The Final Chocolate Dinner: Menu

The 2019 Valentine’s Dinner took place on Tuesday, February 26. Ten chocolate-centered courses, two seatings, live music. Here’s the menu, with photos.

Running in the wind feeling the cool air on my face
Hearing the splashing of the waves and feeling the foam on the top sides of my feet.
I continue to walk in deeper and deeper until I can no longer stand
I wave to the fisherman with a solemn face knowing he may never see land again
He mouthed, go back in and cherish the earth and sand between your toes.

Walking through the green pasture is pleasant.
Hearing the sounds of pattering feet,
When you need to get away you can always go
Even when the clouds are angry the earth is kind and gentle.
Feel its warmth flow through your body.

In a field of strawberries you may find miniature hidden gems
Rolling down the twisted hills
You lie down and smell the grass
It flows through your fingers
Looking up, only to find an old forgotten memory.

Every life has a room
where memories are stored away.
Some are vast and some are close
You are the one that stays closest to me.
Always clear. Always true.
With all my love, until next time.

–Chef Angelina Jacobs

The Courses

0. Introduction

Pomelo sashimi glistens;
Smokey wulong tea,
Crisp pineapple, blood orange
Tantalize in Itakuja.

Crisp fruit and Tung Ting tea leaf crunch bonbons on ruby pomelo sashimi.

1. Bread & Soup

It is a cold day.
The Beef Broth is warm.
It is served with Bread
And Chocolate.

Beef broth with roasted onions and vanilla; yeasty chocolate rustic bread.

2. Salad

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Summer and Winter mingle
Warm climes and cold—
In tomatoes, apples,
Cacao fruit and earthy cheese.

Preserved Summer Tomato rollup, baby kale with Miel de Cacao vinaigrette, pickled local apples, braised radicchio, and cave-aged Spanish Garroxta mixed-milk cheese.

3. Appetizer

My memories are a room
Of Pure Imagination
Where Sweet Potatoes
Beets, and all my Vegetables
Are Bonbons.

A trio of unusual bonbons: Swiss chard & beets with Ghana and Madagascar dark chocolates; Sweet potato & pecan praline with Creos Maranon Canyon Peruvian dark milk chocolate; and Pickled vegetable chutney with Tikal Guatemalan milk chocolate, all served with rich red wine demiglaze.

4. Palate Cleanser

Cleanse your palate, Halibut!
With Cherries, Chiles, and Lime!

Halibut ceviche with chile, finger lime roe, cherry fluid gel, and micro-cilantro.

5. Interlude

A moment of respite where
Each taste is what it seems to be.
But there is always chocolate.

Tomato and olive tapenade with cocoa-rye-sesame cracker; Spanish Garroxta cheese drizzled with Spanish olive oil.

6. Plate: Mushrooms

Earth.
Umami rumbles at the core.
Earth and Air.
The bearable lightness of
Eating!

Sauteed Dunk’s Mushrooms in red wine & Hacienda Rio Dulce Guatemalan dark chocolate demiglaze; Chocolate mushroom souffle with corn & leeks.

7. Plate: Goose

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We thought Goose would be nice
With night-black chocolate from Peru
But Muses are Muses and so we added
Baklava.

Elevage local farm goose breast and dark meat; potato-apricot “baklava” with house-made fillo, apricots, and borage.

8. Dessert

Dad Tango refused to send Yuzus (he thought)
They were ugly) but Mom Tango stole them (like
Prometheus stole fire) and sent them anyway.

Vanilla marshmallow over yuzu mousse over White Jade Guatemalan white chocolate, dusted with powdered cara cara orange, powdered strawberry, and fennel. Served with Guatemalan cacao nibs and yuzu confit.

9. The Cheese Course

In France dinner always ends with a cheese course.
But the Emperor likes tea.

Raku bonbons with DJ’s local honey, Spanish 18 month aged Mahon goat’s milk cheese, and Spanish olive oil. Served with 2008 Emperor Pu-erh tea.

The Team

This dinner was crafted by Master Chocolatier Richard Tango-Lowy and Chef Angelina Jacobs. Joe Mote acted as Sous Chef and Cook, while Assistant Chocolatier Eileen Yung served as Hostess. Longtime Dancing Lion Chocolate employee Anabel Parsons was kind enough to handle the copious dishes.