The Chocolate Thread

[rollhead]

[rollhead]

For great recipes involving chocolate, this is the go-to guy:

http://www.nickmalgieri.com/

[Brian Olewnick]

Mexican ancho and chipotle chili peppers, Ceylon cinnamon and dark chocolate.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Mexican ancho and chipotle chili peppers, Ceylon cinnamon and dark chocolate.

Wow. My mouth is watering just reading this.

[Tanager]

Now this is a thread I can get behind.

[Gentle Giant]

[Tanager]

85% is too bitter, but I want >=60%.

[tippy]

Originally Posted by Tanager

Now this is a thread I can get behind.

Yes! I support this thread 100%

[Tanager]

Dr. Dave, please tell me you've been here?

The Chocolate Fetish, Asheville, NC's very own absolutely fucking incredible chocolatier.

[rollhead]

Back a few years ago, I got a wild hair up my ass and decided that I wanted to learn how to cook. So, I took a part-time job as a prep-cook (for $8 an hour) at this place:
http://www.wheatleigh.com/

And took some baking and cooking classes at this place:
http://www.ciachef.edu/

The Wheatleigh's pastry chef and folks at the CIA swore by this chocolate:
http://www.valrhona.com/

It's good stuff, but I am not sure it justifies the cost since there is so much other good chocolate out there.

Anyone out their with a religious fervor for Valrhona?

[rollhead]

For a GREAT pecan brownie recipe, check out this book.

[rollhead]

These are chocolate mice from L.A. Burdick in New Hampshire.
http://www.burdickchocolate.com/

One year I ordered a box of especially made chocolate gerbils as a Valentine's Gift for Steve(thelil).

I didn't ask where he put them.

[Jon Abbey]

for bars, Valrhona. for filled ones, Neuhaus. if it gets better than that, I'm not aware of it.

[Dan G]

Recently I've been buying chocolate from a local chocolatier who sells single plantation chocolate. It's quite interesting to taste the difference between, for instance, a Cuban chocolate (light, woody taste, great with a lighter red wine like a California zin) and a Madagascar (smoky and earthy, pairs well with scotch or a good Aussie shiraz). He has 14 different single plantation chocolates, that can be bought in small bars or made into truffles. These also have his own home-made ganache filling, of sometimes bizarre combinations: there's a pear/ginger/lemongrass filling in milk chocolate that is amazing with a sauvignon blanc or semillion.

He's also very good at recommending what wines or scotches go with each one. It was great before Christmas, when I was buying gifts for some of my colleagues and contractors at work. There's a good wine shop next door, so I picked up various bottles, pairs of suitable Reidel glasses, then took the wine into the chocolate shop to have him put together a box paired specifically to each bottle.

[jazzy mary]

I've always loved chocolate. Unlike a lot of chocolate connoisseurs, though, I prefer milk chocolate to dark. Lilac chocolate is the best in the NY area. Has anyone tried it?

An old au-pair of ours gave me a box of Jacques Torres chocolate for Christmas this year. It was really good. Every piece was a unique pure taste sensation.

Note to Dan G.: Can I get on your Christmas list!!

[Doc Martin]

I'm partial to:

Fauchon
442 Park Avenue (at 56th Street)

http://www.fauchon.com/index1.php

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Doc Martin

I'm partial to:

Fauchon
442 Park Avenue (at 56th Street)

http://www.fauchon.com/index1.php

Which streetcorner in Manhattan is this one?

[Doc Martin]

Originally Posted by rollhead

Which streetcorner in Manhattan is this one?

Corner of Walk and Don't Walk

[Jason Bivins]

Brian, YES! We are Vosges junkies in our household. Have you tried the Naga bar yet?

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by Jason Bivins

Brian, YES! We are Vosges junkies in our household. Have you tried the Naga bar yet?

Yeah, I tried all three (Black Pearl is the other, I think). They're all good but, for me, the combo of intense dark choc, chiles and cinnamon is fairly close to perfection.

Jon, I was wondering if you'd found a better filled choc than Neuhaus yet. Guess not! Their only problem is being too pretty to eat.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Jon, I was wondering if you'd found a better filled choc than Neuhaus yet. Guess not! Their only problem is being too pretty to eat.

I haven't been in much of a chocolate phase recently, partly because nothing I can find in NY is really fully satisfying (although I bet those Teuscher champagne truffles kick ass). the Neuhaus are shipped in from Belgium usually weekly, they usually arrive on Thursdays, I think. so if you get them from the Upper West Side store that day, they're pretty fresh, but it's still not the same as Neuhaus stores in Europe. I got some assorted truffles from them for our anniversary in December, which were very good but not mindblowing, and at those prices, they really should be mindblowing.

[Jon Abbey]

and Jacques Torres is massively overrated, really not that good at all. I don't get the hype there.

[bluenoter]

Dark chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 70 percent is a cancer fighter. That's posted right on the wall at the Lombardi Cancer Center (at Georgetown University Hospital here in DC)!

Some offline friends, bless their hearts, give me dark chocolate bars from time to time. I'm sure that's why I'm doing well so far. (No need to post about that, kids. I know you wish me well, and thank you!!)

[amfortas]

[Enforcer]

Fixed.

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Yeah, I tried all three (Black Pearl is the other, I think). They're all good but, for me, the combo of intense dark choc, chiles, cinnamon and crushed Chrysomelidae beetle is fairly close to perfection.

[Enforcer]

I like the chocolates at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, especially the filled ones.

[Brian Olewnick]

Well, I have had chocolate covered ants (who hasn't?) but not since I was a kid. My dad foisted 'em on me. Maybe grasshoppers too? Need to look into this again, obviously.

[rollhead]

I had to do some checking into Vosges just to see if it was legit.

According to its website, Katrina Markoff, the Vosges chocolate babe, has to massage and put some Kama Sutra magic on every cocoa bean that comes through their Chicago factory.
http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/WhoWeAre.aspx




Owner/Chocolatier, Katrina Markoff, personally chooses every spice, flower and chocolate that is flown into our Chicago kitchen.

Markoff utilizes the original methods of French confectionery artistry which she learned during her training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Having graduated with the Grand Diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu and having worked extensively in France, Spain, Italy, Southeast Asia and Australia her collections of haut-chocolats have great, worldly inspirations. Some of her experiences include apprenticeships with exceptional pastry chef, Christophe Felder, at the Hotel Crillon in Paris and the immensely creative team of Fernando and Alberto Adria at El Bulli in Spain. After her time spent in Europe, she explored the cuisines, spices, wines and cheeses of Asia and Australia working in many restaurants and graduating from various culinary schools including The Oriental Cooking School in Bangkok.

Inspired by her global apprenticeships, Vosges truffles have exotic influences of an 'East meets West' theme. The infusions of rare spices and flowers combined with premium chocolate give a delicate balance of flavor, leaving you with a layered and lingering sensation of spice and chocolate. A true 'haut-chocolat' experience.

I think I am buying a bar or two, ASAP.

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by jazzy mary

Unlike a lot of chocolate connoisseurs, though, I prefer milk chocolate to dark.

Me, too. And I love white chocolate, which will probably get me banned me from this thread.

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Me, too. And I love white chocolate, which will probably get me banned me from this thread.

Chocowuss!