Before he was known as the quiet force behind the original Dubai chocolate, chef Nouel Catis was a young cook, one who burnt his first recipe. He was 16 and making kare-kare, a nutty savoury-sweet Filipino curry most often cooked with oxtail.
“My siblings told me to never cook again,” he recalls, laughing.
But Catis wasn’t ready to walk away. Instead, he found a different path to cooking.
“I was persistent. I really wanted to be a chef. So I started baking.” The rest is history. Catis's persistence has fuelled an unlikely journey, from working in the kitchens of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab in the early 2000s, to being an in-flight chef at Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the UAE.
But his biggest claim to fame is as the creative mind behind the viral Dubai chocolate, helping bring Fix Dessert Chocolatier founder Sarah Hamouda's idea of a dessert inside a chocolate bar to life. Catis was running his own food consultancy company when he helped formulate the pistachio and kunafa-filled treat that would go on to be imitated by chocolatiers around the world.
“In a business, there is an ideator and an innovator. I belong to the innovator part,” he tells The National. “The idea was brought to me, but it takes a chef to bring it to life. That’s exactly what happened.”
Catis and Hamouda tried hundreds of formulations before settling on the kunafa and pistachio stuffing – neither of them prepared for the sensation it would eventually become.
“The simplest recipe became the sensation,” Catis says. “That was the recipe I least expected to go viral.”
It was the success of Dubai chocolate that spurred Catis to start his own chocolate brand.
A year ago, encouraged by the judges during an appearance on Shark Tank Dubai – the local franchise of the global reality show where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to potential investors – Catis launched Sna’ap.
“People were saying: 'Chef, can you just do your own Dubai chocolate? We want to support you,'” he recalls. “I've always preferred being at the back, supporting brands and letting them shine … now I’m ready to be the brand myself.”
Sna'ap has built a fan following for its city-themed treats, from ube-flavoured Manila Chocolate to cashew-filled Mumbai Chocolate. The goal, Catis says, was to make Sna’ap more than a product.
“It’s a way to tell stories,” he says. “It’s about celebrating different cultures. When you go back home, you bring a piece with you, and people understand what life is like in the UAE.”
Last month, Catis launched Abu Dhabi Chocolate as an homage to the city where he's spent eight years working. His years in the capital have shaped not just his palate, but also his connection to Emirati culture.
“Abu Dhabi has been the cradle for whatever success I've achieved,” he says. “So Abu Dhabi chocolate is really my way of giving back – and giving Abu Dhabi what it deserves in terms of chocolate.
“We’re curating something that’s cultural,” he says, emphasising that his goal was to blend flavours that Emiratis could connect with.
“I wanted to create a story for Abu Dhabi itself, a bar that’s respectful of tradition.”
Abu Dhabi chocolate took nearly a year to perfect, and is a mix of cardamom, saffron, tahina and date syrup – echoing Emirati staples such as Arabic coffee and balaleet.
“Even the older generation of Emiratis who tried it said it reminds them of home,” says Catis. “When you take a bite, it’s like you’re sitting in a coffee shop in the afternoon, with a dallah in one hand and a piece of halawa in the other.
“The older generation can relate to that, while the chocolate’s salted caramel casing makes it relevant even to a younger generation.”
The casing is topped with 24k gold flakes.
“As one collaborator put it: 'If Dubai has pistachio, Abu Dhabi has gold,'” Catis says with a smile.
But long before Dubai chocolate, Catis was has already tasted success with his dessert creations. In 2015, he created Baby Dynamite for Kuwaiti dessert shop Chocomelt, which has branches across the Gulf.
Built from layers of brownie, chocolate fudge, vanilla ice cream and peanut butter caramel ice cake, and finished with hot milk chocolate sauce, the dessert continues to be one of Chocomelt’s bestsellers.
For dessert cafe Lamba, Catis has created the Cheesecake Tower – creamy cheesecake stuffed inside a conical crisp biscuit layer topped with melted Kinder sauce and served with vanilla ice cream. The Insta-worthy creation is still one of the main draw at Lamba branches across the UAE.
With Sna'ap now being exported to markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore, Catis, 50, has grand plans ahead. Launching soon is a cake brand called The Sweet Life and another “game-changing dessert concept” that's still in the works.
He says he's now thinking less like a chocolatier and more like “a curator of delight”.
“I don’t just make chocolate,” he says. “I make stories you can taste.”
Chef Nouel Catis will be at the first Festival of Cake at Expo City Dubai, running from November 28 to December 2. The five-day event will feature celebrity chefs, live entertainment and bake-offs, among other activities. Tickets start at Dh75
