The Art of Tasting Chocolate

A SHOCKING CHOCOLATE PAIRING

I have used many words to describe the chocolate pairing experiences I have had over the years.  Fruity. Smokey. Citrus. Divine. I have never used the words ‘fungal’ and ‘shocking’. Until last Friday night, that is.  Our friends, T & P presented us with a bottle of Hanahato Kijoshu Sake.  This aged sake (eight years) has a beautiful amber color, the taste of a dry sherry and the nose of fungus gone amok.  I have never sniffed and then tasted any liquid for which the nose had no relationship to the taste. I poured each of us a small portion. We all took a sniff and then started laughing. Could anything that smelled this bizarre have any redeeming culinary value? After a couple of sips it was clear that we had to try this with some really good chocolate, as suggested by Beau Timkin at TRUE SAKE . I went into my chocolate stash and pulled out a bar of  AMANO CHOCOLATE'S Jembrana 70% Dark Chocolate.  We each took a small bite of chocolate, allowed it melt for a moment on the tongue and then took a sip of Kijoshu.  That is when this, excuse the analogy, magical mystical mushroom trip began. The sake brought out the cherry in the Jembrana.  What cherry, you Jembrana fans might ask?  Exactly.  Alchemy and magic at work.

HOW TO NAVIGATE A FOOD SHOW

The more often I go to the Fancy Food Shows, the more select I become.  In the early years I would eat myself silly.  Sure, I would love a hand full of jelly beans with that Polish Sausage Sandwich. And could I have an espresso to wash it all down with?

After years of acid indigestion which seemed to linger for weeks after the show I knew that I needed a different strategy. So, one year I decided to limit myself to the International Aisles.  This showed a lot of promise. The olive oils alone could take a half a day to taste. The Italians loved pouring wine. And the cheeses from the British Isles!  I ate so much Neal’s Yard cheddar one year that I swear my heart started skipping beats. But this was still too much.  It would be one thing if I was the food buyer for a gourmet food shop and was trying to stock the shelves.  I was just an inquisitive chef roaming the aisles for inspiration.

The narrowing of my tasting focus happened naturally the year that I started this website.  I tried all the chocolate confections.  ALL OF THEM.  It took two days.  But at least they were all in the chocolate family. There are a lot of confections that should be avoided at all costs.  However, I couldn’t report on what I thought was the best unless I tried them all, right?  Down one aisle.  Up another. Masterpieces of construction from Spanish confectioners were sampled beside hand dipped artisan chocolates from Oregon.  Chocolate with chilies.  Chocolate with cheese.  Chocolate with smoked pork products. I traded acid indigestion for a near diabetic coma. 

The 2008 Fancy Food Show was held in San Diego, not San Francisco.  The year off gave me a break to think about what I was trying to achieve in my tasting.  Was it breadth or depth?  Did I want to know about every fine and/or wacky chocolate combination on the planet?  Or did I want to winnow it down to the essence of chocolate?  Pure chocolate in a bar.  Not flowing from a fountain.  Not shaped into the Eiffel Tower.  Not paired with Cabernet Sauvignon and poured over ice cream.  No. I turned down an event where the host wanted only chocolate and champagne pairings.  No.  Not for me.  What I want now is pure chocolate.  The essence. Stripped down and bare. No inferior chocolate hiding behind nuts and chilies and cheese and pork.

So with that criteria, I went a’tasting.  And this is what I found. I tasted only pure chocolate.  These are my favorites in no particular order:

MICHEL CLUIZEL : Oh, those French! So elegant. So refined. A guided tasting of five ‘1ers Crus de Plantations’ plain chocolates took less than ten minutes yet transformed me into a Cluizel groupie. This was one of the best guided tastings I have ever experienced.  Starting with Los Ancones – Santo Domingo – 67% cacao, we worked our way around a tasting map that took us to Venezuela, Madagascar, New Guinea and Sao Tome.  

AMANO ARTISAN CHOCOLATE : Art Pollard always continues to amaze.  This year he added a fourth chocolate bar to his repetoire.  JEMBRANA, 70% minimum cacao, is produced from beans that Art sourced from the Regency of Jembrana, on the southwest coast of the Indonesian island of Bali.  This is a gentle bar of chocolate. Nice fruitiness with a hint of nuts and a background of vanilla that rounds out the flavors.

