Chocolate Ecstasy in London

London's first sherry bar: Bar Pepito

2010-03-16T06:11:00.000Z

I am a sucker for invitations; launch parties, red carpet, front row - hey, even back row - and I'm there. It's partly because of an ingrained over-achiever ticklist I can't seem to shake, but also an insatiable curiousity. I like to know what's going on and I love learning new things. I realised last year you can't say yes to everything (without physical and mental health sufferance!) so I have started to be more selective. Before this starts sounding too much like some kind of dating profile, the point is that two weeks ago I got an invitation that was far too tempting: the pre-launch party for London's first sherry bar, Bar Pepito. It's a joint project between Bar Camino (of which it now completes the courtyard in Kings Cross) and Gonzalez Byass, who own the Tio Pepe and Pedro Ximenez brands.

I first encountered the masterminds behind this new adventure at their sherry exploration event last Summer where Ollie kindly let me tag along as his +1. It was here that I discovered sherry was good for more than just trifle and teeny crystal glasses for Granny at Christmas.

Andrew from Gonzalez Byass and I have been chatting since then about a port, sherry and chocolate tasting that we're going to run this year (let me know if you're interested!) and have run the first of our practise sessions (read: we sat down and ate lots of chocolate and drank lots of good wine and called it research! Hey, we took notes!). I figured this was as good an excuse as any to get more familiar with the wines.

Walking into the tiny room that is Bar Pepito is like stepping into Spain. Andrew and his colleagues spent a week exploring Spain and visiting their vineyards hijacking authentic memorabilia, tiles and prints to decorate the room (not bad fir a week's work!). This includes an incredible picture of Picasso with a bottle of Tio Pepe and the table tops are barrel lids from genuine sherry barrels.

It was great to catch up with Andrew and Martin from GB and Richard and his team from Bar Camino (and now Bar Pepito), a really inspiring bunch. The sherry flowed all evening and even the staff felt like we were in a small, family-owned tapas bar in Spain; they weren't Spanish but the knew the sherries intimately and did an impressive job of taking people through the journey from the dry Tio Pepe (the wine with thelowest sugar content in the world - great for the lack of calories, people) to the raisiny, far too moreish Pedro Ximenez (completely at the other end of the scale). There were tapas but we weren't too be distracted from the drinking, though what we saw come into other people's hands looked delicious - manchego, jamon carved from the leg at the bar. It was a mistake to forgo this as there's not much around in Kings Cross at midnight (when we left to find food). Bar Simmons (another funky small bar nearby) do let you order delivery to the bar though (just in case you're ever in the same position...).

It properly opens this Friday night. I'm sure it will be consistently crowded, but that's part of the fun, right?

My foodie family - styling and lamingtons.

2010-02-26T18:38:00.009Z

OK, I think we gathered from my previous post that my family is not actually particularly foodie. Though whenever I visit Melbourne my brother and I always go out to at least one really good restaurant and he now has three kids who are proving to be quite fond of food.

Before I elaborate, my littlest niece would like to say hello to her adoring fans (check out that Queen wave!):

I ended up with tons of photos of her in her high chair - the place where she was most often found still enough to capture, and happy as well.

So now I have two nieces and a nephew who are into food (quite literally in Lila's case!) and I was excited to discover my nephew shaping up to be a food stylist in the making. I remember cooking with him and his sister years ago (they were 2 and 4 at the time) and he showed considerably more aptitude and patience for it than his otherwise more coordinated older sister. On this visit, when he noticed me taking pictures of food he offered up his own meals, styling first a hot chocolate at Cuppa Cottage (very cute little bakery in Sandringham with yummy cakes and savoury pastries - I spotted the Ottolenghi cookbook and some of the recipes oin the cabinet). By the end of my trip he was carefully plating up his BBQ and salad for my approval. Gorgeous!

Hot chocolate before and after Tom's handiwork.

I only cooked once with the kids, lamingtons at their request. Between the three of us we managed to coat the whole kitchen and ourselves with chocolate icing and coconut. Fortunately we made them straight from the pool in our swimming costumes but the kids still had to wipe their feet before they could even leave the kitchen. Great fun but allow an hour for clean up afterwards! To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of lamingtons (or vegemite - see, I am English!), but they are quintessentially Australian and must be tried. Anzac biscuits, however, are scrumptious, but frankly the lamington adventure didn't really encourage me to bake with them again, especially when the sun was shining outside!

The recipe we used:

I didn't eat out much in Australia but a post on the few places I did go plus the chocolate scene are on the way....

Homemade Tartare Sauce

2010-02-11T23:36:00.005Z

I'm writing this post from my mother's computer in her classroom. She brought me in to meet her class and now that I've been introduced and I have bragged about how I have the coolest job in the world (ah, something about being inside a room papered with Times Tables and the alphabet has my maturity regressing to pre-adolescence), I've been tasked with getting cashback on the netbook she generously bought for me (thanks, mum!), as she sits on the carpet and helps her charges learn to tell the time. Being a school, all of the decent websites are blocked so I can't access Gmail, Twitter or Facebook to find out what's going on in the world. For whatever reason, blogger has not been blocked so, now that I've printed the requisite form, I feel free to whitter away the time. Unfortunately my half-written posts and pictures are not on this pc so instead of backtracking over the more interesting events I've not yet written about from the past few months, I just thought I'd say a brief hello to the world and a quick comment on regressing and food in the back of beyond.

I learnt how to cook out of necessity. I prepared a dish to go alongside my mum's chips (my mum makes the best chips) earlier this week. If you've ever seen The Castle, the reaction I got for courgettes and cannellini beans with garlic, parsley and lemon, was almost exactly like Daryl's response to everything his wife cooked:
"What's this, love?"
"Aw, that's just sponge cake, love, it came out of a packet."
"Wow. You're amazing. I am the luckiest man in the world to have a wife that can cook like this."
These are not exact quotes. It's been a while since I watched it and, yes, you really have to watch it to get it.

Anyways, they were suitably impressed that I'd managed to make something out of the next-to-nothing in the cupboards. It's flattering, but frustrating. I have informed my dear mother that I need to go to the supermarket on the way back from school. "What for?" Um... because there are no other meals I can make out of what's in the cupboards and from the vegie garden. At least, not enough to feed five people a coherent meal that will fill them up. Cousin and his lovely wife are heading down from Sydney and I want to be able to feed them and the baby-on-the-way. Plus I want to be able to make a birthday cake with unsalted butter, not margarine.

Last night my dad took my mum and I out for her birthday dinner. I was tempted to offer to cook but didn't want to rain on his parade. So we went to dine at the pub with the balcony and beautiful view. The menu options were typical of an Australian pub: Chicken Schnitzel, Chicken Parmagiana, Steak, Reef and Turf, Calamari, Fish & Chips and Seafood Basket.

The Fish and Chips were described as "beer-battered, locally-caught gummy shark served with chips, salad, homemade tartare sauce and a wedge of lemon". Oh how I wish I could get the picture from my iphone to plug in here so you could see the plate with its two plastic servings of Masterfoods' tartare sauce, and no lemon. When I asked for lemon I was told there wasn't any. I asked behind the bar and managed to get a few water-logged slices. The chips began their life as frozen oven-fries. No surprise we decided not to stay for dessert. We went home and they had a few of the Charbonnel et Walker truffles I bought for her. I had Milo. Definitely regressing. :-)

Ah well, at least the scenery was pretty!

Lex Eat... the best fish pie ever

2010-02-02T22:35:00.002Z

After my dalliance into underground restaurants last Summer with an afternoon tea at Ms Marmite Lover's (in conjunction with Lavender Bakery) I'd been keen to try more of London's supperclubs but was too busy (read: slack) to get around to it. I did look into organising a private party last December but gave up and hosted my own mince pies and mulled wine evening at home. Most of my friends were keen though so when I saw that Alexis of Lex Eat was starting up her own supper club I booked a table of ten and then sent a blanket email to the people who'd attended the mince pie evening. The places were quickly snapped up.

The gorgeous Lex and her equally gorgeous partner Y put on a fabulous evening. It was exactly everything that, in my mind, supperclubs should be: delicious, homecooked food, friendly hosts and a cosy, jovial atmosphere. They have a gorgeous flat perfect for the number of people there (18, I think) and everything ran incredibly smoothly, from being greeted at the door and having our coats taken and hung up and immediately offered a glass of delicious sparkling to the end of the evening having cabs home booked for us. The only negative was that going with such a large group meant I barely spoke to all the people I knew, let alone the other lovely people, and I think that is one of the nicest part about these home restaurants.

I'll let the pictures tell you more about the evening:

funky table decorations

delicious homemade tortellini and pesto

the BEST fish pie I've ever tasted. flaky pastry and rich, creamy filling with smoked haddock and cod; the potato on the side was fabulous too.

a pre-dessert of coconut and lime sorbet - very special

a plate of 3 desserts (I was very happy!): lemon cheesecake, turkish delight and brownie.

