Cacao farmer. Chocolate maker. Chocolatier. Entrepreneur and pastry chef—Ely Salar is committed to bringing recognition for Filipino cacao to the world stage.
He was making pandesal at age 13. After school and during summer breaks, he would work at their family bakery, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He knew then that the kitchen was what he was destined for.
After completing his college degree in Leyte, Salar was hired by the confectionery shop in the US where he did his on-the-job training. “I missed my graduation because I had to report to work,” he remembers. “I felt sad, but I was thinking that the point of studying was for me to get a job—so I should actually be happy.”
After his stint at the confectionery shop in the US, he worked as a barista in Dubai then as dining supervisor for a French restaurant in Singapore. He then decided to try his luck in Canada and ended up working there for 10 years. Gaining experience and wisdom from every job, Salar rose to the top of the pastry ladder.
Certified as a journeyman baker and Red Seal Chef, he worked hard to earn his place as executive pastry chef, first for Delta Hotels by Marriott then for the Hotel Arts Group, both in Calgary. The unassuming young man who always wanted to be a pastry chef had at last achieved his dream.
On to the next big dream: Having his own business. This meant coming back to the Philippines, to his beloved Leyte, to see what the future held for him.
He invested his savings on a farm planted with 1,500 calamansi trees. With no concrete plans yet, he decided to sell his harvest. He would be at the market at 5 a.m., rent a table for PHP 20, sell calamansi, and earn from PHP 20–30,000 pesos per harvest.
To make better use of the land, he decided to plant cacao. Having worked often with chocolate in his years abroad, he thought it would be the perfect crop for him to invest in. With his knowledge of processing cacao into chocolate, then using chocolate to make exquisite chocolates and pastries, it seemed the perfect fit.
Salar, with his wife, Jiannina, started selling his signature pastries in 2020, after pandemic restrictions had eased. Patisserie Le Choux-Colat started small but grew faster than they had expected. He happily found himself inundated with cake and chocolate orders that they eventually needed to get a bigger space. His travel cake—Gateau de Voyage—became very popular with people who were missing the taste of pastries they enjoyed while abroad. He was even noticed by luxury fashion brands, like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, looking to have bespoke chocolates made.
He is unique in that he is both a chocolate maker and a chocolatier. He is able to do this through Aton Cacao Philippines, his bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturing company that sources cacao from his own Elfortunella Cacao Farms, as well, as other farms and cooperatives across the country.
Aton is Waray for “ours”—so this is cacao that is proudly Pinoy. It is small-batch craft chocolate couverture with variants that include 58% Luzvi dark chocolate, 38% Mariete milk chocolate, 32% Misamis white chocolate, tablea, a unique ube chocolate, and the 64% Samar dark chocolate. He proudly says that cacao from Calbayog, Samar has been named to the Top 50 Best Cacao Beans in the World.
Like other pastry chefs, he used to rely on imported European chocolates. Today, he only uses his own chocolate for all his products. Aton Cacao is starting to make waves—they are already being used by chefs in hotels and cafés and are being sold in retail. Salar also collaborates with other chefs to promote his local chocolate. The goal is to get more and more chefs to use Aton Cacao home-grown, top quality chocolate.
“I believe that our local chocolate can be world-class and we want it to be recognized globally,” he says. He continues to perfect his local chocolate, to develop and share unique recipes using them, and to find ways to better help the cacao farmers. “We need to help equip them with the technology needed to grow good quality cacao so we can make good quality chocolate that is competitive with global brands.”
Aside from Patisserie Le Choux-Colat and Aton Cacao, Salar also runs Chocolatier’s Lab, an artisanal chocolate and pastry studio, where he conducts masterclasses and training sessions. With this school, he seems to have gone full circle—from planting cacao to manufacturing his own chocolate, to using the chocolate to create recipes of delightful pastries and confections to sell in his shop and teach in the school. No one can doubt his passion for chocolate.
It seems all his life’s work has been leading to this moment. He is reaping the rewards from his years of working abroad and his knowledge of cacao gained through his consultancies and actual farming experience. He considers himself fortunate to be able to indulge his creativity while working on his mission to make Filipino chocolate globally recognized for its outstanding quality.
He is happy, but knows his work is not done. He is, however, okay with that because he knows he is on the right path. wf Cris C. Abiva
