The love affair with chocolate continues to grow.
Yascha Becker, Pastry Chef, Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort |
With all the talk about counting calories and carbs, you might expect to see a drop in dessert sales in American restaurants. But in fact, just the opposite has been true. According to the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C., 30 percent of family dining, 27 percent of casual dining and 32 percent of fine dining establishments say their customers are ordering more desserts than they did two years ago.
Another key part of the profit equation is America’s long-time obsession with chocolate. The National Confectioners Association in Vienna, Va., reports that more than half (52 percent) of U.S. adults prefer chocolate to any other flavor. Berry flavors and vanilla, tied for second at 12 percent each, are distant competitors for the favor of American taste buds.
Cacao, the bean basis of chocolate, was dubbed “food of the gods” by the Mayans more than 2,000 years ago, and was so highly valued by the Aztecs that it was used as currency. And for several hundreds of years after its introduction to Europe in the 16th century, chocolate was so expensive that it was reserved for the rich and royal.
But today, while still highly coveted, chocolate is much less costly—making it the perfect ingredient to pique diners’ palates and pump up dining room and banquet profits.
A Sweet Deal
At St. Clair Country Club in Pittsburgh, Pa., chocolate is the star of some of the most popular desserts, says Executive Chef Vincent Sanzotti, because of its “very high perceived value…and its ability to produce a high rate of return.” In keeping with the general market climate in Western Pennsylvania, Sanzotti takes what he describes as a “somewhat soft approach” to pricing the dessert items produced by resident Pastry Chef Heather Witman.
Summing It Up
• Even in a weight-conscious world, dessert sales in general are still growing—and chocolate creations remain the clear favorite. |
“For our a la carte dining room menus, we keep prices in the $5 to $6 range, and for banquets, between $4.50 and $6.50,” he explains. “Honestly, I’ve been in many locations where desserts like ours could easily sell for $8 to $12.”
But even at Pittsburgh-area prices, chocolate desserts are a sweet deal for the club, as well as for its members and guests. One item with a very “high perceived value,” according to Sanzotti, is a black-bottom crème brûlée, which has a $1.78 food cost and sells for $6. Another, chocolate pot de crème, has an ingredient cost of 55 cents per 3.8-oz. serving, and lists on the menu for $4.
Chocolate Crème Charlotte is such a popular choice at Finz, the special events venue at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Sandestin, Fla., that Pastry Chef Yascha Becker wouldn’t dare remove it from the menu. Not that he would want to anyway. The domed génoise-mousse-ganache dessert costs somewhere between 98 cents and $1 to make, and sells for $8 per serving.
Ericka Idler, Pastry Chef at Aqueous Restaurant, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort |
“Chocolate desserts are a real profit center, particularly in the banquet world,” says Becker. “Most chocolate cakes and tortes cost us an average of 66 cents—ungarnished—per serving to make, and we charge somewhere between $6 to $9 per person.
“And that doesn’t count the coffee and tea people generally order to go with their dessert,” he adds. “That’s another profit center.”
It costs Executive Chef Gregory Jolliff about $1.90 per serving to produce the caramelized Georgia peach and white chocolate turnover with homemade Southern Comfort and praline ice cream for The Grille at Troon North Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. The restaurant’s menu price is $6. (In summer, the recipe makes good use of fresh fruit; otherwise, Jolliff uses IQF peaches.)
“Right now, members seem to have a craving for white chocolate, maybe because desserts made with it seem lighter,” said Jolliff. “We’ve been getting requests for white chocolate desserts and guests are giving rave reviews to the selections we’ve created with it—which range from crème brûlée to the turnover to a New Orleans-style bread pudding with bourbon sauce.”
Jolliff also uses dark chocolate to create flavor and texture surprises. Playing on the concept of the molten lava cake that has become so popular on restaurant menus around the country, he developed a chocolate truffle that has melted the hearts of members and guests.
For this multi-textured treat, Jolliff pops miniature chocolate truffles coated with macadamia and pistachio nuts in the freezer overnight, then into a deep fryer (“in very clean oil,” he emphasizes) for about 45 seconds. The result is a small sweet with the exterior bite of candy and a warm liquid center. “The combination in truffle form catches people off guard,” he notes, “They‘re delighted when the melted chocolate center oozes into their mouths.