The Turkish Delight was polarising amongst our group. Some thought it was the most amazing thing ever and others hated it. I was definitely in the former. It was original and delicately flavoured and the Persian fairy floss (candy floss) was a great addition (not to mention very pretty!).

Congrats and thanks to Lex for a fantastic evening and best of luck for the rest of them! I'm booked for Fernandez and Leluu in February and thinking I might have to get to one a month in 2010... Suggestions welcome!

Divine Divine Divine Chocolate Cocktails

2010-01-11T23:11:00.004Z

It was a couple of months ago now that I crossed paths with Mathilde Of Mathilde's cuisine and she mentioned a Divine chocolate cocktail evening that she had revently attended. "um, sorry, a what cocktail evening?!". Thankfully she informed me that they had mentioned having another one and if they did she would tell them to invite me. Phew.

Mathilde is a girl of her word. Last December I was cordially invites to attend a Divine Chocolate Cocktail evening. Now, anyone who has been on a chocolate tour will know I prefer to eat my chocolate than drink it, and I was on unfortunately on antibiotics this particular evening. But I had to try at least one (and then a LOT of the chocolate truffles). There were two cocktails on offer and I opted for the berry version over the coffee option, and it really was Divine. I was so tempted to drink more. It somehow managed just the right blend of chocolate with the fruit and the alcohol to be easy to drink but still chocolatey enough to know there was chocolate in it. Slightly reminiscent of the icy chocolate drink L'Artisan make in the Summer (and actually a little like the one from Godiva too, though Artisan may be upset for me including them both in the same sentence!). Apparently the Sanderson is going to keep them on their menu. Hooray. I'll definitely be back in the Summer.

I had obviously heard of Divine before this evening but I had never made a special effort to taste their chocolate or learn more. It's my understanding that really fine quality chocolate requires a close relationship with the grower where they do get paid a premium for making the effort to grow quality beans. Therefore, I patted myself on the back for choosing superb chocolate where the farmers did get paid enough too. The reality is not everyone will choose to spend as much on chocolate as I do and it is fantastic that there is a company that is going to extended lengths to make sure that everyone who helps to get the chocolate in our hands is justly compensated for their efforts. What surprised me particularly in tasting the truffles made by David, Divine's account manger but also a former chef, was just how good they were. Incredibly moreish. A little secret I learnt that evening was that some other chocolate companies that sell bars in our supermarkets add cocoa back into their blend because they believe people expect the bitterness in 70% chocolate. Divine don't do this and thus have a smoother tasting chocolate that's pretty darn good for a high street brand. The people in the company are pretty lovely too. Not to mention you can eat it and feel good about helping the families who helped to produce it.

Earl Grey and White Chocolate with a dash of Tequila.
Delicious.

Goodbye 2009

2010-01-03T11:58:00.005Z

I will remember it mostly as the year of eating. Ah...

I set a goal at the beginning of the year to eat in at least three Michelin starred restaurants. During two weeks in September I ate in six.

Never let it be said that goals cannot be achieved!

I haven't worked out yet what the total for the year is. It truly was an amazing year of eating. I was quick to learn that Michelin did not necessarily mean delicious, nor did lack of mean that it wouldn't be a fabulous meal. The Michelin mission was punctuated in October with the ultimate pilgrimage El Bulli. No, I still haven't blogged about it (I will), but it was an incredible experience that I am still thanking the lovely Trissa in Sydney for allowing me to go in her place.

Petit Fours at El Bulli: Just for 2 of us. I've been carrying this picture on my BlackBerry and showing anyone and everyone. Being presented with this (17 different types of chocolate!) was a definite highlight of 2010 ;-) .

I've been pretty irregular at blogging this year, ditto for newsletters to people who have signed up at Chocolate Ecstasy Tours. I would love to do more of both in 2010 but I know better than to make promises about that! I will be making resolutions, but one of the things I have learnt in the last few years is to focus on doing fewer things well, and then move onto the other stuff.

2009 was a year I went to the cinema just once, but I managed the ballet, concerts, theatre, comedy, opera, a music festival, Wimbledon, the polo and lots of eating. How cultured.

2009 was also a year I attended 4 Weddings, and a Funeral. There was a second funeral, but I didn't make it to the other hemisphere for that one.

All but one of those five events was family-centred. Strange for me, when it seems that as I get older, and especially living so far from my immediate family, it is friends, and extended relatives, who are stepping into the breach of my immediate family's physical distance. I feel so fortunate to have so many amazing relationships here in London. It is most definitely home.

I am very much looking forward to visiting my immediate family, and my other home again in just four weeks. It's especially exciting as this will also be my first full week off since November 2008. Working full time and running tours on many weekend days, and fitting in emails and bookkeeping around all that... it's been a long, but incredibly satisfying year.

Apart from the weddings in Bahrain and Serbia and a long weekend in Morocco, the only travel I managed in 2009 was with work (to be fair, these were lovely trips to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey and Spain). 2010 will be the year I travel more (she says, ambitiously). I am starting with this break in Oz in February and over Easter I'm heading to Madagascar to visit Chocolate Plantations. (Excited!)

2009 was definitely a year of change. The end of a relationship, moving house and postcode, resignation for a new job for 2010... I'm blessed to be able to walk away from all of that with excellent friendships. And I am looking forward to more adventures in 2010!

On the business side, there are four exciting things planned for Chocolate Ecstasy Tours this year:

1. A BRAND NEW website for www.chocolateecstasytours.com. Complete with new logos! The site will be live by Easter (hopefully sooner!)

2. The first International Chocolate Ecstasy Tour! In November I'll be organising a trip to Grenada and St Lucia. We'll visit plantations and factories and also have free time for the beach and mountains. If you're interested in joining me please email me at tours [at] chocolateecstasytours.com

3. Blind Chocolate Tasting as a Charity Fundraiser for Sense UK. To be held in May/June. More details to come!

4. A new walking tour in the Notting Hill area. I'm hoping this will get off the ground (well, on the ground!) in March. Watch this space...

In other exciting news I have finally set up a Facebook Fan page for Chocolate Ecstasy Tours. I'd love it if you joined!

Wishing you a year full of love, joy, good health, laughter, adventures and great chocolate!

xx

Chocolate for Charity

2009-12-21T09:39:00.004Z

One of the best things about running my own business is that I can help out charities by offering something of value for auctions and raffles.

And one of the nicest things about using Twitter is feeling the sense of community and charity that exists amongst the other food enthusiasts: bloggers, journalists, small business owners, restaurants and PR people. So many big-hearted people who have donated their time and the fruits of their labour to help other people over the last few months (and more, I'm sure). The world is a better place because of these people.

A few weeks ago I attended the amazing Blaggers' Banquet organised by Niamh, Kavey, Sig and many, many others. Having organised and managed events in a former life I was impressed when the first meeting for this event was just 2 1/2 weeks ahead of the actual date. There were so many people at that first meeting all ready to volunteer that we realised not everyone would actually be able to help on the night, or we wouldn't be able to fit the punters! I was convinced the night would sell out and as well as volunteering to help I bought the first pair of tickets, thinking I was absolutely going to make sure I was there, somehow, and if I was needed to help I'd sell or give the tickets to someone else. As it happened I couldn't find anyone free on the evening and we already had one server for every six people, plus an abundance of other helpers so I was privileged to be able to dine at the Banquet. It was inspiring how everyone pulled together to make an incredible evening that raised thousands of pounds for Action Against Hunger on the night and through the ebay auction that is still going on here.

It was a wonderful evening held at Hawksmoor London who kindly donated the space. You can read more about it on @Tehbus's blog and Fiona Beckett's blog and Wahaca's blog. The food was incredible, the company interesting and entertaining and @TimHayward's auctioneering skills were superb.

Since then, two weeks ago I was alerted to Menu for Hope, another food blogger organised mission to raise money to help relieve world hunger via World Food Program, headed by David Lebovitz in Paris and Chez Pim in San Francisco. Menu for Hope is now in its fourth year and both this and Blaggers' Banquet take a huge amount of totally voluntary time from wonderful people and so I wanted to give something more special than just a pair of tickets for a Chocolate Ecstasy Tour. At the Blaggers' Banquet Craig Linton won a private Chelsea chocolate tour and you have the chance to do the same via Menu for Hope. It's valid until the end of September 2010 and I will be the guide for you and three friends. All the money raised goes to World Food Program. There are tons of other amazing prizes and they have already raised more than $12,000! Dig deep, people.

