For chef Ely Salar, cacao has always been more than an ingredient. It is an agricultural product, a craft, and perhaps, most importantly, a story worth telling.
And this July and August, together with executive sous chef Daryl Yulo Sy and The Westin Manila, he gets to tell that story through two platforms.
Local Chocolate Takes Center Stage During Green Mondays
That story takes center stage this July and August as The Westin Manila partners with the award-winning pastry chef and chocolatier behind Le Choux-Colat and Aton Cacao for a two-month collaboration celebrating Philippine-grown cacao through thoughtfully crafted desserts and an immersive degustation.
The first is a collaboration with the hotel’s Green Mondays initiative, where the award-winning pastry chef and chocolatier behind Le Choux-Colat introduces a dessert lineup that pairs local cacao with other equally notable Filipino ingredients.
Available every Monday for the next two months, Salar will be serving beautiful pastries that are in line with the hotel’s sustainable efforts. There’s a rich cheesecake layered with malunggay and ube before being topped with a ganache made using Aton Cacao’s 38% Mairete chocolate from Leyte as well as a modern take on champorado, combining adlai, Baguio strawberries, and fresh Philippine mangoes with Misamis white chocolate.
Beyond showcasing Philippine cacao, the collaboration seeks to reshape the way people think about chocolate. Rather than relying on heavily processed formulations, Salar’s desserts are built around minimally processed chocolate made without vegetable fat and with less sugar. Pairing it with local ingredients also allows the cacao’s natural taste profile to shine.
A Tasting Menu Showcasing Every Stage of Philippine Chocolate
The second platform treats cacao as more than just chocolate, using every part of the fruit for its unique flavor and maximizing the ingredient with minimal waste. On July 7 and August 13, Salar will be telling the story of a cacao’s journey through seven thoughtful plates.
Rather than simply incorporating chocolate into every dish, the degustation follows cacao through each stage of its transformation. The opening course, for example
The opening course features a crisp puri shell filled with cocoa espuma and topped with cured ham and freshly grated Batangas cacao nibs. Fermentation is interpreted through scallop ceviche dressed with vinegar fermented using Samar cacao, while drying and roasting inspire an elevated adlai champurrado served with dried fish espuma.
The menu continues with grouper poached in Misamis cocoa butter and miso before moving to a rich entrée of cacao-aged Wagyu and smoked beef short ribs finished with smoked cacao husk jus, demonstrating how every part of the cacao fruit—even its often-discarded husks—can be thoughtfully utilized.
Chef Salar concludes the meal with desserts that celebrate chocolate’s final stages, including a fermentation-box-inspired creation featuring Aton Cacao’s Misamis white chocolate, tablea gelato, and Lakatan sponge cake, alongside his signature artisan bonbons flavored with honey, caramel, malunggay, guyabano, and pili nuts.
How Chef Ely Salar Is Championing Philippine Choco One Dessert at a Time
For The Westin Manila, the collaboration puts to practice its commitment to mindful dining.
“Sustainability plays a significant role in our creative process,” says executive sous Chef Daryl Yulo Sy. “We strive to maximize every ingredient we source while minimizing waste, so it was fitting to apply that same philosophy to something as interesting as Philippine cacao.”
For Salar, however, the project goes beyond that advocacy. After working in Canada and earning prestigious pastry and baking certifications, he returned home with a realization: while many countries imported cacao, the Philippines was already growing exceptional beans. That discovery eventually drove him and his wife, Jiannina, to transform their calamansi farm in Leyte into what is now Aton Cacao.
“‘Aton’ means ‘our’ in Waray-Waray,” he says. “We wanted to have a sustainable source of Philippine cacao while working closely with farmers across the country to better understand our own cacao.”
Today, through Le Choux-Colat, Aton Cacao, and Chocolatier’s Lab, the couple continues to champion Filipino cacao and the people behind it.
“I believe Philippine cacao can be world-class, just like Filipino chefs,” says Salar. “This collaboration is the perfect opportunity to showcase not only our cacao, but also the creativity and craftsmanship of Filipino talent.”
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a limited-time dining experience by chef Ely Salar and Aton Cacao that explores every stage of Philippine cacao through seven thoughtfully crafted courses.
Chef Ely Salar is an award-winning Filipino pastry chef, chocolatier, and the founder of Le Choux-Colat and Aton Cacao, known for championing Philippine-grown cacao.
Aton Cacao is a Philippine chocolate company founded by Ely and Jiannina Salar that works closely with local cacao farmers to produce minimally processed chocolate.
Green Mondays is The Westin Manila’s sustainability initiative featuring special menus that highlight locally sourced ingredients and environmentally conscious dining.
The seven-course degustation is offered on July 7 and August 13, while the Green Mondays dessert collaboration runs every Monday throughout July and August.
