Filipino Gold-flaked Doughnut At $100 A Pop Wows New York


A Filipino gold-flaked doughnut making waves in New York has become an explosive phenomenon on the Internet, attracting orders from as far away as Australia. The highbrow rendition of the lowbrow snack-food by chef Björn DelaCruz, 33, of Manila Social Club at 2 Hope Street, Brooklyn in Williamsburg, blends well with the avant-garde dining proclivities of New Yorkers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut fits nicely into a proud New York tradition of generating buzz by offering a priced-up delectable out of common fare. Examples given are $250 Kobe beef burgers and $1,000 caviar-topped pizza as tantamount to feasting on money.

Manhattan restaurant consultant Clark Wolf explained to the Journal that New York restaurants have been putting pricey spins, like the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut, on everyday dishes since the Quilted Giraffe started serving haute comfort food in the 1980s. This approach proved more popular than serving exotic rarities such as the sea urchin, more common and popular with Southeast Asian palates.

Serendipity 3, a comfort-food stop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, laid its claim to the gilded food genre as far back as 2004 when the eatery offered a $1,000 Golden Opulence Sundae to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The restaurant’s spokesperson Joe Calderone who invented the treat, said he did it as a publicity stunt, but patrons actually dined on his concoction featuring gold-plated almonds and “dessert caviar,” thus earning it a permanent spot on the menu, like the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut for Manila Social Club.

24-karat gold doughnut
Gold-flaked doughnut at $100 a pop. [Photo via Instagram]
Much commentary has been made online about the $100 Golden Cristal Ube Donut, its ube base being the sweet purple yam common in Filipino deserts. The famous gold-flaked doughnut is finessed with an ube mousse and champagne jelly, then champagne backup, gold dust and flavorless flakes of gold.

According to Business Insider, some fans of the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut have willingly invested $1,200 for an order of a dozen. Gold futures are up, trading at $1,075 an ounce, adding to the ambiance.

After being featured in First We Feast online magazine, the 24-karat Filipino gold-flaked doughnut rose to viral prominence. To explain the relevance of a $100 doughnut in a city with thousands of hungry people, chef DelaCruz offered his sage observation to Forbes magazine.

“It’s always the case that somebody is buying this for somebody special.”

Though trained as a violinist, DelaCruz has always been attracted to culinary endeavors, leading him to open Manila Social Club in February 2015 with his siblings, brother Samuel Ware as partner and general manager, and sister Catherine Khan as bookkeeper. In this setting, the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut was born.

For a Filipino native who has traveled through much of the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean, DelaCruz’s cooking style transcends traditional Philippine cuisine and incorporates flavors and ingredients from his experiences. He credits Davao Oriental, where he spent his youth, for his grounding in many Filipino dishes.

Forbes notes that a doughnut from New York’s top producers like Doughnut Plant and Dough costs around $2.50. The conclusion drawn by the magazine is that Manila Social Club’s gold-flaked doughnut is excellent, but not 40 times better than a Dough product.

Reluctant to divulge how many he’s sold, the Filipino chef does reveal twenty deliveries of his gold-flaked handiwork on Friday, January 15. The majority of the sales involved single doughnuts, but full-dozen orders went to “a couple” of clients that day.

He also gave out a figure of “nearly five dozen” sold thus far at $1,000 per dozen, and suggested the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut “a cheaper alternative” to buying a diamond, for people thinking of topping a wedding proposal with dessert.

Manila Social Club
Manila Social Club is where 24-karat gold doughnuts are born. [Photo via Facebook]
The Filipino chef does not keep a secret recipe of his gold-flaked brainchild. He openly speaks of the 90 minutes it takes to make one doughnut, first by mixing the batter of ube and flour for deep frying. The doughnuts are then filled with ube and champagne mousse, and glazed with champagne and sugar icing. He uses two gold sheets for the flakes carefully distributed with a tweezer.

As for availability, the Filipino gold-flaked doughnut is on display at the Manila Social Club every Friday, along with the regular ube doughnut going for $3.50 each.

[Photo via Instagram]

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