Filipino Chef Unleashes $100 24-Karat Gold Donut on the World

Björn Delacruz sells the 24-karat gold-leafed donuts at Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Manila Social Club restaurant, where he is executive chef, reports Forbes.

Delacruz’s $100 donuts gained a degree of internet infamy after uploading a picture of his creation to Instagram and then through a First We Feast profile.

The donuts, which can bought for $1,000 per dozen, are made by hand. Delacruz uses pâte à choux, a typical pastry dough, made from purple ube flour. Purple ube is purple yam from the Philippines, where he was born.

After he fries the doughnuts, he fills them with purple ube mousse and Cristal jelly. He then glazes the doughnuts and covers them in gold leaf.

“The reason I chose Cristal over another type of champagne is because Cristal has really great honey notes which goes great with ube (purple yam),” he told First We Feast. “For me, it’s shiny and it’s golden, but it comes together to create a really great doughnut, as crazy as that sounds. There was a time when I was eating this doughnut while drinking Cristal, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is a great combo!'”

All of the ingredients come together to create a golden, flaky doughnut with a creamy, purple filling.

Delacruz says he made 20 deliveries of golden doughnuts last Friday to mostly customers purchasing a single doughnut each, with some ordering a full dozen. He says most people who buy his doughnuts want them for a special occasion, like birthdays and proposals.

“People like to celebrate their loved ones in an extreme fashion. They want to do something bordering on ridiculous. They do something with complete passion,” Delacruz told Forbes. “This wasn’t meant to be a big money maker, it was meant to celebrate.”