More exciting for me on a personal level, I had a wonderful meeting last week with Sense, a charity that supports Deaf & Blind people. Not long after I first arrived in the UK I was accosted by one of the charity people on the street. In these early days in London I didn't realise the done thing was to smile and walk past quickly. When I heard what the charity was for it touched a nerve and despite the fact that I didn;t have a job yet I decided to sign up to give £6 a month. I read Helen Keller's book when I was really small and, for me, it was incredibly inspirational. A tale that can't help but make you overwhelmingly grateful for everything you have. Her most-repeated quote is one that drives most of my decisions: "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

I digress. When Celia from Sense contacted me, instead of just asking for a donation as so many charities do, she proposed we collaborate to raise money and awareness. So much more powerful. I am so excited from our meeting. We brainstormed a plan for a blindfolded chocolate tasting in May 2010. I'll be donating my time and I hope some chocolatiers will donate chocolates for the event and everything we raise from selling tickets and auctioning chocolates will go towards support for deaf and blind people in the UK. What a great way to raise money and also increase empathy. Watch this space!

I'll leave you with two other quotes from Helen Keller I found that I think are pretty poignant and relevant:

"It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing."

and one, more hopeful, that epitomises everything all of the wonderful blogger and Twitter community have been doing:

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

In case I don't get a chance to update this again in the next few days: Merry Christmas, everyone. xx

Whirlwind Chocolate & Pastry Adventure in Barcelona

2009-12-06T20:54:00.011Z

Pintxo. Look out for this guy to find the best stall for tapas in La Boqueria

I rather ambitiously thought I could see all that was good in food in Barcelona in one night and one day. Ha.

Not surprisingly due to the amount of sugar I ate in my five-dessert dinner the previous night, I woke up pretty early for my chocolate and patisserie adventure so I went for a quick run (not even remotely enough to offset all the sweet stuff, but hey, I tried).

The view from my perch at Pintxo. I loved this stall owner (and you can see the Xuixos just behind him!).

First stop when I left the hotel properly was Barcelona's food market La Boqueria. Spotting a spare stool at the bar Pintxo which was recommended by Brett of In Praise of Sardines I jumped on it, even though it was 11am and perhaps too early to eat the recommended squid in cuttlefish ink. Never! This was truly one of the best dishes I ate in 2009. The squid was so tender and the salty ink so flavoursome. Eaten with just a broken half-baguette handed to me by the jovial stall owner I devoured the whole lot and mopped my plate with the last mouthful of bread.

My dish of squid and beans at Pintxo in La Boqueria. Ugly, but so good!

During my brunch ecstasy I observed many locals purchase the pastries from the pile in front of me. I had to follow the pack. I barely stepped away from the market before I reached into the bag and tore off a chunk of this doughnut which oozed custard. Oh...... More ecstasy. It was greasy and sugary, but in such a good way, unlike the others I picked up later in the day. Like the squid, this was damn good. It brought back memories of a similar pastry (I think they're called Xuixos) that I encountered in a patisserie on my last day of a six week trip around Spain during university. It's fortunate it was my last day otherwise I might have put on even more than the 11kg I did! (I did try to locate the same patisserie but had no luck.)

My xuixo after the first bite. Nom.

I felt so prepared with my map and list of everywhere worth in eating in Barcelona and it started out so well. My first stop after La Boqueria was Escriba. One of the oldest patisseries in Barcelona and apparently Ferran Adria's favourite. I should have got the croissant because I was underwhelmed by the choices I did make: more grease than flavour.

Escriba on Las Ramblas
Sweet pastry with pine nuts from Escriba (not so special)
More pastries from Escriba (I didn't try - sorry!)

First chocolate stop: Cacao Sampaka

Chocolates from Cacao Sampaka

I got told off for taking pictures in here so this is a photo I took later at home. There are a few Cacao Sampakas around Barcelona. The one I went into was large and included a small cafe at the back. If I was capable at this point of eating anymore I might have stopped. But I wasn't, so I just got chocolate to take away.

The shop assistant I spoke to was insistent they made their own chocolate in Barcelona. They did stock a range of origin bars and some flavoured bars, as well as chocolate in every other form, so it's possible this was true. I bought a box of 16 truffles and 2 origin bars and a flavoured bar. I haven't tried the origin ones yet but I wasn't overly impressed by the chocolate truffles, or the blackberry flavoured bar. The chocolates are fine but have a slightly gluey texture that gives away the sugar syrup used to extend their shelf-life and the taste just didn't quite cut it for me. When I finally try the origin bars I'll report back!

Unfortunately by the time I got to my second chocolate shop on my carefully planned route, Enric Rovira, I realised my failure in not checking opening times. As I arrived the lights were switched off and the shutter was being lowered. Nooo...! It was only 2pm! The shop assistant was not interested in my pleas. Hmph.

The lid of the box of Oriol Balageurs chocolate truffles. Isn't it brilliant? It's like it was made for me.

Not far from Enric Rovira's boutique was the smaller of Oriol Balaguer's shops, really just a store room off the main kitchen. The girl who helped me there was one of the chocolatiers, dressed in her chef's whites. I got a sneak look at the kitchen but unfortunately they weren't making anything. It transpired that this wasn't the real shop, and though she could sell me things from there, there was more to see at the real boutique. So I kept walking (surely must have burnt off the calories at this point). Oriol's actual boutique is small, but gorgeous and filled with deliciousness. Like Pierre Herme in Paris, I discovered Oriol Balageur makes great chocolate but excellent pastries. His biscuits with raspberries were possibly the nicest chocolate item I tasted all year and I wish I had tried them in the shop and realised this, because it isn't possible to order them online. And his little petit fours were just so good. The shell chocolates are great, but I wouldn't travel to Spain for them. The shells are unnecessarily thick for my taste.

Oriol Balaguer truffles, as seen under their protective plastic coating. They look like fossils reading for filing!

Oriol Balaguer window display of petits fours. He makes larger cakes too. How I wished I had somewhere to go to take one. Or that it would survive the journey back to London for my birthday lunch the next day.

The little box of petits fours I bought from Oriol Balageur and had hoped might survive to share at lunch. Unfortunately they were completely smushed before I even got on the plane, so only one friend got to try any.

My final chocolate stop was Xocoa. More novelty than real chocolate shop it still sold an interesting range. I'm afraid I still haven't tried the Wasabi and Raspberry bars I bought from here. The chocolate biscuit cake and two muffins I bought (actually, one was given to me by the lovely store assistant, but don't tell her boss) were tasty enough, if a little over-sweet.

Looking into Xocoa from outside.

Some of the Xocoa bars.

OB's patissier who I spoke to recommended me to another shop, called Dolc (Sweet, in Catalan), that is a 20minute train journey from Barcelona. Unfortunately not enough time for me to get there and back in time for my flight back to London. I will have to return and visit there and Enric Rovira. Hopefully I'll also make it to the two tapas bars that I schlepped to only to find them BOTH not serving and have a proper look around the Chocolate Museum. *sigh* The things we have to do in the name of research...

So, who's up for coming with me next time?

Espai Sucre - Dessert restaurant in Barcelona

2009-12-05T21:15:00.007Z

Since I first heard about this dessert only restaurant in Barcelona I have been dying to visit, or the one in New York. That's right, folks, DESSERT ONLY!! So when a work trip to Spain finished on a Friday I decided to extend my stay by 24 hours and fly to Barcelona to eat at this mythical restaurant where your tasting menu keeps serving up dishes that are sweet. I was also pretty keen to get to Oriol Balaguer and some of the other hot chocolatiers of Barcelona.

I emailed Espai Sucre the day of my arrival and was delighted with their prompt reply that yes, they could offer me a table for one.

When I arrived I could see why it was so easy to get a booking. There was only one other table occupied in the room, with an English couple. Hmmm, ok. Fair enough, dessert only restaurants aren't going to be EVERYONE'S cup of tea. (I suppose...)

The Maitre'd was very pleasant and had perfect English (and Spanish, French and Portuguese). There are tasting menus with savoury courses as well but I took the view that olives and beetroot featuring in the ingredients counted as my veg and I should just go for the BIG dessert menu (5 courses). The Maitre'd even let me switch one of the desserts for another one. Disappointingly, the restaurant appears to be sponsored by Cocoa Barry and, while I don't dislike Cocoa Barry chocolate it's not spectacular so I also steered clear of the Chocolate Menu. The one chocolate dessert that appeared later made me glad I did.

The first course had me so excited; interesting combinations with intense, fresh, fruit flavours with great contrast in textures. That's a liquorice foam you see below, the combination of apple, liquorice and salty yoghurt were superb.

“Marialuisa” cold soup with green apple and spicy yoghurt ice cream

Sadly, this dish was the exception to an otherwise ordinary “meal” as the courses got progressively more weird.

Red wine "baba",pear and saffron

This red wine sponge tasted like soggy, slightly bitter bread. The cubes were pear jelly and fried parmesan; the latter, sadly, were over-crisped and mostly just tasted burnt. The red wine sorbet was nice, as were the cubes of pear, but couldn't lift the sogginess of the centre piece.

