Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for Traditional Catalan Treat of Pa, Xocolata, Oli i Sal

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This afternoon chocolate delight recipe made with bread, chocolate, olive oil and salt – called pa, xocolata, oli i sal in Catalan – comes courtesy one of Barcelona‘s best chefs, Jordi Artal. It was a traditional after-school treat his grandmother made him that inspired one of the contemporary creations that chef Jordi serves at his restaurant, Cinc Sentits.

One of our most memorable dining experiences last year was a degustation meal at Cinc Sentits, the restaurant of Michelin starred chef Jordi Artal, a Catalan-Canadian chef residing in Barcelona.

Not only is Jordi one of Spain‘s finest culinary talents, he has achieved success without formal kitchen training. The guy has talent to burn and in a story on Barcelona that The New York Times published in 2009, his restaurant was their fine dining restaurant of choice.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for the Traditional Catalan Treat of Pa, Xocolata, Oli i Sal

While Jordi Artal’s food is very creative, it’s not form over flavour or a whacky combination of ingredients with some ‘foam’ on top to give it an avant-garde touch.

Each of Jordi’s dishes is informed by his traditional Catalan roots and uses Catalan-sourced ingredients — something that you’ll see in this afternoon chocolate delight recipe – but is rethought using the chef’s arsenal of contemporary techniques.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Jordi admits to agonising over the creation of a menu, taking care not to repeat ingredients, ensuring every dish works together, thinking about wine pairing, and keeping his food costs manageable. He cares so much that he even refuses to serve the same kind of ingredient twice in a tasting menu.

We spent some time talking to Jordi after our first meal at the restaurant last summer in Barcelona when the friendly sommelier offered to introduce us to him. Jordi sat down with us after lunch – usually his break before yet another packed dinner at his small restaurant – and answered our endless questions about his food and the Barcelona dining scene.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Naturally, Jordi was the first chef I thought of consulting for my series on The Dish when we knew we were returning to Barcelona – and his suggestion for a quintessential dish from Barcelona that I should learn to make didn’t disappoint.

When we approached Jordi to teach me how to make a dish that in some way represented the new wave of creative Catalan cooking in Barcelona, Jordi took a u-turn.

Jordi told us that the basis for a lot of his thinking behind dishes is that people don’t want to go to a fine dining restaurant to eat something they could make at home, a notion that I wholeheartedly share.

Yet at the same time, many of the dishes Jordi creates are based upon just that – dishes he has grown up eating in the family home.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Instead of teaching me a contemporary dish that would be complicated and difficult to make, Jordi suggested showing me how to make this traditional Catalan “afternoon chocolate delight”.

It’s a sweet snack that Jordi says his grandmother used to make for him after school as a treat (“if he was a good boy”), that he has recreated into one of the most sublime desserts we’ve ever tasted.

The ingredients? Bread, chocolate, olive oil and salt – pa, xocolata, oli i sal in Catalan. Simple as that.

Rather than deconstructing Catalan dishes, Jordi says “I like to think that we are ‘reconstructing’ them, generally by using the ingredients and/or methods of a particular recipe to rebuild the dish into something new.”

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

For instance, Jordi might replace a few ingredients with similar or higher quality ingredients and present the dish in a very different way, as he’s done with this after school snack that he transformed into a heavenly dessert.

“If you look at the dish we serve it may not look anything like the traditional Catalan dish – but it certainly tastes like it!” he assures us, “In a way, what we’re doing here is creating odes to Catalan cuisine.”

While Jordi’s grandma used whatever bread and olive oil was available in her kitchen, for Jordi’s recipe only the finest quality ingredients will do.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for Pa, Xocolata, Oli i Sal

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe, by Jordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for Pa, Xocolata, Oli i Sal

AuthorJordi Artal of Cinc Sentits, Barcelona
Michelin-starred chef Jordi Artal's afternoon chocolate delight recipe makes a traditional Catalan treat reinterpreted at his Barcelona restaurant Cinc Sentits. This recipe makes the sweet and savoury snack his grandmother made him after school of bread, chocolate, olive oil and salt, pa, xocolata, oli i sal in Catalan.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine Spanish
Servings made with recipe1
Calories 670 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • Coca de vidre or ‘glass’ bread - a chewy, airy loaf of bread
  • Cooking chocolate — Jordi used Valrhona - most chefs’ favourite cooking chocolate
  • Olive oil — Jordi used Oleum Flumen de Finca - Mas Mariet
  • Flor de Sal — this is our favourite brand of sea salt as well - our friend Marc Fosh, one of Mallorca’s finest chefs, helped start Flor de Sal and distributes it from his gorgeous store in Palma de Mallorca

Instructions
 

  • Chop up the bread into thick slices.
  • Pop the bread under a griller for a minute or two until warm.
  • Place a few chocolate pieces on each slice of bread and pop the bread under the griller again until the chocolate melts. You don’t want the chocolate to melt completely into a liquid though — you want it to be soft but not runny.
  • Douse the chocolate liberally with the olive oil.
  • Sprinkle some grains of Flor de Sal on top.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 670kcalCarbohydrates: 97.2gProtein: 17gFat: 28.3gSaturated Fat: 10.6gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 1002mgFiber: 6.1gSugar: 24.3g

We initially wondered why Jordi didn’t use a sweeter bread, but he says the bread is really just there as a vessel for the chocolate and olive oil, and we totally agree. In Barcelona you’ll see salt and olive oil used with chocolate a lot in fine dining restaurants and you can buy olive oil chocolate as well.

Jordi serves a more complex version of his Grandma’s dish at Cinc Sentits. He places roasted macadamia nuts on the bottom of a dessert dish, then adds a layer of the most decadent chocolate ‘mousse’ we’ve ever enjoyed, followed by a generous sprinkle of bread crumbs made from the Coca de vidra, and finally, a quenelle of delicious olive oil ice cream. It’s creative contemporary Catalan cuisine in a nutshell.

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AUTHOR BIO

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Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

8 thoughts on “Afternoon Chocolate Delight Recipe for Traditional Catalan Treat of Pa, Xocolata, Oli i Sal”

  1. Jordi and his family kick ass.
    I travelled the world to eat before if you want any thoughts let me know

  2. Hey Heather, I do prefer the more sophisticated version that Jordi serves in the restaurant, but isn’t it great to get the background of how a chef like Jordi works?

    Jessie, thanks for your comment, I glad you noticed the background details, I love his food and wanted to try and get it across.

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