German Sausage in Chocolate? Chef Chele González Wants You to Try It

German sausage in chocolate shortbread? Dark beer in cheesecake? Chef Chele González has been playing with the boundaries of dessert, and you have until October 23 to try the results.

For a limited-time Miele Innovation Series collaboration, Chele has created three desserts that bring together German influences, Spanish traditions, and ingredients familiar to Filipino diners. There is also a savory pastrami flatbread. All four creations are available at the Miele Showroom at Twenty Five Seven BGC, but the chocolate shortbread is the one most likely to make you look twice at the menu.

Three desserts worth trying before they’re gone

The most unexpected of the three combines almond sablé, Auro 77% dark chocolate, caramelized German sausage, and silky toffee. The sausage is tucked inside, its saltiness cutting through the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel.

Chele points to the Spanish tradition of pairing chocolate with olive oil and salt. “Everybody knows that in Spain, we have chocolate with olive oil and salt,” he said at the launch. The sausage takes that sweet-and-savory interplay in a less familiar direction. Whether you expect to like it or not, it is the creation to try first.

Chele gives his Burnt Basque cheesecake a German twist with dark beer and pretzel crumble. He lived in San Sebastián when the style associated with La Viña was gaining popularity, and later adapted the recipe for his own creations.

For this version, the cheesecake is baked in its own container, a technique Chele says helps produce an even, gooey texture. The dark beer brings malty notes, while the pretzel adds salt and crunch.

This is Chele’s favorite of the three. Made with local coffee, the creamy cheesecake is topped with crisp honeycomb. Coffee’s bitterness offsets the richness of the cheese, while the honeycomb adds sweetness and crunch.

At the launch, Chele reflected that “the most simple things are the most difficult to be done.” The comment speaks to the challenge of making a few familiar ingredients work together without one overwhelming the others. Here, the details matter: the coffee must hold its own against the creamy base, and the honeycomb must provide a distinct crunch.

Why these combinations?

The collaboration draws on Miele’s German heritage and Chele’s Spanish roots, with local ingredients also featuring in the creations. The aim, Chele said, was to make something “unique and unexpected” while bringing the brand’s values and his own culinary background into the kitchen.

Chocolate, he admits, is not his usual specialty. Although he has worked on desserts in Michelin-starred restaurants, the Miele team challenged him to explore chocolate in a different way. The sausage shortbread is the clearest result: an almond biscuit, dark chocolate, and caramel, with an ingredient more commonly associated with a savory plate tucked inside.

The fourth creation, the Pastrami Sauerkraut Flatbread, shifts the focus to savory. Inspired by coca, the traditional Catalan flatbread, it combines Chele’s signature pastrami with sauerkraut, cheese, tomato, and arugula. The pastrami takes about a month to prepare, involving draining, roasting, and smoking.

This experimentation fits a career built on moving between disciplines and culinary traditions. Chele studied in Bilbao before honing his craft in some of Spain’s most renowned restaurants, then made the Philippines his home. His work here has earned international recognition: Gallery by Chele and Asador Alfonso each received one MICHELIN Star in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide Philippines 2025, while Gallery by Chele also received the country’s only MICHELIN Green Star

Beyond the kitchen, Chele has worked in marketing, pursued music and DJing, and developed concepts including Burnt Basque Cheesecake by Chele. The common thread is a willingness to keep learning and to revisit things he already knows from a different angle. That is also the idea behind this collaboration: take ingredients and dishes people recognize, then give them a reason to reconsider them.

Try the Miele Innovation Series creations before October 23. The limited-time menu offers three desserts with very different personalities, from the deliberately surprising sausage-and-chocolate shortbread to the more restrained coffee and honeycomb cheesecake. The pastrami flatbread gives those who prefer savory something to try, too.