"Idiazábal" cake with cherry + beet and black beer
This dish had one good component: the crumbled dry chocolate cookie, though it was full of cacao nibs so I didn't finish (so I might have a hope of sleeping later). The cherry layer underneath was pretty nice too, but lost with the white oblong that was a smoked cheese cake. Ick. Equally ick was the quenelle of beetroot sorbet, tasting of, surprise, surprise, frozen beetroot juice. Why would you? The black beer foam also was just as described, but again did nothing for the dish. Where was the thought behind this? A selection of bizarre components that together became worse than their individual parts.

Extra virgin olive oil cake, white peach, green olive and “San Simón”
Another failure of soggy cake. The peach jelly cube and peach sorbet were sublime though. Why the chef thought a green olive caramel crisp, green olive slick of sauce and goats cheese cream would add to this, I have no idea.

Empyreumatic 2
This dish was a feature of coffee, tea and chocolate. The earl grey granita tasted like old tea that had stewed for too long, the crisp was burnt and the milk chocolate mousse just highlighted that they should have opted for a better quality chocolate than Cocoa Barry. Sigh. I remember liking the jelly parts but I can't remember if they were coffee or liquorice. There was just way too much going on.

At least the petit fours had some highlights. The bayleaf and pineapple slushie was delicious and the black pepper marshmallow was excellent too. I wasn't so keen on the curried biscuit.

Sadly, my excitement for eating in a dessert only restaurant had been punctured by reality. You would think if a restaurant if going to focus on sweets it would have some sensational offerings. My suggestion? Save your money and just order some extra desserts in one of Barcelona’s other fantastic restaurants. Maybe one of the heaving ones I walked past on my way to this barren space. Then you’ll get a better atmosphere as well.

Launch of Thornton's Metropolitan Chocolate Box

2009-12-05T20:51:00.006Z

I'm waaaay behind with this blog. So busy doing things, no time to write about them! I did catch up on a few words on a recent plane journey, now just need to add some pictures and put them up here. So here goes with the first of these...

A few weeks ago I was invited to the Thornton’s launch of their new Metropolitan box, held, coincidentally, at the Metropolitan Hotel. I’d had a sneak preview of some of the chocolates early in the Summer when I’d been invited with a small selection of other chocolate fiends to taste the products in their development and offer feedback. I was pretty keen to see what the final selection looked like.

Still recovering from food poisoning, I dragged myself from bed to see what they had to say. I couldn’t really eat anything on the night, nor indulge in the free champagne and cocktails, but fortunately (along with the other guests) I was given a box to take home. I should say up front, I’m not a regular Thornton’s customer. When I have such easy access to amazing chocolates, Thornton’s doesn’t really get a look in (though I did buy their toffee-chocs pretty regularly when I first moved back to the UK, and still enjoy them now). I was intrigued when they hired Keith Hurdman, formerly of Melt, and before that many other chocolate companies and schools, to be their head of development. Keith and I had some interesting conversations about the need to stay relevant to your core customers while keeping up with new trends and the change in the market place. I understand it took a while to convince Thornton's to launch a chilli bar, but its success paved the way for more freedom in his designs. Some of his other new bars I was involved in giving bronze awards at the Academy of Chocolate Awards earlier this year (all anonymously in blind tastings).

There are some great chocolates in this box. I understand they have lost some of their magic in the transfer from the development kitchen to the production line, but the literally melt-in-the-mouth Manhattan Melts and Midnight Melts and the praline are both good for a Thornton’s box. (The production line is itself a pretty magical place, it’s like being in Willy Wonka’s factory, but that’s another story for another blog post!)

If you’re a real chocolate aficionado you won’t be blown over by the Metropolitan box, but it is strides ahead of most of their other offerings. And, if you have a grandmother like mine, who still thinks Thornton’s is the ultimate in expensive, quality chocolate you might help to introduce her to the new world of more interesting chocolates through a brand she trusts and understands.

Le Ecole Internationale de Patisserie, Perpignan

2009-10-23T21:02:00.011Z

I woke up in France, fell asleep in Spain and, betwixt and between, tasted 11 desserts, multiple chocolate and caramels at Le Ecole Internationale de Patisserie, and ate 35 courses at El Bulli, the *best* restaurant in the world, followed by a petit four cabinet of 17 different types of chocolates.

Yes, this was a very happy day.

The El Bulli post is still to come, but first: some pictures taken at Le Ecole Internationale de Patisserie in Perpignan, France. Drool over these, my friends....

My favourite was the chocolate one to the left of the apple. It had a layer of caramelised banana between the chocolate sponge base and chocolate mousse.

Apricot with peanut praline. Ick. This one was not for me.

Saint Honore Possibly my favourite. Pistachio mousse and berries and pastry and oh, just goodness...

Check out the inside of this apple creation!
Apple mousse, raw and cooked apple marmalade, ginger biscuit base.

Coconut and mango with white chocolate and caramel and biscuit. This one was also delicious. zingy and fresh, while deliciously creamy.

And, in the other room - the class my friend wasn't in - the chocolates:

Heaven, people, this was heaven. The best bit? We were allowed to take what we wanted from the chocolate room! I felt like Gretel being given permission to eat the gingerbread house. A childhood fantasy come to life.

Chocolate Week 2009

2009-10-11T21:46:00.003Z

The highlight of the year!

Of course, every week should be Chocolate Week but this is the official one! Click the title to go to details and get yourself along to something!

I'll be going to The Almeida for a three-course chocolate dinner (can't wait!) but then I'm off to Spain FOR DINNER AT EL BULLI!! (unfortunate week but when the proverbial "they" say that 2 million people apply for 8000 places in a year, you don't say no!). I'm even more excited for this meal (and nervous, having read recent reviews like Chris's here). Finally I'll be back in London for my brother's gets married (I'm a bridesmaid!), then there's my Full Day Chocolate Tour on Saturday. All sorts of deliciousness awaits us there.

So, in conclusion, it's pretty likely I will need to go shopping for new clothes next Sunday...

Chocolate Unwrapped 2009

2009-10-11T06:15:00.011Z

Some pictures from Chocolate Unwrapped 2009 - to inspire you to go while it's still got one day left! Unfortunately I uploaded the pictures I took, only to discover most of them didn't come out very well, if I hadn't been so distracted by all the delicious chocolate I might have noticed this when I was at the fair. Oops.

Details of the event (finishing today) are at www.chocolate-week.co.uk. Tickets are £12.50 online or £15 at the door.

That's the fabulous Paul A Young in the picture above, giving a talk (there's lots of talks going on today too). He's a born entertainer and you can see for yourself this Wednesday when he's on This Morning televison show!

Chocolate Unwrapped is like walking into heaven for any chocolate lover (even though, ironically, you descend into the sumptuous room below the Mayfair Hotel in Berkeley Street, W1). The sight of tables and tables burgeoning with some of the finest chocolate creations made by England's skilled chocolatiers... it filled me with indescribable happiness that has overflowed into this Sunday morning (probably also still feeling the buzzing effect of all the chocolate I consumed, which would explain why I'm awake (again) after less than 7 hours sleep!).

It's almost impossible to even sample just one chocolate each from all of the stands at the fair without going into chocolate overdose (even for me). So I stuck (mostly) to the chocolatiers that don't have London shops.

Some personal highlights...

Chococo's White Chocolate with Berries was positively scrumptious. Like strawberries and cream, sweet, creamy chocolate offset by the sharp tang of dehydrated fruit. Moreish, and I'm not even a white chocolate fan unless it's baked into cookies, muffins or cakes.

Lauden Chocolate Particularly their Rose & Lychee and their Passionfruit (superbly made, French-style chocolates).

Askinosie Chocolate

Auberge du Chocolat new range

The Ecuadorian chocolate from Askinosie has strong liquoricey notes, a very unique chocolate, deliciously complex in its flavour. This chocolatier, Shawn Askinosie (read his story, it's very sweet), from Springfield (Missouri, USA), also makes a white chocolate with goat's milk. The goat's milk made it a little too reminiscent of farmyard for me. I had a similar challenge with Auberge du Chocolat's goat's milk caramel although it was a really interesting chocolate and very well made. Especially impressive when I learnt it was created by the 18yo son of this family business. They've just won some Gold Great Taste Awards too, but I didn't get to try those ones on this occasion. I'm sorry, a terrible failure on my part.

Trish Deseine's chocolate cake (and she's giving away the recipe! AND you can buy the chocolate in bulk from her at the show!)

Paul Wayne-Gregory and his merry band (that's Stephen on the right) are delightfully entertaining and force-feeding people who come by their stand. Including another great passionfruit chocolate and a popping-rock praline.