TAZA CHOCOLATE : This was the ‘wow’ moment for me at the show.  Stone ground chocolate so the texture is rough, not smooth like chocolate that has been conched. Only four ingredients: cacao beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter and whole vanilla beans. When I tasted the 80% Dark Stone Ground Organic Chocolate Bar I could taste cherries.  Added? No.  I was just tasting the terroir of the beans. 

If all this talk of chocolate has you drooling then you won’t want to miss the SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE SALON  which is happening this Saturday, March 21.  This year it is being held in a larger venue than in past years.  More room to roam around in a chocolate coma.  I will be there as a member of the tasting panel. See you there!

IS CHOCOLATE RECESSION PROOF?

What compels people, especially in this current economy, to pay $55 to watch a guy stand in front of a room and talk for two hours? Chocolate.  But, most importantly, chocolate as interpreted by Michael Recchiuti.  Over 20 people sat in a cool room (ambient temperature 65 degrees) in an industrial building in San Francisco this afternoon and watched while Michael demonstrated how to temper chocolate, how to form a tuile, how to make a perfect ganache and transform it into a truffle and what to do with unhopped barley-malt syrup:Oh, yeah, and then there were those triple chocolate cookies and chocolate bark.

I have taken two other classes from Michael.  He did a similar class to this one when his cookbook first came out.  There was also an amazing chocolate/wine pairing class that he did with the Ferry Market Wine Merchants two years ago.  I take Michael’s classes for two reasons. He has an alchemist’s aptitude for combing flavors (i.e. ruby red grapefruit and tarragon and for controlling fire. As I watched him make the Burnt Caramel Base(a signature Recchiuti Confections flavor) I was reminded of one of my cooking school chefs who taught me how to burn onions for the best onion soup.  It was at that moment, years ago, that I understood where flavor is developed.  It is developed at that precipice where one might panic and turn back. It is the moment when you think the onion might be burning or the croissant is getting too dark (see Tartine Bakery), or the sugar is about to burn beyond recognition.  Good chefs brown.  Great chefs burn.

For upcoming classes check out their website. The questionnaire passed out at the end of the class asked which topics we would be interested in for future demos.  I vote for Chocolate Pairings, Savory & Sweet Chocolate and Demos involving chocolate and other non-chocolate items (herbs, salts).  

Bye Bye Scharffen Berger

When I heard the news , I felt as though someone had told me that a good friend was moving away.  I was shocked especially since just the week before, at the Fancy Food Show, the local Scharffen Berger folks confidently told me that business was good and ‘chocolate is recession proof’. It is clear that their bosses waited until after the show to make the announcement. Am I surprised that they are whisking our own Scharffen Berger away?  Not really. When some one as big as Hershey’s goes shopping to create a portfolio of special chocolates and confections to create an Artisan division we can’t be too surprised when they eventually decide to take their purchases home, literally. California is a very different place to do business.  I once worked for a San Francisco cooking school that was purchased by a company based in Mississippi.  Talk about culture shock.  They kept sending us recipes that included cups and cups of mayonnaise and cream of mushroom soup.  They didn’t know why we wanted to keep the recipes that include crème fraiche.  I got out of there as soon as I could.

The discussion of whether or not the founders of Scharffen Berger sold out is moot and boring. Would you, could you turn down millions of dollars for a business you had worked hard to build? Nevertheless, this latest turn of events just doesn’t feel right. I think that we in the Bay Area are offended by the buying up local food businesses because we have a proprietary attitude toward our bounty of food riches. We are the ultimate Culinary Benefactors. We pride ourselves in recognizing a quality product when we taste it. It is our enthusiasm and our dollars that help these businesses to succeed.  Employees take a chance and hop on board because they are told that they are on the ground floor of something exciting and new. They work just a little bit harder.  And in the end, they are rewarded with a severance package and a not so chocolate-covered future. 

So you want to be a food writer...

