The first thing a Ferrari Rocher does is resist the spoon. It is coated in a crisp shell of dark chocolate and crunchy roasted almonds, so there is a snap before anything soft happens, and then the spoon goes straight through into mousse. That contrast is the entire point of the thing, and it is why it never quite works as a photograph.
What is under the shell
Three layers, built from the bottom up. The base is a flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake, dense and rich rather than airy. On top of that sits a smooth, light mousse that blends Nutella with caramelised hazelnuts, so the nuttiness arrives twice, once toasted and once as a soft, sweet hum. The dark chocolate and almond coating goes around the whole thing. It is one serving, and it is a cabinet item, which means no notice: it is either there when you walk in or it is not.
Made with no added gluten
The Rocher is made with no added gluten, because the cake base is built on ground hazelnuts rather than flour. That is worth being precise about. Because of recent New Zealand food labelling rules we do not claim any of our items are gluten free, only that we have not added any gluten-containing ingredients, and our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur. Nothing here is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
It also contains hazelnuts and almonds, plainly, and we never claim anything is nut free. If someone in your group avoids nuts, the cabinet has other options made with no added gluten: the Lemon Tart, the Romeo & Juliet cheesecake with white chocolate and guava jam, the Pudim Caramel Flan, and the Black & White chocolate mousse. The whole no added gluten cakes and desserts range is worth a look, and we have written about it in more detail here.
What to drink with it
The hazelnut notes are strong enough to hold their own against espresso, so a hot coffee is the straightforward answer. If you would rather stay on chocolate, the dark chocolate thickshake is dark Belgian chocolate blended with vanilla ice cream, in New York style with a toasted marshmallow rim or Paris style with the whipped cream on the side. Most of our hot and cold drinks have a dairy-free milk option, which is the one place on the menu where that is a standing, everyday offer rather than a request.
Two people, two different things
The cabinet rewards a group that orders differently. Come with a friend, take one Rocher and one Apple Pie between you, cut both in half and trade, and you have covered twice the menu for the same money. The tables move, so four to eight of you can sit together, there are two low tables for children and high chairs, and the space is dog friendly with a water bowl and tables you can clip a lead to. The kitchen is open-plan, so there is something to watch while you argue about which one was better. If you want the visit to be an activity rather than a sit-down, the group experiences include a mini-cake decorating challenge for four to twelve guests, running Tuesday to Friday between 11am and 4pm.
Where the Rocher sits on the menu
It belongs to the mini desserts range, which runs from $10 to $16 and is all single servings, so you can build a small tasting for a table without committing to a whole cake. If you want more of the room itself before you come, the patisserie page covers it, and we have written about the chocolate end of the menu at length.
Ordering and visiting
Cabinet items and drinks need no notice, so the Rocher is a walk-in. If you want to be certain of one, order online and the checkout date picker will only offer dates the kitchen can meet, with two days covering most of the range. Pickup is from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city, and we are collection only. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday.
