Chef’s torta a chocolate lover’s fantasy
I’ve learned there are two types of people in the world: those who love Valentine’s Day — with its cliches of hearts, roses, cupids and cute cards — and those who don’t.
The latter, of which I belong to, argue it’s an artificial day of forced affection, void of any spontaneous gestures. A remnant of Victorian-era sentimentality, Valentine’s Day has been reduced to a consumerist frenzy of overpriced dinners and gifts that further feeds my cynicism. If we love someone, surely we don’t need a commercial holiday to express our amorous sentiments?
Despite my scorn, I’m a hopeless romantic and wholeheartedly subscribe to the 18th-century gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin’s notion that the simple act of eating together is the key to a couple’s happiness, and is perhaps the most ancient and powerful forms of bonding.
In that vein, I can appreciate at least one redeeming feature of Valentine’s Day: its emphasis on eating chocolate. My chocolate of choice? The decadently dark chocolate torta topped with salty, candied hazelnuts at Edmonton’s famed Corso 32 restaurant.
It’s the grown-up incarnation of chef and co-owner Daniel Costa’s beloved and quintessentially Italian childhood snack, Nutella. “I’ve always loved taking Nutella (a hazelnut chocolate spread), heating it up, putting a little bit of salt on it and eating it right out of the jar,” he says.
Costa’s eight-ingredient wonder, is intensely dark, not too sweet and surprisingly light and silky for a flourless dessert.
“It’s essentially a very good ganache, that’s why it gets that beautiful sheen to it,” he says. “I love the idea of the sweet with the salty hazelnuts.”
It’s a delicious combination that Costa and Sous Chef Ben Chalmers spent months perfecting, using local or Alberta ingredients whenever possible, and it’s no surprise it’s been on the menu since Day 1.
When Costa opened the 34-seat, cool-yet-cosy Italian eatery just over two years ago — with requisite brick wall, communal wood table and understated signage — his vision was modest. He even questioned taking reservations.
“I was thinking of just a walk-in place. We’d play the music loud, have fun and make really good food.” The Devon native was 26 then, and didn’t expect people would wait two months for a table on a Saturday night.
Dozens of accolades later — most recently named one of Canada’s 50 best restaurants by MacLean’s magazine — he feels the weight of the city’s expectations.
“It makes me feels great,” says Costa, “but when I tell someone they have to wait a month for their reservation on Friday, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, because you want to make sure they are leaving happy. That it was worth the wait.”
Costa’s style of Italian cooking is unforgiving, which is also why he loves it so much.
“Italian food, in my opinion, is the most honest cooking there is,” he says, explaining with his deathrow meal as an example — a game chefs play often, discussing their last supper. Without hesitation, his is Agli Olio, made with spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, chili and pecorino cheese.
“If you only have those five ingredients, you can’t hide one of them. You can’t just burn the garlic,” he says matter of factly. “Whereas when you look at French cuisine or Thai food, there are so many different elements going on in the dish that are brilliant, but it doesn’t excite me.”
“It excites me when it’s quality driven, very honest and very simple. And that makes creativity more difficult — because you can’t (mess) with things.”
There is no doubt hottempered Italian blood courses through his veins. That combined with his fanatically exacting standards, and Costa knows his food is only as good as the quality of ingredients he uses. And that means he sources local as much as possible. “The closer something is, the higher the quality, and it’s travelled the least amount of time.”
Corso 32’s beef comes from Spring Creek Ranch and Wagyu beef from Brant Lake near Calgary. The bread is from Tree Stone Bakery in Edmonton, and rainbow trout from southern Alberta. Edmonton’s Mo-Na Foods supplies their mushrooms and summer vegetables come from Sparrow’s Nest Organics in Gibbons. Organic goat’s milk is from Fairwind Farms in Fort Macleod.
Family trips to Italy taught Costa the rhythm of Italian cooking, from planting the garden in the spring, harvesting, canning and winemaking in the fall, and cooking with preserves throughout the winter.
At an early age, he also knew who he wanted to marry. He’s engaged to his high school sweetheart, Megan. “After 12 years, I’m still just content to sit next to her on the couch. Just to see her, I still get excited,” he says. “She’s just the one.”
Whether you’re a Valentine’s Day devotee or not, sharing a meal with someone you love is a touching way to show your affection. Cooking it is even more special. So go ahead and make this torta and celebrate the special people in your life — on Valentine’s or any other day of the year.