It is rare that a food writer would presume to also offer financial advice.  While I don’t pretend to be able to tell you where you should invest what is left of your stock portfolio, I can tell you that the best place to invest the money you have left is in your own education.  Now is the time to figure out how to prepare for the future when the money starts to flow again.  I know from experience that this, too, shall pass. After a particularly rough financial time during the early 90’s I vowed that if I couldn’t read it, eat it or wear it I wouldn’t spend money on it. Because, in the end, they can’t take your education away from you and I have yet to see someone try to repossess a meal or my Blahniks. 

 While the current economic climate might preclude you from dropping $350 for lunch at Per Se or $800 on a new pair of Pradas, I do know the one place to invest $425 with a guaranteed return.  And it is only one click away.  Enroll in David Leite’s Eight-Week Online Introduction to Food Writing Course. I took my first food writing class from David in 2005 and I can still hear his voice every time I write a piece.  Take this class if you have ever toyed with the idea of becoming a food writer.  It will give you a real life education in real time.  And it is worth every penny.

 

one last word...

It has been quite a year, dear readers. The Muse couldn’t let 2008 slip past without getting a few last words in. I am happy to say that for every low this year there has been an equally great high.  A rollercoaster comes to mind. I know the same has been true for many of my friends.  Parents have died.  A baby was born.  A house was sold. A new career was launched in the same month that a job disappeared.  An engagement, a wedding and new friendships have been formed.  And what have I concluded after such a tumultuous year? That in the end the only thing that truly matters is love.

May the New Year bring you the comfort of love, the luck of good health and the joy of a meal or two or three shared with loved ones.  See you in 2009!

Jane at the Top of the Mark

My friend Jane died three years ago this month. She went peacefully as her two sons,  Jim and David, and I sat with her. After such a momentous event it is hard to know what to do next. It seemed odd to just say good-bye to each other and to go our separate ways. We had witnessed a life passing. It seemed appropriate to find a way to celebrate her life in a way that she would have enjoyed. It was David who suggested the Top of the Mark at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Of course. Very San Francisco. Very Nob Hill. Cocktails with a view. I could almost hear Jane’s husky laugh at the thought of it.
It is not easy to find a cab in Pacific Heights on a Friday night at 7:00 p.m. so we hopped on the #1 California bus and climbed Sacramento Street to Nob Hill. Somehow arriving at the Mark Hopkins by public transportation helped to add another surreal element to the already ‘out of body’ evening. There is a very convenient elevator in the lobby of the Mark Hopkins Hotel marked “Top of the Mark” which whisks you to the 19th floor. The Maitre d’ greeted us as we walked out of the elevator at 7:45.
“May I help you, sir?” he asked.
“Yes”, replied David, “We would like a table for three for just a drink”.
“Well, sir, as you can see we have a dress code after 8:00” he told us as he glanced down at my athletic shoes and Jim’s jeans.
“Our mother has just died this evening” explained David “and we would like to toast her memory. We will not stay long.”
“I will see what I can do” the Maitre d’ replied and disappeared into the next room.
Less than one minute later he returned and escorted us to the best table in the house. We had a perfect, unobstructed view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the City and the setting sun. David and Jim ordered big martinis. I ordered what Jane and I would always drink together over steaks: a double Jack Daniels with a water back. With our cocktails in hand we started to reminisce about some of Jane’s favorite things to do in San Francisco...
Jane was my link to the elegant San Francisco of my childhood - circa the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Vertigo’. A day with Jane in San Francisco would start with breakfast at Sear’s Pancakes on Powell Street.  It was important to have a hearty breakfast because who knew when you would be able to grab your next meal?  Then we would walk down Powell Street to shop at I. Magnin’s in Union Square where she had a charge account. We always primped ourselves before walking through the main floor of this very elegant department store which involved reapplying our lipstick and making sure our hair looked good. I referred to crossing the main floor of I. Magnin’s as ‘running the gauntlet’.  Perfectly made up sales women stood behind their respective make-up counters and would eye each customer up and down as they walked by. If you could make it to the elevator bank in the back of the store without a sales woman suggesting that perhaps you needed ‘a little color’, it was going to be a good day. However, there was a particular shade of pink lipstick by Christian Dior that Jane would always stock up on so we had to make at least one stop.  Then we would proceed to the elevators which were operated by middle aged women wearing tasteful beige knit dresses, proper pumps and a gold brooch that was an insignia of the I. Magnin initials.  The first stop would be the fifth floor to use the Powder Room.  Any woman who ever shopped in San Francisco until the store closed in 1993 will tell you how amazing the Powder Room was.  It was a huge room paneled in dark green marble.  The doors to each private, marble lined commode  were opened for you by the female attendant.  She also handed you a cloth hand towel to dry your hands and a sample of pink hand lotion and sent you on your way. Jane’s next stop would be Mister Lee’s on Jones Street to get her hair done.  Then back down the hill for a cocktail in the old Redwood Room of the Clift Hotel and occasionally an evening at the ballet or a jazz concert...
Jane lived in Northern California and thought nothing of loading her four children into her navy blue Volvo and driving down to the City for the day so that they could see what her favorite city was all about. She instilled a love of San Francisco in Jim and David and it seemed appropriate to watch the sun set over the city she loved so much on the day she passed. 
When we asked the waiter for the check we were told that the drinks were on the house. Jane would have loved that.

