Outside The Chocolate Box

His Eating Preference Is Dark Chocolate. He Delights in Creating Desserts and Baking With It Too. Southern Sun Cape Sun Executive Chef Alfred Henry Takes Three Brunch Classics and Gives Them a Chocolate Twist, While Miguel Chan, Tsogo Sun’s Group Sommelier, Pairs Fine Wines to Suit the Fare.

- Kim Maxwell

The concept was to think outside the box about chocolate. How could we incorporate chocolate into each dish without it being boring?” says chef Alfred Henry on the culinary challenge he accepted when F&HE asked him to refashion one of his favourite ingredients into a three-course chocolate brunch feast.

Alfred, 40, is executive chef at Tsogo Sun’s Southern Sun Cape Sun hotel in Cape Town. So many would assume he would outsource brunch execution to the pastry team in the sweeter side of this vast hotel kitchen. Not so.

Alfred has spent a good part of his professional life creating delectable desserts. He was assistant pastry chef at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel under Garth Stroebel. He worked his way from pastry chef to executive sous chef at the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa. In time, he stepped into the role of head chocolatier for Lindt & Sprüngli South Africa – chocolate brunch “accreditation” if ever there was.

“I was identified with a natural flair for pastry when I completed a Cordon Bleu diploma at Silwood Kitchen. We used to do novelty cakes, so it became a part of me. I won a few awards for my cakes and I enjoyed it,” he says of his training.

The creative side of pastry appealed, as did the chemistry. Enthuses Alfred: “For pastry, you need to understand what the chemical reactions are and also have a good understanding of precision. You can’t afford to be even a few millilitres out.”