Gorvett & Stone from Henley also do a popping candy chocolate, amongst other delicious truffles, my personal favourite still being the raspberry & black pepper (both in truffles and in bar format). It helps that they use fabulous quality couverture!

Another interesting find, a newcomer to the chocolate fair scene is DeAngelis. Made in Italy, but based in Hartfordshire and run by an Italian-Australian, this chocolate - like Askinosie - has only cacao beans and sugar but it hasn't been conched and refined to get the smooth chocolate that we know, it's crunchy with sugar crystals. Reminds me of the chocolate I bought in Guatemala last November (I really should post the pictures from that!). It was made with very good quality beans, though it is harder to identify this because the sugar doesn't merge into the cocoa in the same way.

Finally, Ooh La La Chocolaterie with her very pretty chocolates. Try the whisky with raisins or the blackcurrant (or any, really).

I'm tempted to return but I must stay home and finalise preparations for next Saturday's sold out Full Day Chocolate Tour! I hope you can make to Chocolate Unwrapped today, and tell them I sent you (it might get you an extra chocolate)!

Happy Chocolating!

Pierre Koffman Pop-Up Restaurant at Selfridges

2009-10-08T20:35:00.009Z

Ok, it's been 8 months since my last blog post. Forgive me, Father... Oh no, that's something else.

I had lunch with food blogger and fellow twitterer Kavita of Kavey Eats (you can read her fab review there!) today and I was inspired to write something about our incredible lunch as it felt like such a seminal moment in food history, being in the first slot of the first service open to the public of the legendary Pierre Koffman of Le Tante Claire fame. Three Michelin Stars (over and over) and come out of retirement, initially just for London Restaurant Festival, and extended twice (so far).

If you've read this far, let me apologise now for the lack of links to other blogs on the side bar, it's something, now that I may have begun blogging again I will endeavour to fix quickly.

So...

the Winter Wonderland entrance as you exit the dedicated lift

The biggest pleasure of being at the Pierre Koffman pop-up restaurant was that despite the silver service (which was a little haphazard but, hey, it was the first full service to the public) there was a feeling of being part of a special family. A family of people who revered food and didn't want to miss tasting the legendary Pierre Koffman's cooking (including Charles Campion and some other people I recognised but couldn’t name). Given the lovely Kavita had managed to get the very first slot on the very first booking we were going to be amongst a group of people who were there because they cared to be a part of the food experience, rather than the groups of corporates so often seen in Michelin restaurants, who wouldn't know, or couldn't care what they were eating, as long as it comes with "a good red".

For a pop-up restaurant the fixtures look pretty permanent: glass panes, carpet... this ain't no ordinary tent. The (very loud) whisper is bookings will be extended again into November. The head staff were as excited to be there as the guests, there was a bustling, Christmas morning feeling to the experience; a slightly crazy, not-sure-where-to-look-next zinging with the thrill of anticipation of tastiness to come.

And tastiness did come.

Beginning with some doughy, still-warm bread.

Our amuse bouche (which we first thought was our starter) was an incredibly flavoured, intensely reduced langoustine bisque with a potato foam (tasting exactly like an aerated, buttery Maris Piper mash). My how grateful I was that they didn't serve us the skewered ducks' hearts they served last night on the practice run.

Starters:

My rather plain but perfectly executed langoustines with pressed leeks and truffle. (I couldn't really taste the truffle but, like the bisque, it was deliciously intensely flavoured).

Kavey's much more exciting (yep, major food envy) Cocktail of Scottish Lobster and Avocado with a Lemon Jelly (she describes it better here):

My Pavè of Wild Seabass with an Artichoke Barigoule

Well-cooked fish (although not the finest piece of sea bass I've ever had) and delicately marinated vegetables and the slow-roasted garlic and onions... oh, so well cared for, who knew carrots could taste like that? It was all appearances of simplicity but so obvious that so much more had gone into it.

The INFAMOUS pig's trotters (Pig’s Trotter stuffed with Veal Sweetbreads and Morel Mushrooms). Gelatinous. That's the all-consuming word to describe the meaty unctuous mouthful that I sampled, reminiscent of slow-cooked pork belly, and even more, well, fatty. A delicate, buttery, buttery mash whipped to submission and floating in meaty, clarified jus was the perfect accompaniment. I was delighted Kavey ordered this dish because I was desperate to try it but I was never going to order trotters. Seriously, trotters?! Offal just does not seem a treat to fork out for. Ah, the margins that he must be able to make from this dish.

Finally pudding:

Kavey was delighted with her pistachio souffle, which was prepared with precision, perfectly executed (and no easy task) but pistachio souffles don't really rock my boat. Where's the flavour? I like intensity, but that's me. And my apple tart on the other hand... oh my. Heaven, heaven, heaven.

We had to ask for our petit fours and I was slightly saddened that we didn't get two of each but seeing as we could barely eat half of what you can see, and eight hours later I am STILL full it's probably not a warranted complaint!

William Curley's chocolate truffles were light and creamy and superb in their Amedei-goodness, as always. The madeleine was soaked with rum and dotted with raisins and far better than it looks.

From our table we had several conversations with other guests and staff, probably attracted to talking to us as we were taking pictures of each course from every angle. It was thrilling to have one of the hostesses who I think may have been the Claire (as in Le Tante Claire, Pierre’s wife!) come and share with us - unsolicited - that the flour used in my incredible "apple pie" came especially from France, the only flour stretchy enough to make the croustade on top of the lightly cooked apple pieces that were embedded in the chewiest, most delicious caramel with a thin layer of pastry curled around it’s edges. On this trip to France, Pierre, according to our confidante, ate croustade every day. I can understand why.

The staff were also happy to indulge our request to know what potatoes were used in the sea bass dish (Corte de gatte – Pink Fir Apple - if you were wondering, a fingerling, firm yellow variety from the South of France) and they even interrupted Pierre and Eric Chavot to have them sign menus for us both. I’m thrilled with my smiley face in a chef’s hat!

£75 for three courses (and then the drinks and service) is certainly a lot, even in London, for a three course meal, even more so at lunch. We were pleasantly surprised to find that wine by the glass started at £4 (my single glass of Argentinean Fantasia white at £5 was delicious) and our teas were only £1.90 each. Refreshing after all the Ramsay restaurants I’ve been to recently where you can barely get a glass of wine for under £8.

My only regret was not to be on a table of six so we could try every one of the dishes. Though, if they are extending the season...

making brownies

2009-03-21T09:29:00.003Z

Last weekend I made brownies from the recipe in this month's Red magazine. Then I made them again with my amended recipe. It's going out in the newsletter I'm sending out today. After that I will try to put it on the website.

The first batch were too cake-like but the second batch more intense. There's still some more tweaking to get my vision of the perfect brownie (which plenty of people already sell) but these are pretty darn good, nonetheless. Enjoy!

Melt arrive at Selfridges

2009-03-09T21:50:00.004Z

OK, so I took this three weeks ago but am clearly having a productive evening from an e-commerce perspective (read: procrastinating overhauling the shopping cart system) so here you go!

Melt opened a concession in Selfridges just before Valentine's Day (brave souls!). It's very pretty (as well as having fabulous chocolate). Go and check it out. While you're there pop in to Artisan du Chocolat's concession as well. It's great having great chocolate sold centrally.

If anyone can teach me how to upload pictures straight from my BlackBerry to Blogger I will be sure to update this blog more regularly!

If anyone can tell me how to send pictures straight from my BlackBerry to Blogger then I will be sure to update this blog more frequently!

Jen S's chocolate tiramisu

2009-03-09T21:48:00.003Z

It's a poor picture but you get the idea! Made by Jen S, one of the fabulous Chocolate Ecstasy chocolate guides.

2009 Chocolate Awards announced

2009-02-14T10:28:00.000Z

Click on the title to go to the detail.

Sorry I've been a bit slow on the uptake of this! I didn't realise the date had passed.

There isn't a big change from previous years. Amedei won Bean to Bar Award again (this time for No. 9). It was well-deserved. William Curley took the title of Chocolatier of the Year again. Also, well-deserved. He uses mostly Amedei, which helps, but they are superbly well-made chocolates too.

Some newcomers taking away awards - including Golds - which is exciting. Most of what Amano (the new-ish bean-to-bar chocolatier from Utah, USA) entered was really impressive. Having participated in the judging I can now say that this is a great way to make your own selections of what chocolate to buy. No more spending money on poor quality chocolate with a fancy brand or fancy packaging! Though I would still encourage you to buy some of that chocolate if you pass by it and it attracts your attention - you never know whether you might discover the next best chocolate.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Bars made by me (and friends)

2009-01-27T21:31:00.005Z

When we visited friends 10 days ago they had left over Manjari from a chocolate fountain they had at Christmas so we decided to experiment. We melted some and drizzled it on Booja Booja "ice cream". Sooo good. It went hard like a posh, grown-up version of Ice Magic.

