Now You Can Try the Viral Dubai Chocolate at the Getty Villa Museum

Dubai chocolate has made its way into people’s stomachs, TikTok feeds, and now, the Getty Villa Museum’s menu.

For those who haven’t yet come across the crunchy, creamy, nutty treat, Dubai chocolate was introduced to the world in 2021 via the “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” candy bar by Sarah Hamouda, founder of Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai. Knafeh is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made from thin, noodle-like shredded phyllo dough (called kataifi) soaked in syrup and layered with cheese, nuts, or pastes. Hamouda’s candy bar features crunchy knafeh mixed with pistachio cream. The treat, dubbed “Dubai chocolate,” went viral, spreading across the globe with new adapted recipes with a similar combination of flavors.

The sweet’s Mediterranean roots made it a natural choice for the menu at the Villa, and it inspired two new desserts. The Knafeh Pistachio Chocolate Bar is on the concessions menu for this year’s Outdoor Classical Theater production, Oedipus the King, Mama!, on view Thursday–Saturday, September 4–27. It’s made with toasted knafeh, house-made pistachio butter, organic tahini, and dark chocolate. Baklava Cheesecake, made with a brown butter crust, creamy cheesecake, and a honey pistachio kataifi, is now available at the Villa Cafe.

The roots of Dubai chocolate

While kataifi’s origins have been widely debated by researchers, some evidence suggests that phyllo dough was included in various desserts spanning the Maghreb and Al-Andalus regions (present-day southern Europe and North Africa) during the Almohad empire, which was founded during the mid-12th century.

An Andalusian cookbook that contains recipes from the 13th century describes phyllo dough as a soft mash that becomes brittle when dry (it could be resoftened by soaking). Thin sheets of the dough were used for wrapping sweet and savory pastries or as layers in pastries and pies. Phyllo’s slightly transparent and thin consistency is seen today in fan-favorite Mediterranean dishes like spanakopita and baklava.

Rethinking Dubai chocolate for the Getty Villa

Oedipus the King, Mama! is a mash-up of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King and the music of Elvis Presley. The chefs at Getty’s food services provider, Bon Appétit, wanted to craft a menu that blended the themes of the Mediterranean and the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

“We really wanted to tie the food in with the storyline of the play and the theater,” says John Brenning, executive chef at Bon Appétit. “We also talked about the idea of ‘Elvis meets Oedipus,’ because Elvis was all about candy bars.”

Along with connecting Elvis’s songs and energy to the menu, chefs at Bon Appetit also wanted to create dishes that capture the Villa’s unique environment. The Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman antiquities goes hand in hand with kataifi’s history as a main ingredient in food of Mediterranean cultures.

But Getty’s version of Dubai chocolate is a bit different from the mass-market one, says Joanne Ponvanit, pastry chef at Bon Appétit. “I added a gold essence as a finishing touch on the chocolate bar, because when you walk into the Villa, you will see that little gold essence here and there either in the exhibitions or in the decor itself,” she says.

In addition to the gold finishing touch, the chefs locally source their ingredients and work with raw material as much as possible. Their pistachios are ground and toasted to create a more concentrated, denser paste than normal pistachio butter.

So if you haven’t tried Dubai chocolate yet, or you’re looking for a more unique version that blends Sophocles’s Greek heritage and Elvis’s love for sweets, check out the Knafeh Pistachio Chocolate Bar at this year’s Outdoor Classical Theater production and the Baklava Cheesecake at the Villa Cafe. Happy snacking!