Cupcakes are the Puppies of the Food World

They oohed. They aahed. The cable car conductor exclaimed (I never use the word ‘exclaimed’ but there is no other way to describe it) that he was sure there were enough for everyone, didn’t I think so? When I presented the tray to my friends they shrieked with delight. What could evoke such spontaneous glee? A Baked Alaska? A two story high souffle? A serving of flaming crepes Suzette? No, dear reader. Just a tray of cupcakes. White cupcakes in heart patterned paper cups topped with pale pink frosting and sparkles to be exact. Nothing that I thought was particularly brilliant culinary-wise but apparently I was wrong. Witnessing this response immediately reminded me of the days when our Boxer dogs were puppies. Take a puppy anywhere and you will not be alone for long. You could be dressed as the Grim Reaper and people will drop to their knees in front of you to play with a puppy. People will do almost the same thing when presented with a cupcake.
My earliest cupcake memory goes back to nursery school.  Yes, I can remember back that far.  This nursery school was a co-op which now seems very progressive for what I would describe as my very conservative suburban hometown across the bay from more progressive San Francisco.  It was a wonderful school run by a woman named ‘Miss Lorna’.  Birthdays were celebrated with a cake (which your mother was expected to provide) as well as cupcakes.  This was before the days of concern over children’s sugar intake, obviously.  (I can honestly say that I don’t remember one overweight child in my class).  Anyway...you received a slice of cake to eat at once and a wrapped cupcake to take home with you.  Two cupcakes if you had a sibling.  These were carefully wrapped in wax paper and packed away in your lunch box for the trip home. 
So where did the cupcake come from? It may be that the name comes from the measurement of ingredients needed to produce a cupcake.  Just as the pound cake is a result of a pound of butter and pound of flour the cupcake required a cup of flour, a cup of butter and so on.  You get the idea.  Also, these small cakes were originally baked in earthenware cups.  Therefore the small cup shape and size and the name. Cupcakes were mostly confined to children’s parties, the Hostess Cupcake and Saturday School Bake Sales and mediocre bakeries until 1996.  That was the year that the Magnolia Bakery opened in New York.  They created a cupcake buzz (lines out the door).  And then all the buzz needed was a nudge from an appearance on ‘Sex in the City’ and it became a cupcake craze.  Former employees left and opened more cupcake bakeries.  Then SPRINKLES opened in Bevery Hills.  More lines out the door.  So what is the big deal, anyway? Why have people become so possessed by a sweet treat that they are willing to wait in a line that winds down the street?
I have been aware of this cupcake phenomena for a few years now and am surprised that it has lasted as long as it has. I have tried a couple of the most au courant versions, organic no less, from very good bakeries and found them dry and flavorless.
So what is it exactly that people are reacting to if not the flavor and texture? I think it must be a fond childhood memory of Room Mothers (remember those?) baking a batch to be distributed during the Valentine’s Day party. But the appeal here goes beyond the concept of comforting food. People do not giggle when a plate of macaroni and cheese is placed in front of them. A cupcake is about the compact cuteness of something that fits into the palm of your hand that does not require a fork and knife and will sometimes even be dyed pale pink or blue and often leaves a speck of frosting on the tip of your nose.Bigger than a cookie but not quit as big as a slice of cake.  And you can eat it with your hands.  Can’t do that so easily with a slice of cake which requires a plate and a fork. Not culinary brilliance but maybe folks don’t need food brilliance in their lives. What people seem to be craving is whimsy and silliness and a chance to shriek with delight over a simple pink cupcake.  It may also have something to do with portion control.