While we were eating this we discussed how much we like Paul Young's dark almond rochers and then decided (on a chocolate high) that we should experiment and make our own. There was no almonds in the house so we made a version with hazelnuts (toasted and sprinkled with pink himalaya salt). We made a version with goji berries and brazil nuts too. Not pretty, but delicious. Though if you're using Manjari it's hard to go wrong...

Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester

2009-01-25T08:36:00.004Z

It's twelve hours since we finished our meal and I'm still not remotely hungry. We took the tasting menu last night at Alain Ducasse's restaurant at the Dorchester on Park Lane. It had all the Michelin touches - large tables, comfortable seats, gorgeous fittings, the champagne trolley, a selection of breads offered at regular intervals, two types of butter to enjoy them with, all the extra mini-courses and a little box (this time two small breakfast cakes) to take home. I'm glad I didn't eat much during the day, but I still think I probably ate three days worth of food in one sitting.

All those little extra courses were the highlights really. Especially the cheese puffs to start, the olive bread, the bacon fougasse, the macarons, the chocolates (see below, served on a bar of actual chocolate) and the final palette cleanser of mango marinated in passionfruit topped with a quenelle of white cheese sorbet. It seemed strange to serve the maracons and chocolates as a pre-dessert and then offer the palette cleanser after an already rather palette cleansing dessert of pink grapefruit souffle and sorbet.

The main dessert (pink grapefruit souffle with pink grapefruit sorbet):

Following our request for the bill a trolley of petit fours was wheeled to the table and proffered to us. After eating those divine cheese puffs, a flavoursome amuse bouche, an abundant variety of bread rolls with butter, the first dish of langoustines - bizarrely combined with gem lettuce, skinned tomato, bread crisps, a few green beans and sharp parmesan, this course did nothing for me -, then a seared scallop with apple and quince (again a strange balance of flavours and too sweet), gilt head bream with parsley jelly and parsley sauce and some well-cooked vegetables (I added salt and pepper to this dish which I never do), halibut with an excellent white wine sauce, prawns and greens (this was my favourite of the savoury courses and the only one I would go back to eat again), a plate of four cheeses with accompaniments ( a delicate goat cheese, a dull camembert, an excellent comte and an incredibly salty roquefort almost balanced by its accompaniment of pear chunks macerated in syrup), then all those sweet courses I have already mentioned, you can see why I wanted to turn down the tray of gorgeous minature cakes. Our waitress kindly made us a little bag of the caramels and nougats which I have hidden in my handbag because I can't bear to face yet. Overall the dinner was a great experience. If I was more flush I would consider going back for just the three course menu if it meant I got the lovely extras again. Top Table have 20% off the whole bill at the moment. It helps, but it's still a lot!

The Chocolates before the dessert (these were wonderful, a milk praline and a plain dark ganache made with excellent chocolate):

I have to write a real review now, for tibits on Heddon St, our meal on Friday night (and the best bircher muesli I've ever tried).

Day 1 of the Chocolate Awards

2009-01-23T13:21:00.001Z

The first day was an interesting one. When these awards began 4 years ago all the judging was done in one day, now it's four. This being the first time I've been able to attend I was impressed with how well it was planned in order to be thorough, broad and objective. We sat at four tables, each with at least five people, and on every table was a head judge and a technical judge (I was the latter on my table - a fabulous group of women!). We each had a judging sheet giving marks out of ten for appearance, execution and mouthfeel and out of 20 for taste, with a total of 50, then we were to agree a separate score for the whole table as a team. Each chocolate entry was presented on a plain white plate and cut into quarters. A whole chocolate was on each plate to help in judging its appearance. Every chocolate was given a random three digit number which was written on the plate and what we used to record our scores and comments.

The reason Day 1 was interesting is that any chocolatier who won even a bronze award had an automatic ticket to Day 2 of judging so the only chocolates we were seeing were new chocolatiers or ones that didn't make the grade last year. It started off well with the plain truffles but, frankly, went down hill from there. Today, however, should be a joy. Unfortunately the downside is that it is harder to show restraint!

World Chocolate Awards

2009-01-22T13:05:00.000Z

I'm smiling today. If you're wondering why I'm smiling it's because I am excited about the days ahead. This afternoon I am being a judge at the World Chocolate Awards, then return tomorrow afternoon for round 2. I'm reviewing a restaurant tomorrow night then going along to the chocolate tour on Saturday where I'm looking forward to meeting the fabulous author of the Chocolate Lovers' Club - Carole Matthews. Saturday evening I have a reservation for Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, mentioned this week as a rising Michelin 3 Star in the 2009 guide. And next Thursday and Friday I'm back judging again, this time bars (today is filled chocolates). Love it.

Last weekend I made chocolates with my friends. Will post pictures soon...

Christmas Tequila Cookies

2008-12-27T12:21:00.002Z

My friend sent me this a few days ago. It amused us over Christmas. I do like Christmas. I especially like it in the UK as Father Christmas seems to find me here! I love giving gifts, although the process of selecting them can sometimes be stressful trying to fit in so much shopping with the rest of life. Then there is the permission to eat copious quantities for several days running which is just glorious and even nicer when shared with people you care about. Obviously board games are the best thing to burn off all those calories, and ensure that if you haven't yet had a family argument then this will surely bring one on!

While I haven't tried this recipe myself yet, my friend assures me this is a great recipe for Christmas, even better for New Year, but perfect anytime really! ;-)

Christmas Tequila Cookies

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (two sticks) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup dried fruit (dried cranberries or raisins)
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all purpose flour
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila (silver or gold, as desired)

First, sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the Cuervo to be sure it is of the highest quality.

Pour another 4 ounces in a measuring cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer.
Beat one cup of the butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add one teaspoon sugar. Beat again.

At this point, it is best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK. Try another 4 ounces, just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, picking the frigging fruit off the floor.

Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a screwdriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt or something.

Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table.
Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas.

Changes all around

2008-12-16T11:43:00.003Z

When I couldn't sleep Sunday night I made changes to my website (and business!) and last night I made changes to this blog. Trying to get in early on those New Year's resolutions.

L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon

2008-12-11T21:16:00.004Z

The only trouble with eating is that eventually you get full and then, sometimes, you have to wait a while before you eat again.

I went to L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon for the pre-theatre dinner this evening (though, clearly, didn't go to the theatre afterwards this time). It was my first, long awaited visit there. For £19 for 2 courses or £25 for 3 (plus service) this was a fabulous taste of what they can do. There are only two options for each course and desserts are either a sweet dessert or single cheese with crackers.

My friend and I exchanged gifts after we finished our meal and the waitress enquired as to whether we were celebrating Christmas and we told them birthdays as well. A few minutes later they brought out this plate:

Isn't that pretty?! And so thoughtful. It was also the most divine tarte au citron I may ever have eaten. Mouth wateringly tart and delicate. Given we were full already (we couln't resist the Opera accompanied by lime and vodka sorbet) this mini portion shared between two was perfect. Incidentally, while the two components of the dessert I just mentioned were delicious, they had to be enjoyed separately as they were not remotely complementary.

It was quite interesting they brought this birthday plate as I was lamenting that my birthday was passing with less and less fanfare with every year (mainly notable by fewer celebrations that included candles). I know this should be expected, and probably welcomed really. I am not complaining - I did have a wonderful extended Sunday lunch in a cosy pub with half of my closest friends which was actually pretty close to a perfect way to mark another year.

I still feel so full. Tonight was the third of three (or more!) course meals this week. A fabulous, but oh-so-full week. Italian, Chinese and French. And I still have to post pictures of Guatemala!! Not to mention the fascinating shopping I did last week... I should probably fit a run into all of this eating somewhere as well.

I made this chocolate cake today

2008-11-30T22:37:00.003Z

The intention was to take it to the lunch I had today to mark another birthday, unfortunately I realised that it wasn't going to be baked in time to do so so I abandoned it mid-project, leaving three bowls on the counter, covered in tea towels. It didn't seem to do any harm though because it's one of the nicest cakes I've eaten in a while. 300 grams of chocolate will help with that! Melted with 200g butter, 50g caster sugar, 50g brown sugar and some cinnamon. Cooled pureed apples mixed with 3 egg yolks. Mix these two then add 100g of sifted self-raising flour. Finally fold in three beaten egg whites. I sprinkled a bit more chocolate on top (white and dark) Cooked in a fan oven at 170 C for one hour and cooled in the pan. So gooey and chocolatey. The apple and cinnamon added an interesting twist that was subtly different and far too moreish. Lucky I only ate steamed vegetables for my dinner.

