Food News

Brae chef Dan Hunter branches out to chocolate

Can’t get to Brae? You can try one of the three-starred restaurant’s desserts in bite-sized form as part of a new range of Koko Black chocolates.

By Emma Breheny
Dan Hunter with Koko Black's head chocolatier Remco Brigou
Dan Hunter, the award-winning chef of Victoria's Brae, has teamed up with master chocolatiers Koko Black to create a new range of chocolates that celebrates Australian ingredients and flavours.
There's a bar containing toasted coconut and caramelised Whipstick wattle, a praline filled with aniseed myrtle and chocolate ganache, and another that's based on a strawberry gum and passionfruit dessert Hunter served at his fine-diner earlier this year. He says that in that particular praline, the ingredients "form this bond where you don't notice where one ingredient stops on your palate and where the others start".
The chef at Brae, currently GT's Regional Restaurant of the Year, has put Australia's native ingredients in the spotlight since opening the restaurant in December 2013.
From left: a selection of pralines, lemon myrtle and Venezuelan 72% single origin block, and macadamia and spotted gum honey white chocolate block.
He says he wants to move people's perceptions of native ingredients to the next phase of appreciation through the Koko Black range. "To get past the 'hey, look at these things' period that we've been in for a while," he says. "And into a fully integrated stage of appreciation where these flavours can be recognised and enjoyed by a wider audience for their deliciousness, not just for their novelty or obscurity."
Whatever the reason for enjoying them, we think chef-made chocolates could be the perfect stocking-stuffer this Christmas.
Dan Hunter x Koko Black chocolates, on sale from 29 November. Boxes of pralines from $29, single blocks $13.50, box of 4 blocks $49. kokoblack.com