So what do I do when I need a cupcake fix?  I bake up a batch of cupcakes using a Duncan Hines Yellow Cake mix but I add a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter.  For frosting I recommend the recipe that appears on the side of the C & H Sugar Powdered Sugar box.  Use sweet butter and add a generous pinch of salt (finely grained sea salt is best, also known as ‘fleur de sel’.  Delicious!

Mother's Day Buffet

My birthday sometimes falls on Mother’s Day. In the past this has meant that it is the Moms and I lining up at the hostess stand for Sunday Brunch at the fancy restaurant. Not my mom, however. My mom was born during the Depression and she felt that spending a lot of money on what was essentially just breakfast food was a total waste. Unless, of course, it was a buffet. Now a buffet spoke to her. It said ‘you will not leave hungry, you will get your money’s worth’. My mom’s favorite place for Mother’s Day brunch was the Crown Room of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The view and abundance of food was quite the spectacle to behold: silver bowls heaped with fresh red strawberries and mounds of whipped cream. The carving station held a huge baron of beef, a whole roasted turkey and ham on the bone. There was a station with omelettes being made to order. And for those of us who love pancakes there was an interesting concoction that I am sure was inspired by the classic English Trifle. At least a dozen pancakes about twelve inches in diameter were spread with a thick layer of raspberry jam. They were then stacked on top of each other in a silver bowl and topped with whipped cream. This gooey delicious mess was my favorite. My mom was crazy about the cold seafood display complete with an ice sculpture of the Golden Gate Bridge. I can still see her plate heaped with pink prawns and crab legs.

I can’t see an ad for a buffet without thinking of her. I wrote the piece below in her honor three years ago. I am reprinting it now because she passed away a few months ago and she is on my mind daily. She reminded me often that she would not always be around and that she thought about her own mother every day. I now know exactly what she meant.

My Mother’s favorite ‘dining experience’ has always been the ‘buffet’. As a child of The Depression, I think she is overcome with joy and relief when she sees dish after dish spread out before her with a sign that reads “Take all you can eat but eat all that you take”. Because it was a good way for a single mother in the 60’s to feed her child and herself inexpensively, my childhood was full of these buffets or, as we called them in San Leandro, “Smorgy’s” (short for smorgasbord?). Our favorites were the “The Pipers” on MacArthur Boulevard and the less expensive “Perry Boy’s Smorgy” on the other side of town in the Marina area.
Both restaurants were dimly lit except for the bright spotlights that hung low over the buffet tables. A tall stack of hot, damp white plates fresh out of the dishwasher marked the beginning of these groaning boards. After years of eating at various buffets I became a smorgasbord strategist, I knew that it was important to find a cooler plate or my Jell-O selections would melt before I got back to the table. Also, it was important to approach in stages. A plate heaped too high would find your slice of roast beef swimming in a pink pool of beet juice and salad dressing before you could eat through to the bottom layer.
The first trip to the buffet was for salad – chopped iceberg lettuce, slices of canned beets (the fancier Piper’s served them sliced julienne) all smothered under a big ladle of creamy blue cheese dressing. If the plate was cold I could load up on the lime Jell-O and cottage cheese mold. The second trip was for hot food – canned corn, mashed potatoes, gravy and crispy fried chicken. Finally a trip to the dessert table where two HUGE clear plastic Melmac bowls full of yellow pudding and brown pudding were sunk into a bed of crushed ice. You had to pay extra for drinks so we drank water.
After dessert, my Mother always made one last trip to the buffet. This is when she loaded up her plate with fried chicken thighs and legs. Back at the table, she would look around the restaurant to make sure that no one was watching as she wrapped each piece of greasy chicken in the white paper napkins she had hidden in her black patent leather purse. Still smiling, she snapped her purse shut, asked the waiter for the check and paid the cashier on the way out. Did the waiter see what was going on? She was never busted. No one ever said, ‘Excuse me Madam, hand over the chicken’. I remember being embarrassed but I also remember how fun it was to empty out her purse when we got home. And how delicious that chicken was. I hope that all they saw was a pretty young woman and her child dining alone. But if they did see her ‘slight of hand’ I know that they would have understood it for what it was. Not stealing, but rather just a single mother trying to figure out how to feed herself and her child one more day.

