Chocolate Reimagined at Sent Sovi in Saratoga

Owner/Chef Josiah Slone points out the many new ways the evening’s meal will unveil the dark side of chocolate.

I can’t say that I’ve been to a lot of themed restaurant dinners, but when Dianne and I learned Sent Sovi chef Josiah Slone was crafting a Savory Chocolate Dinner on the day after our return from a week-long road trip, and the day after my birthday, we were in.

Most intriguing to me was the challenge of incorporating chocolate into each of the six courses including, of course, dessert. Chef Josiah emerged from the kitchen several times during the meal to explain the upcoming dishes,

Yep, that’s a chocolate moat encircling Chocolate Chili Ginger Prawns. Chocolate with shellfish – that’s a first for me.

and in particular, how chocolate added its unique notes to the symphony of flavors he was orchestrating on our plates (and in our wine glasses).

Here are a few tid-bits I remember learning about chocolate and its use in the kitchen:

1. Chocolate starts as seeds in a pod growing off the sides of trees in equatorial climates.
2. The seeds are fermented, dried and ultimately crushed. The oil is used to make white chocolate, while the crushed seed becomes darker-colored chocolate we’ve nearly all come to know and love.
3. Without added sugar, chocolate isn’t sweet. I remember once reading that red meat, wine, coffee and chocolate all delivered similarly complex melody of flavor that is immensely satisfying to our taste cravings, even when not sweet.
4. There are many, many ways to present this dark (and white), rich, unsweetened chocolate with all courses of a meal.
   

   More art, more wine, and more chef descriptions of what inspired the evening's gastronomical musings.

This fine dining experience was delicious in the usual, expected ways. The service was exemplary and unobtrusive, food presentation was artistic and the flavors sublime. And, there was the added intrigue of noticing how the chocolate affected the experience.

This was an evening of communal dining, and with each course conversation amongst our table mates zeroed in on our reaction to the taste of chocolate with, say, prawns. Consensus – it integrated seamlessly into it’s surrounding flavors, sometimes playing a leading role, sometimes a background character. In fact, on several occasions the use of chocolate was as a background fortifier of other flavors, and its inclusion would have passed unnoticed had we not already known it lurked within.

This was a fun evening for us, and others seemed equally pleased with the conviviality and delicious fare. I’m particularly fond of the interior of Sent Sovi, and much to my delight, they host rotating art shows that visually refresh the walls with first-rate paintings.

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