Hello!

My name is Nico Alkalay and I am a 7th semester Baking & Pastry Student here at the CIA in
Hyde Park and I am proud to present my submission for the Kikkoman Recipe Contest:
Kikkoman Soy-Glazed Bacon Nut Baklava

This year we’re celebrating Kikkoman’s 50th year of brewing soy sauce in the US so to
commemorate this incredible milestone, I really wanted to think outside of the box to not only
showcase my creative flair as a chef but to also showcase the immense versatility that Kikkoman
soy sauce has. The decision to make a baklava stems from my middle eastern background and
the desire to fuse a traditional middle eastern dessert with iconic Japanese flavors in a unique and
innovative dessert that incorporates soy sauce as a hero ingredient. This fusion dessert really
blends the sweet and nutty layers of traditional baklava with the umami richness of soy sauce.

I was so excited to begin developing my recipe and then when I read through the guidelines of
the contest there was a specific rule that stuck out to me…..
”Entrees must include chicken, pork, lamb, or beef.”

This threw me for a loop because obviously meat isn’t customary in dessert but instead of letting
this stop me from following through on my concept, I decided to embrace this challenge and use
it as an opportunity to elevate my dessert even more. I decided to incorporate bacon into the dish
because the combination of the bacon's smokiness with the rich umaminess of the kikkoman soy
sauce and the sweetness and nuttiness of baklava, it should create an ultimate flavor experience
that is so crazy and unique that it just might work.

I’ve made baklava thousands of times but for this special baklava I decided to add some soy
sauce candied bacon into the nut mix as well as toasted sesame seeds to compliment the soy
flavor. After baking my baklava til golden, I doused that baby with my delicious kikkoman soy
sauce & honey simple syrup.

Every great plated dessert needs a few additional elements to really elevate the hero of the dish
and these elements allowed me to add some extra textures and flavors to my plate. As this plate
is meant to celebrate kikkoman, a japanese born company, I wanted to continue to celebrate
Japanese flavors so I made a white chocolate & wasabi ganache and a sakura cherry blossom ice
cream to add two new flavor notes in spicy and floral as well as to get some creaminess on the
plate. I also wanted to utilize kikkoman soy sauce in one more way because let’s be honest it’s
just too tasty to not play around with a little more, so I made a simple caramel sauce and
incorporated the kikkoman soy sauce to cut through the sweetness.
I assembled the plate by splattering the kikkoman caramel sauce, placed three beautiful slices of
the kikkoman soy sauce and honey baklava, piped some of that spicy sweet wasabi ganache,
placed a few pieces of that smoky kikkoman glazed bacon and finally finished it with a beautiful
quenelle of that homemade sakura cherry blossom ice cream. and TADA: My Kikkoman Soy
Glazed Bacon Nut Baklava. Honestly I was a little scared that this was a concept that would
work in my head but not in reality but when I tasted it I was sooo impressed with the delicious
complexity of this dessert. It has so many unique flavors and deep richness thanks to that
Kikkoman, and oh my god it was just so tasty.

Thank you Kikkoman for presenting me with this fun challenge to play around with and I hope
you pick my dish to represent your 50th year of brewing soy sauce in the US!