Behind the Viral Dubai Chocolate Bar is a Filipino Chef
In creating desserts, the chef from Dipolog trusts in the power of nostalgia.
(SPOT.ph) In a Ted Talk that chef Nouel Catis did back in 2019, he recounts a time when he presented a dessert he made for an Emirati client. It was a tower of black doughnuts made of Oreo cookies and hazelnuts topped with black vanilla soft serve and drizzled with warm chocolate sauce.
The client got so emotional after tasting the dessert. It triggered a memory of him as a child walking with his father. “How on earth could somebody like me from a distant world even know what he was doing many years back with his dad?” Catis remarks. “That is how you unlock this bridge. You can cross it by embracing heritage. That’s how strong food is in connecting us all.”
Also read: Taste Test: A Review of the Viral Knafeh Chocolate Bar from Dubai
The making of the viral knafeh treat
Embracing heritage has been the secret to Nouel Catis’ success in developing unique desserts that have captured the admiration of the world. In case you didn’t know, Catis, although largely uncredited, is responsible for the viral Dubai chocolate treat that reinterprets the Middle Eastern dessert known as knafeh into a chocolate bar.
Like knafeh, the bar incorporates pistachio as a cream mixed with a crunchy string pastry called kataifi, and all that is encased in chocolate. The bar was developed in 2021 but is only currently riding on a huge wave of popularity thanks to Tiktok. Wittingly named Can’t Get Knafeh Of It, the bar is sold by FIX Dessert Chocolatier - a Dubai-based company that Catis co-founded but is no longer affiliated with.
The creative reinterpretation of a beloved Middle Eastern dessert like knafeh is an example of Catis embracing the heritage he didn’t grow up with and coming up with something unique and winsome. Catis, you see, is originally from Dipolog in Zamboanga del Norte. When his mother, a restaurateur, told him he has a knack for cooking, it turned out it was all young Nouel needed to hear to make him realize he wanted to be a chef.
Made for the 'gram
Another thing this Gen X-er embraces is social media. “I would credit the popularity of the bar to how it was envisioned in the very beginning. When I develop a recipe, it has to be Instagrammable. Then from that design point of view, I translate it into recipes that should taste good. So I think with how this thing became a worldwide hit, it was already prepared for that kind of curiosity in the global scene.”
People around the world got extremely curious as to how a chocolate bar and a mostly unfamiliar ingredient like kataifi would taste. Its inaccessibility became part of its allure. Since it was only available at FIX Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai, people sought ways to replicate it, if it meant getting closer to experiencing the real thing. “Its popularity is still going,” Catis says, thrilled. “I thought it was going to die down within a month, but until now everyone’s still looking for it!”
Buying and selling ideas
It’s but natural that Can’t Get Knafeh Of It has overshadowed Catis’ other works because of its sheer popularity, so he urges people to seek out his other creations. Another one of his desserts was also very much copied in the region: Baby Dynamite, which was created for a Kuwait-founded brand called Chocomelt. It’s a dessert with layers of brownie, chocolate fudge, vanilla ice cream and a peanut butter caramel ice cake served with a hot milk chocolate sauce poured over right before serving.
After working at hotels and companies as a chef—his first stint outside the Philippines was at the Burj Al-Arab where he was part of the pastry team—Catis put up his own consulting business in 2018 called Nifty Chef Consultancy. “Basically what we do is somewhat like buy and sell. I create recipes for you and you buy it from me and sell it in your restaurant. It’s all yours,” Catis explains. “I would consider my consulting business as more of an R&D hub because we develop recipes. We innovate.” Catis tells SPOT.ph that the Philippines may soon be tasting his original creations.
What inspires him and his creations? “Nostalgia,” he quips. “When you refer to heritage, it’s easier to make people like what you’re making because it touches on memories. I study and try to understand what their childhood was like. What were popular brands back then? I try to actually taste these products to see if I can incorporate them. That’s where I get inspiration when I develop desserts. I always put something there that reminds them of their childhood and it just works. That’s my magic touch.”