“We put them out along with petits fours and other small sweets on our Venetian table for banquets,” he adds. “Paired with fresh berries, you have a complete dessert.”
The Chocolate Mousse Triangle from St. Clair Country Club. |
Expensive (around $5 per pound) couvertures can make a major difference in recipes, such as mousses and zabaglione, that call for cold and/or simple processes and really prominent chocolate flavor, says Peter Kovalec, Executive Pastry Chef at Bent Creek Country Club in Lititz, Pa. But as a component for ganaches and baked items such as flourless tortes and cheesecakes, he uses an “upper level,” locally produced chocolate ($1.90 to $2.10 per pound).
“Couvertures can deliver a big bang for the buck in the right recipes, but other chocolates hold up better during the baking process,” he notes.
Chocolate Almond Torte
A Sampling of Chocolate Dessert Pricing
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Item | Price | Country Club/Resort |
Black Bottom Crème Brulee | $ 6.00 | St. Clair Country Club |
Caramelized Georgia Peach and White Chocolate Turnover |
$ 6.00 | Troon North Golf Club |
$ 6.00 | Fox Den Country Club | |
Chocolate Crème Charlotte | $ 8.00 | Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort |
Chocolate Extravaganza | $12.00 | St. Clair Country Club |
Chocolate Pot de Crème | $ 4.00 | St. Clair Country Club |
Chocolatee | $10.00 | Nemacolin Woodlands Resort |
The Chocolate Fantasy | $ 6.00 | St. Clair Country Club |
Gooey Geography
A growing number of consumers are developing a taste for “single origin” chocolates, with distinctive flavors that can be pinpointed to particular countries, and even specific plantations. At a “Chocolate Extravaganza” event held at St. Clair Country Club last Valentine’s weekend, Sanzotti and his team offered samplings of about 10 different varieties, featuring numerous percentages and blends of cocoa derived from origins in South and Central America, France, Italy, Belgium and Spain.
Mixing and matching various types of chocolate—such as bittersweet (a.k.a. semi-sweet), sweet, milk and white—can add complexity and intrigue to desserts on many menus.
The perceived value soars even higher when smaller portions of several chocolate desserts are combined for special presentations, such as the “Chocolate Fantasy” offered on the St. Clair menu. Also sometimes listed on the menu as a “Study in Chocolate,” this creatively constructed plate consists of a serving of “Chocolate Obsession” (“a rich, dense cross between fudge and flourless chocolate cake, baked onto a brown sugar cookie base,” Sanzotti explains), a Napoleon of layered chocolate tuile cookies and milk chocolate mousse, and an upscale Chocolate Malt milk shake with homemade bittersweet chocolate ice cream.
Peter Kovalec, Executive Executive Pastry Chef, Bent Creek Country Club |
“Chocolate Cubed” is an innovative arrangement showcasing a plate-long vertical twist of “flexible chocolate” (chocolate ganache with sorbitol and gelatin, to make it moist and pliable for shaping) that is served at the Aqueous restaurant at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pa. Created by Pastry Chef Ericka Idler, the centerpiece twist is surrounded by tiny scoops of mint white chocolate sherbet and burnt orange caramel ice cream, dippable dabs of milk chocolate cream and burnt orange caramel sauce, and decorated with delicate dabs of green tea passion foam and orange mint salsa. (Idler uses lecithin rather than gelatin to stabilize the foam, because it reheats better and holds up longer on the plate.)
Most kitchens produce some sort of basic cake or sweet dough, pastry cream, butter cream and ganache for their dessert selections, says Linda Sue Crowley, Executive Pastry Chef at Fox Den Country Club, Knoxville, Tenn. Crowley transforms these simple ingredients into a dramatic dessert by stacking dense chocolate cake layers filled with almond pastry cream onto an almond short dough, and icing it with chocolate butter cream and ganache. “This dessert is extremely cost-effective, whether it’s in a 10-inch round or individual molds,” she notes.
Deep, dark brownies are good. But a house-made graham cracker base; a topping of more graham crumbs, melty chocolate chips and toasted marshmallows; and the chilly contrast of chocolate gelato turn these simple squares into a show-stopping “S’mores Brownie Sundae” at Bent Creek CC.
“Many of our members and guests are younger, and they often bring their children,”?says Kovalec. “So we wanted to include a chocolate dessert that would be fun and comfortable, yet really different and special.”
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