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KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
Tue Jan 12, 2016, 06:01 PM Jan 2016

I Ate the $100 24-Karat Gold Donut (and Met the Man Who Created It)

https://www.yahoo.com/food/i-ate-the-100-24-karat-gold-donut-and-learned-192137103.html

On a Friday afternoon, a few hours before dinnertime, chef Bjorn DelaCruz is having a hard time prepping for service. He’s running back and forth between his small kitchen and the dining room, where he’s being peppered with questions and requests by a group of reporters and photographers. A blogger flies through the door demanding to pick up his sought-after baked good ASAP, and the phone rings every few minutes, with eager new customers from far-flung places ready to place an order. For DelaCruz, who still has a restaurant to run and patrons to serve, this frenzy is overwhelming, fun, and, above all, completely unexpected. The cause of this chaotic milieu? A 24-karat gold donut, perched in its solitary glory on a cake stand and glittering in the window light.

DelaCruz, chef and co-owner of Manila Social Club restaurant, wasn’t setting out to create an Internet sensation when he first conceived this precious pastry. The first generation of the gold donut, which I first tasted one night in December at the restaurant’s monthly open-to-the-public Donuts & DJs party, was tamer than its contemporary. DelaCruz, who wanted to create a festive celebratory treat to sell around New Year’s Eve, had prepared a black donut with a White IPA from Brooklyn’s Braven Brewing Company and dusted it with gold powder. Its subtle shine made the party guests ooh and aah, and the taste was heavier and hoppier than the other air-light donuts, with a hint of the IPA flavor. Still, the donut could be better, DelaCruz thought.

The next afternoon, DelaCruz was in his apartment savoring some leftovers from the party, a donut and his champagne of choice: Cristal. He loved how the mildly sweet tones of the bubbly interacted with the flavor of the ube — a purple yam prevalent in Filipino cooking that is also featured on DelaCruz’s inventive menu. So he got to work on a new, extravagant version of his popular donuts, which are crafted out of a French pâte à choux, rather than the typically denser dough, lending them an airy quality. The result was a luxurious creation, filled with chunks of champagne jelly, piped through with creamy ube mousse, and coated with shimmering Cristal icing and delicate flakes of 24-karat gold leaf (which, in case you are worried, is totally safe to eat). The cost: $100 a piece.

DelaCruz, who intended the expensive baked good to function as a specialty gift, proudly posted the gold donut to the restaurant’s Instagram page. However, it wasn’t until a week later when the New York Times gave the gold donut a small mention in its review of the restaurant that the frenzy began. Soon, Manila Social Club was receiving calls from around the country and the world from eager eaters with heavy pockets, wanting to get their fix of the golden donuts — sometimes dozens at a time. Some people wanted to give the donut as a wedding gift; others, a birthday present. And some just wanted to flash their wealth.


This could get ugly. I sense a dramatic increase in quasi-legal property seizures by cops.

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