Chocolatier in Antigua, Guatemala

2008-11-29T16:33:00.003Z

OK, apologies again for the lack of updates. I was away for a much needed holiday in Guatemala and Belize for two weeks. So needed that I was in bed with a feverish flu for most of the week, right up until I dragged myself onto the plane. It was actually quite pleasant to be on the plane and have water brought to me at my whim. A day or two more rest in sunnier climes and I was fine again. Until, that is, I got food poisoning or some such thing that also brought a fever with it about halfway through. But you don't want to hear about that!

Anyway, I have much to update about my adventures in Central America but for now here is just the beginning of what I found on Day 2:

CHOCOTENANGO

I was totally shocked to stumble across a real chocolatier in Antigua in Guatemala (our first stop after a night near the airport). I was under the impression Guatemala only produced the rough chocolate for drinking in Guatemala so far (more about this in another post, maybe tomorrow!). Apparently this chocolatier, hidden inside a deli, is a Belgian ex-pat. They were good quality chocolates and a pleasant surprise to find as I was finally well enough to want to eat chocolate again (see, I was properly sick, I never not want to eat chocolate). His range even included a wasabi chocolate! The caramels were the nicest though.

Off to see chocolate plantations!

2008-11-08T08:41:00.001Z

I've been in bed most of the week. :-(

Still not feeling fabulous but off to Guatemala today for 2 weeks!

Will take pictures!!

La Salon du Chocolat in Paris

2008-11-04T21:46:00.003Z

Finally. I have been wanting to go to La Salon du Chocolat since I first heard about it three, maybe four, years ago. It is absolutely heaven for me – for most women and a lot of men too, I’m sure. While we were welcomed at the entrance by Ovaltine and M&Ms the quality from there stepped up into artisanal producers. There were sections split out dedicated to different countries, from the bean growers to the chocolate (couverture) makers to the bon bon (praline, filled chocolate) makers.

We arrived at 12 on Friday and didn’t leave until they were sweeping us out at 7pm. In that time I think we managed to see every single stand, though we didn’t stop at all of them. Unfortunately all of the talks were in French so we skipped these too. The chocolate fashion show at 5pm was an incredible spectacle, couture creations modeled on stage, some by circus performers and dancers. By this stage my camera battery had sadly given up.

Most of the chocolatiers I visited last time I was in Paris were here at the show, and some I had missed, plus ones from Japan, Switzerland, Sweden.

Apparently it was incredibly crowded on Saturday - no surprise really. I met tons on interesting people and probably ate my body weight in chocolate over the next two days.

I highly recommend going to the next one! Although, from all I saw, I do think the chocolatiers in the UK are at least as good and many better, than anything I saw (or tasted!) at the show. Hooray!

End of Chocolate Week but Salon du Chocolat to come

2008-10-20T19:15:00.002Z

I had such a nice time on the Full Day Chocolate Tour on Saturday. It was a really lovely group of people (people who love chocolate are always lovely!) which made it all the more fun.

I've booked my tickets for Salon du Chocolat in two weeks time and I've just been reading up about it. It looks intense!

I was thinking about organising a dinner for people going over from London to meet up. Anyone interested?

Chocolate Open Evening at Paul A Young

2008-10-15T19:07:00.003Z

I have a camera I haven't used much and I really should use it more because I am not taking great pictures with it so unfortunately have no clear pictures of truffles from last night :-(. I went by Paul's shop in Bank for his open evening. We have a private audience with him on Saturday morning with the full day tour though. Not sure if I will take any pictures then but there are still a few places on the tour if you want to sign up! www.chocolateecstasytours.com/fulldaytour.htm

Chocolate Week starts today!

2008-10-13T07:37:00.000Z

www.chocolate-week.co.uk

An apology

2008-10-06T21:19:00.003Z

I rarely post here anymore. I hope I will again more regularly, one day not too far away. I still reflect and ponder too many things in my head but it rarely reaches the screen because, although I am thrilled at how my life has expanded with more work and more friendships, it means that when I am at the keyboard these days (and that is about 12 hours or more most days) there is so much work to do, or people to respond to via email.

So, I just wanted to say that I am thinking of you all, maybe some of you more than you would think I am from the lack of contact.

And, I'm still eating lots of chocolate. We had a lovely day yesterday with dear friends. It poured with rain but it was so nice to be in the countryside in a real house that it didn't matter we stayed indoors. We had a yummy lunch and divine brownies. Carol is such a great baker. She'd make a fortune if she chose to set up shop. Though, maybe not, I guess baking is not the most profitable business. It would be fun though! I think I would probably end up eating all my profits if I tried it.

Chocolate Week starts next Monday. So quickly it's upon us! And so many exciting events. I'm really excited about the Full Day tour I have on the 18th.

OK, a few more things to do before I sleep. I'll be back soon!

Go and see Danny Bhoy

2008-09-24T20:47:00.001Z

Showing at Soho theatre until Saturday. Around the world more in the next year.

Nothing to do with chocolate but really funny! Let me know what you think if you go!

2 chocolatiers I forgot to mention

2008-09-10T19:41:00.004Z

In my rush to mention the fine food fair on Sunday in time for Londoners to get down there to see for themselves I totally forgot to mention two other very interesting chocolatiers I encountered: Booja Booja and Zotter.

Booja Booja have been making vegan truffles for years now (I don't know how long exactly, but a while). You wouldn't know they were vegan at all when you eat them. Most excitingly they have a new range of super-fresh truffles coming out that must be kept chilled and these are made using agave syrup/nectar instead of sugar. So they are incredibly good for you. Kudos to them. You can get them in all good department stores in the UK, and some smaller food retailers as well.

Zotter I was alerted to early this year by Will of the market stall in Cabbages and Frocks. I am told they have been making chocolate for years, which would explain why they have such an enormous range. It is very experimental - chocolate and bacon bits, peanut and ketchup. Not all of the flavours are quite so wacky though! One of the really interesting flavours available to taste was a white chocolate bar where instead of using milk powder the chocolatier subsitituted raspberry powder. So it was intensely raspberry-flavoured, and dairy-free to boot. Awesome. You can buy them in Harvey Nichols and some delis around London.

Mr Zotter (a little scary, no?:

Speciality Fine Food Fair at Olympia in London

2008-09-07T17:19:00.003Z

I spent five hours here today with my friend from work. It's on for the next two days. If you're in the food industry in the UK it's worth getting down there. Quite a few chocolate happenings of interest, notably:
Lauden Chocolatier of Leeds - no shop yet but making superb fruit chocolates with Valrhona and some Amedei, though all Valrhona at the show.
Valrhona and their new bars and fabulous new packaging.
Ooh la la Chocolatiers - two fun girls making chocolates and cupcakes with a variety of couvetures. I didn't taste their chocolates but they looked interesting!
And some of the old favourites:
Cocoa Loco and their yummy brownies and more
Demarquette
and Vanini were back too.
The Chocolate Empire looked good too but they were busy when I walked past and I forgot to go back. (I was a bit weary by the end!)

http://www.specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk/ Enjoy!

Surprisingly Vegan Chocolate truffles at Wholefoods

2008-08-10T14:09:00.006Z

Yesterday I went by Melt and Wholefoods. I bought only 4 chocolates in Melt: Kalamansi, Sea Salt Praline, Passionfruit and a Passionfruit and Mango cube. They were all divine but I had barely left the shop by the time I had finished them all so as the bus home went past Wholefoods I thought I would go in and perhaps get another chocolate. In the collection downstairs there are some of Melt's chocolates, amongst others. There was a coconut ganache I hadn't seen in the Notting Hill store so I asked the woman behind the counter if I could try it. She cut one in half for me and waited for my reaction. It was very mildly coconuty. She suggested I also try the vegan chocolate truffles (rolled in coconut) which she told me she made with coconut cream instead of regular cream. I asked her what chocolate she used and as soon as she told me Valrhona Manjari I asked to buy four. She then offered for me to try one first. Smart move as then I decided to get a few more. You would never have known they were vegan, or made with coconut cream. You couldn't tell at all because the fruitiness of the Manjari was stronger. Knowing how much better for you coconut oil is than dairy (in fact recommended as part of a weight-loss diet!) I think I might have to have these more often when I want truffles! They were really well made, and cheaper than any other chocolate truffles made with Valrhona in London. All the other house made chocolates were made with Callebaut. We had a further chat about chocolate and discussed other possiblities. I might have to pop in again to see what she's come up with. Quite a cool perk to the job to be able to play around with flavours and then get them straight to such a wide market. It made me want to go home and play with chocolate, but knowing I'd eat them all straight away,as well as the ones I'd just bought, I thought I might wait for now.

Oh, Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory is back on TV again. I think this is the episode I'm in.

I ate everything at Acorn House

2008-07-25T19:14:00.002Z

OK, not everything in the whole restaurant but I did sample every one of the meals, all of the salads and each of the desserts except the strawberry and cream. Every dish was spectacular. The arrabiata on the trout, the succulence of the pork belly and tenderness of the lamb and lots of fresh vegetables and leaves in the salads, the pasta dishes, especially the infamous prawn caramelline and the pasta with pancetta and cherry tomatoes - a lighter version of carbonara.