THE WELL STOCKED DESSERT PANTRY: INSTANT POST TAX STRESS RELIEF

In the next few months I plan to give you an idea of what the New Pantry of the 21st Century should look like. Some of it will seem exotic (hearts of palm), some of it is a matter of personal choice (only Tellicherry black peppercorns, please) but all of it will enable you to fix something delicious fast.  Let's be honest - life in the kitchen is mostly about 'I am so hungry right now I could eat that tuna right out of the can with my bare hands' and 'Have I really spent $100 on take-out food this week?'.  You need a PAR list of foods that have a long shelf life and can be combined to serve up something delicious on short notice.
I am inspired by my long time friend, NA, who has always said we should write a cookbook together.  She and I have had hour long conversations on the phone about what a well stocked pantry must contain. She speaks from experience. She is the first person I had ever met that always had heavy cream in her refrigerator ‘just in case’.  A little background: NA came of age in New York City during the Swingin’ Sixties.  With a husband in advertising and her job as a booker for one of the top modeling agencies in the country, every evening held the potential of a party and she was always prepared. I imagine her hosting many an impromptu cocktail party at their apartment on Riverside Drive before departing for dinner at La Pavilion.  In her honor we are going to start with the Dessert Pantry for two reasons.  NA and I are both confirmed Chocoholics and who couldn’t use a little sweetness during tax week?

The Dessert Pantry: Even the most basic cookbook will tell you that you need basic ingredients like flour, salt, sugar, baking powder in your pantry if you plan on baking.  We agree.  But you also need some ready-made ingredients that can be combined to create last minute desserts.  This list of ingredients will give you the tools to create something sweet that is more than a candy bar but not as elaborate as a four layer cake.
Non-perishable:
Sweetened condensed milk , 2 cans (makes fudge fast and easy.  See recipe below)
Dark chocolate chips, 2 - 12 ounce packages or at least 1 ½ pounds Purchase the best quality you can afford and as far as we are concerned, the darker, the better! Chips come in handy for eating out of hand or for topping ice cream.  Sometimes I just melt a quarter cup in the microwave and pour on top of a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream.
Lemon curd (can be spread on or sandwiched between shortbread cookies for a quick treat)
Shortbread cookies (good dipped in melted chocolate)
Raspberry jam (can be warmed up to use as a topping for premium vanilla ice cream)
Unsweetened chocolate
Cake flour
Baking powder, baking soda, salt
Sugar
Vanilla extract, Bourbon or Tahitian
The recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Cake from the first Silver Palate cookbook, page 291.
Perishable: (you will note that even these perishables have a long refrigerator life)
Eggs       
Heavy Cream (at least 8 ounces)
Vanilla ice cream
Butter, sweet (no salt)
Nuts (shelled whole walnuts are the most versatile, store in freezer).  It is a nice touch to toast nuts before using.  Spread nuts on a baking sheet, place in pre-heated 400 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes.  When nicely toasted (not burnt), immediately turn out into a shallow bowl to cool.

Favorite Easy Recipe:
During times of high stress I can be found, late at night, standing over the sink with a spoon in one hand and a can of sweetened condensed milk in the other muttering to myself ‘Why in the world don't they put pull tops on these f%*$! cans?!?!’. I am not suggesting that YOU eat sweetened condensed milk right out of the can. Nor should you consider serving it to your guests. Just know that it is a great staple for your pantry and the short cut to this ultra creamy fudge.  This very adult fudge is the just the post-tax treat you are looking for. And for those of you who have filed an extension, keep this recipe handy for July 15th!

ESPRESSO FUDGE
16 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips, MELTED
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons freshly ground espresso
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Stir together all of the above. Pour into a buttered 8" x 8" pan. Chill one hour. Cut into any size square you want. Or just cut it in half and dig in. No one is watching and you have our blessing!