed and amaze that Manila Pen has showcased these quality chocolates to the world and their chocolate ladies are very productive.  I would hire them if I have my own place. Everything chocolate that you come and enjoy at the Peninsula is Felchlin. I have known the chefs for a while. I have been here two years ago for chocolate promotion and had cooking classes too.

Distinguished Pastry Championship Judge

I was in the US last July 8-9 serving as a judge for the World Pastry Cup. I have given up competing, in my younger days I used to compete. But there are times in life when you focus on certain things, it was competition then, now it is more teaching classes and I enjoy travelling and meeting chefs around the world.

Childhood Chocolate Memories

We have strong British influence and Cadbury is the most recognized brand in India. It is strange, when I was a small kid while enjoying a bar of chocolate I wonder how it would be like to swim in a pool of chocolate, those memory keep flashing to me. But now, when I look at how chocolate is made at Felchlin, I am so close to that experience when I see the machineries and see those volumes of chocolate we make. When we have chefs classes in Switzerland, we walk them through the processes of chocolate making and give them a factory tour.

Top Pastry Chef Anil Rohira

Felchlin is a Premium Brand

Most outstanding and amazing Felchlin is its closeness to the source or its closeness to nature when in comes to bean selection. We are directly involved with the plantations where we got our cocoa beans from. We are very selective on the nature and quality of the beans that we acquire. We are the smallest chocolate manufacturing in Switzerland but the most exclusive simply because of our orientation to quality. We try to be sustainable, fair trade and preserve the integrity of the nature has to offer us in terms of quality and origin.

There are some chocolates that has some specific applications as to fruits and nuts and the flavor.

Every brand has something to offer and room for the application of these other brands. There are different levels of chocolate quality and Felchlin is a premium brand. I am a firm believer of Felchlin and I choose to work with them.  

One thing that many people don’t know about Felchlin is that aside from being an amazing quality conscious company, they are the most wonderful people you gonna meet.

Explaining the origins and  and flavors of Felchlin

chocolate.

Signing my Chocolate Book (Chocolate Unwrapped by Sarah Evans) 

and his message/autograph and business card.

Frey Classique Dark Chocolate 72%

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For this chocolate it was a pasalubong (coming home token/gift) from Dir. Roberto Almonte, NCIP Region 4 Director. Together with his family they went to Singapore for a much deserve vacation. Particularly for Director Almonte, a break  from all the arduous tasks of dealing with different issues like mining, dams, etc, in ancestral domains of indigenous people in his region.

I was asked what I like for pasalubong, so I told him dark chocolate from Singapore.  He told me to email what particular brand and which shop to buy it from but I never did bother, hoping he forgets all about it. But lo and behold, when he came to our office, there was the dark chocolate for me. Maraming salamat po, director for being the sponsor of this chocolate.

For this Frey Classifque Dark Chocolate 72 %, it has a brittle snap (well it just came from the ref). Smell-wise,  since it is  dark it has a strong cocoa scent. I can’t pinpoint exactly the taste of the chocolate.  And at first bite it has strong taste of the cocoa. But when it melts it produces other flavor a nutty taste, in particular. Unlike most milk chocolate and also having just 45% cocoa butter, it does not have a silky finish. There’s a feel of cocoa particles or sediments lingering in the root of the tongue the path that is more sensitive to bitter taste.  

So when I looked at the label, in the ingredients it says the chocolate may contain tree nuts, milk soya and gluten. I know some people are allergic to gluten. (Gluten (from Latin gluten, "glue") is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheatand related grain species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to riseand to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.). So some chocophiles are so careful when buying that they have to read the labels thoroughly. Sadly most of the commercial brands would contain gluten.

Frey chocolate is one of those famous Swiss chocolate the like of the brands such as Nestle, Lindt, Toblerone among others. These are chocolates I am familiar since tatay used to be a seaman. So everytime he comes home, he brings with him these duty-free bags of these omnipresent Swiss chocolates.

My score for this chocolate - 5/10

(snap, smell, texture,taste, & finish)

Read more here - http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/chocolate/frey-chocolate.asp

Swiss Chocolate

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From the website of Chococsuisse (http://www.chocosuisse.ch) I read and am sharing here these information:

"Swiss chocolate" is a completely conched chocolate or chocolate mixture made of cocoa beans, cocoa mixture, cocoa butter, sugar and in some cases milk, manufactured entirely in Switzerland. Otherwise the use of the "Swiss chocolate" label at home and abroad has to comply with the "clarity principle". This presupposes that any partial processing outside of Switzerland (e.g. shaping or packaging of the product) is explicitly stated on the package.

Owing to the excellent reputation of genuine Swiss chocolate, it comes as no surprise that it is constantly brazenly copied outside of Switzerland. CHOCOSUISSE has resolutely fought against the unlawful use of the "Swiss chocolate" label throughout the world for many years now and has been successful in the process.

Why is Swiss chocolate the best?

This frequently asked question fills the Swiss chocolate industry with pride although the assessment behind it is somewhat subjective. However, it is a fact that the products of the Swiss chocolate industry number among the best in the world.

The high quality of Swiss chocolate is due to a number of factors. What is decisive is the perfect quality of raw materials and state-of-the-art manufacturing methods combined with the strict quality requirements to be satisfied by the intermediate products. Not to forget the optimal processing into finished products and highly skilled personnel.

How much chocolate do the Swiss eat per year on average?

Approximately 93'975 tonnes of chocolate products (including imports but excluding cocoa and chocolate powder) was consumed in Switzerland in 2010. Based on an average population of 7,8 million means Switzerland has an average per capita consumption of 12,0 kg, in other words ranking it first among the consumer countries. However, it should be borne in mind that this figure also includes the purchases of people vacationing in Switzerland and those who drive over the border just to buy Swiss chocolate.

And for those interested to find out the Swiss brands of chocolates check this link:

CHOCOSUISSE | Member list:

Chocology is a booklet free to download for those who would like to know more of the history of  Swiss chocolate industry. Check this link:
http://www.chocosuisse.ch/web/chocosuisse/en/other_services/booklet.html