His cakes are special. No ordinary chocolate cakes, they are beautiful — and delicious! — entremets. You can see it in the perfectly clean and even chocolate glaze that covers each cake. So perfect that the simplest garnish, even in monochromatic hues, gives his cakes an amazingly elegant finish.

An internationally prized and multi-certified pastry chef who has worked in many countries abroad, chef Ely Salar has set his standards high. He prefers putting together entremets over making regular cakes because, in his own words, "I get to combine and layer different flavors and textures to enhance the flavor profile of my creation."

This is why he only creates and sells entremets at the first ever physical store of his originally Facebook- and Instagram-based online business called Pâtisserie Le Choux-Colat. Opened on 8 July, after more than a year of thriving on digital space, the store can be found at The Podium, and the simple and elegant product display area showcases Pâtisserie Le Choux-Colat's signature entremets, which are multi-layered cakes encased in a beautiful mirror glaze. Every bite offers a symphony of flavors and textures ranging from light to creamy, smooth, and crunchy.

Top favorites are chocolate entremet (made with 64 percent dark chocolate mousse, moist chocolate sponge, homemade crispy wafer crunch with hazelnut praline paste and milk chocolate, encased in a dark chocolate mirror glaze with edible 24K gold leaf accents) and coffee crème brûlée entremet (marries the bold flavor of coffee with sweet crème brûlée, in layers of bitter-sweet coffee and white chocolate cremeux, rich vanilla custard, caramelized sugar, crispy milk chocolate wafer crunch, and moist dark chocolate sponge cake, encased in a silky smooth mirror glaze). For an added touch of elegance, both can be adorned with a delicately handcrafted white chocolate flower on top. Both are now also available in Petit Gateaux or miniature sizes.

Aside from entremets, Pâtisserie Le Choux-Colat offers Gâteaux de Voyage, or travel cakes, in six flavors. These are grouped into two seasons — Season 1 includes Chocolate Rocher (fudge cake with feuilletine hazelnut crunch, topped with chocolate truffles and chocolate praline), banana chocolate (sponge cake with white chocolate streusel, banana ganache and dark chocolate ganache), and almond praline (vanilla pound cake, almond praline and caramelized whipped chocolate ganache); while Season 2 groups together carrot cream cheese (carrot sponge cake layered with rich white chocolate cream cheese, topped with sweet glazed carts and crunchy milk chocolate praline crumbles), Tablea Nut Brittle (tablea chocolate sponge, salted caramel nut brittle and tablea chocolate cremeux), and calamansi Bavarian (calamansi pound cake, topped with candied calamansi, and wrapped in white chocolate).

Pâtisserie Le Choux-Colat is actually the pandemic baby of chef Ely, who hails from Palo, Leyte. Taught by his father, an excellent cook and baker, he started cooking and baking at age 10. When he was 13, his parents opened a bakery, and that's where he learned to make pandesal, pan de coco, and other breads.

"I loved working in our bakery and making bread from simple ingredients. I knew then that I wanted to become a pastry chef," says chef Ely, whose stints abroad honed his talent as a pastry chef and chocolatier to perfection.

Pâtisserie Le Choux-Colat is a showcase of how far he has come, and his handcrafted cakes are his gift, his labor of love, for his fellow Filipinos.