There's a brand-new and even better Dubai chocolate bar in town, and it's by the award winning pastry chef (and former head pastry chef at Harrod's for over 6 years), Phil Khoury.
You may recognise Phil from his TV appearances on Bake Off: The Professionals or BBC's Saturday Kitchen, but Phil is actually leading the way when it comes to plant based pâtisserie innovations. He even has a whole cookbook called A New Way To Bake, where every single recipe is plant-based and you wouldn't even know it - that's how convincing they are. His chocolate hazelnut babka is one of the best things I've made (and eaten far too quickly). And our senior cookery editor, Alice absolutely raves about his plant-based chocolate chip cookies. Perfectly chewy and moreish.
What started as a charity chocolate bar that accidentally went viral, quickly turned into an idea that then became a reality. A few months later, Phil announced he was starting up the first incarnation of his sweet brand, called Khourys, a pastry business where he and his team create everything in their kitchen in east London, shipping all over the world. And Phil even told us that he is working towards opening a patisserie in London next year, which we cannot wait for.
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His first product launch from his new pastry business is called Beirut Chocolate, and we're dubbing it 'better than Dubai chocolate'. The Beirut Chocolate Bar takes inspiration from his Lebanese roots and features layers of sweet, floral orange blossom caramel and a nutty cashew baklawa crunch, encased in silky 50% almond milk chocolate or rich 63% dark chocolate.
It was first created as a one-off flavour for a London charity bake sale and soon went on to became viral across the Middle East, where Khoury later relaunched it in Lebanon. Now, for the first time, it has been permanently released under Khourys, and the response was overwhelming: 600 bars he and his team had spent hours making, disappeared in under two hours, stock Khoury thought would last the entire weekend! Even Nigella got an order in, writing on his Instagram 'Aaaand ordered! 💗' on his first dispatch!
It has a cult following, and for good reason. Not only does it sound incredibly delicious, but a portion of proceeds supports children's charities in Lebanon. Now that's a chocolate bar we can get behind.
It looks like there's a few bars left of the Beirut Chocolate Bar but be quick as it's super limited. Each month there will be a brand-new flavour released by Khourys and Phil suggests you keep an eye on their Instagram or TikTok to be alerted on the next drop! The Beirut Chocolate Bar retails for £12 for 90g, so we expect future bars to be priced similarly.
Mel is the Senior Food & Drink Writer for Good Housekeeping UK, covering all the delicious new product launches that come her way, writing about food and drink topics, and curating gift guides for the best foodie products to buy. Alongside that, she can be found developing and creating cocktails for GH and holds her WSET Level 2 in Wine and Spirits. She was part of the Good Housekeeping Institute food testing team for over four years before moving over to the digital side, so knows a thing or two about great food products. You'll find her scouring the supermarket shelves in her spare time for new and exciting ingredients to experiment with in her kitchen.