It was made all the better knowing how ecological the restaurant is, yet nothing is sacrificed for flavour of the dishes. In desserts the stand outs were black pepper chocolate cake with ginger ice cream was fabulous and the cherry eton mess a perfect melding of vanilla-flecked cream and part-crispy, part-chewy meringue and sharp fruit.

Jamie was on duty and sensing our enthusiasm (perhaps because we gushed to him so) he offered to show us the roof garden and waste room. The latter not normally somewhere you would want to see in such an establishment but relieving to see the order and lack of any odour!

Acorn House Roof Garden

Chocolate Beer

2008-07-22T20:07:00.003Z

At university beer and chocolate were my two favourite things. Well, certainly the two most frequently consumed. So I always assumed Belgium would be the best place ever, home of beer and chocolate. I can't believe it took me 3 1/2 years of living full time in London to get there this February and I can't believe it took me until tonight to drink this beer I brought back with me:

Chocolate beer! It was good. Strange. The sweet smell of milky chocolate in what is a slightly hoppy fizzy drink, like alcoholic creamy soda! (Does this exist in the UK?) This picture was taken on our brand new table and chairs in our tiny garden. It's so nice to have somewhere to sit outside and it looks so much prettier outside the window now too. Even nicer that we finally have a warm evening! Bring on Summer.

the bath is my sanctuary

2008-07-11T21:49:00.002Z

Lately (always?) I seem to be either at work, working on the business, visiting my family, or something else comes up that I can't seem to say no to. I love all those areas of my life. They all have frustrating and boring moments but I wish I had more time in every area because there is always more I would like to achieve or more time I'd like to spend with people or more people I'd like to spend time with. I'm not the greatest at saying no so I guess this doesn't help with the current overfill of my calendar. Granted, this is not a great trait in my job, but it is much easier to say at work and the repetition of saying no during work hours has made it much easier to say elsewhere. The trouble is I don't usually want to say no, there are so many things I want to say yes to.

So right now, my best escape is to light candles and lay in the bath. Today it's better than chocolate (although I have had chocolate too!).

Chocolate @ Taste of London

2008-06-22T18:44:00.003Z

I couldn't resist buying both of these chocolate desserts yesterday. Both restaurants mentioned the Valrhona chocolate they had used by the specific type so I figured they knew their chocolate and could not just be looked at. I got the One-o-One offering first. We had savoury dishes from here last year and they were sensational. I also love salted caramel.

Coupe Liegoise of dark Manjari brownie chocolate, coffee and salt caramel ice cream.

The coffee mousse was delicious and the honeycomb crumbled at the bottom was fabulous. Despite the addition of the icecream it didn't really taste "puddingy" enough to be satisfying. The chocolate could have almost been anything, there was none of Manjari's trademark fruitiness coming through.

After another lap of the grounds and another savoury interruption (parmesan custard with anchovy toasts - super salty, but interesting) we joined the throngs at L'Atelier du Robuchon for this:

Chocolate sensation au chocolat Araguani, sorbet au cacao amer et biscuit Oreo - Creamy Araguani chocolate, bitter chocolate sorbet and Oreo cookie crumbs.

Now this was a dessert that filled a gap. A little too well. The little balls of crunch hidden amongst the mousse and sorbet were a welcome textural change for what was otherwise almost too rich after all the other food we had consumed.

I was much more restrained overall this year. I don't know if it wasn't as good as last year or if I just remembered how insanely full I was last year and therefore held back a little.

It was great also to see Gorvett & Stone, Paul A Young and Cocoa Loco showing off their delicious chocolate creations. I had thought I would buy some to take away but I was so chocolate-ed out (yep, even me) from the two chocolate desserts that I couldn't face the thought of taking some home.

a summary of the last few weeks

2008-06-20T19:10:00.003Z

I’m not sure what happened to Sunday either, or the rest of the week for that matter. Except for returning Wednesday night (after Yo Sushi with friends) to a sparkling kitchen. Best £34 I have ever spent.

Where to start? Although I might protest otherwise I do enjoy being busy. Last minute madness at work adds to the excitement and I am obviously thrilled to be doing so many chocolate tours. Even more thrilled to have my second guide in full swing now. I love getting emails back with rave reviews. I may actually have accomplished what every business book tells you to do and hired people better than myself. I guess we all have different personalities but I know I have two truly excellent chocolate guides which is very nice indeed.

We are already planning the next trip to Paris. Not just because it took less than a week to demolish the bounty, but because there was still so much more to see. Next time we will organise a proper restaurant for Saturday night because although we read a sample menu for the one we did go to we were falsely seduced by oyster icecream and other molecular gastronomy-sounding dishes (really, who thought up that word, does that really sound appetising?) it was mostly a lot of fluff. Expensive fluff too. Delicious sounding dishes that just didn’t deliver, especially not at the cost. The maitre’d was excellent but the waitresses looked like they were lost. Cest la vie.

There has been a chocolate event at least one evening a week for the last few weeks and then tours on the weekends. I attended another Seventypercent tasting with special guest Alex Rast explaining the matrix by which all fine chocolate will fall into – in the four corners: earthy, spicy, fruity and creamy (if I remember correctly? Please remind me if I’ve got it wrong!).

Paul Young hosted an Ecuadorian chocolate and jewellery event at his store in Camden Passage. When we arrived he poured us glasses of his special chocolate brew, informing us “you only need two”. One and a half was where I stopped! Delicious, rich and managing to be both refreshing and – because of the alcohol – warming. I want the recipe.

Last Friday Beth Dunn hosted a chocolate party in St Paul’s. Truffles, biscuits, cakes, shortbread and chunks of chocolate brought in by her and Chrstine (who runs cooking classes). Somehow I was still there when they turned the lights on. It was a fun evening catching up with friends from a variety of areas in my life and introducing them all to each other.

Then earlier this week I got myself along to the first open Academy of Chocolate event. Chantal Coady who is celebrating 25 years of Rococo Chocolates gave a talk and offered us a variety of chocolate to sample. Bill McCarrick (Sir Hans Sloane Chocolates), William Curley, Paul Young and Sevetypercent where all there with chocolates to taste too. It’s definitely worth getting yourself along to the next one (I’ll give you notice, I promise!). I have heard Chantal talk at least once before but most of what she said tonight was new to me, a new insight into chocolate production and also into her business history. From everyone I speak to, and my own limited experience, having your own business is both one of the most rewarding experiences and the most stressful. Especially when everything is on the line for it. I like how my business supports these other chocolate businesses – by bringing chocolate lovers for their best chocolate experience.

In other news, my mum arrives from Australia tonight. I will be sharing her with the rest of her family after tonight but I am so excited to see her!

Apologies that this has fallen into the blog curse of listing events but there was so many chocolate things to share with you all!

Tomorrow I'm off to Taste of London. I will be saying hi to Paul Young and Cocoa Loco brownie and truffle makers! And, no doubt, eating and drinking myself silly. I'll be the one accompanied by the motherly-looking identical twins, on their induction to fine food. It should be entertaining.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

2008-06-12T21:22:00.003Z

I have had a very intense few weeks and it isn't over yet. I need to go to bed now but it's been so long since I blogged!

Work has been super busy and every spare minute outside of that has been filled with chocolate, with the exception of a very peaceful weekend in the country with friends last weekend - though it feels so long ago now.

I have to say though that even though I may be running on adrenalin I am so happy. I love it when my life is filled with chocolate. Work's been really interesting too. I've been to two chocolate events in the last week, visited so many chocolate boutiques, been sent chocolate brownies and tomorrow night am off to a chocolate party and have the new Chelsea Chocolate tour on Saturday (so tomorrow won't be a late one!) plus organising a last minute hen tour to run simultaneously on Saturday. What fun!

I promise to post more details about all of these choc-adventures on Sunday (or at least start to!) when I finally stop. Though I really should clean the flat first. I'm so pleased we finally hired a cleaner - I just wish they were able to start this week!

the longest chocolate walk ever

2008-05-31T21:23:00.001Z

10.5 miles! We did plan, even with the detailed maps, to play the day by ear. We only decided the first few shops that we would visit, after these we were making good time so decided to try and see more, especially as most would not be open tomorrow. So we walked and walked. Stopping finally for lunch in a brasserie in a gorgeous square. At this point quite ravenous because we had been buying, rather than trying, at each shop. We got the last two shops in just before closing, then stopped by L’Epicerie – supermarket heaven for me. Like a cross between WholeFoods and Selfridge’s Food Hall but oozing with French glamour. Only sad that the other incredible food shops aren’t open tomorrow so they will have to wait until the next (as yet, unplanned) visit. With aching feet we arrived home after 8pm. We mapped out our route on walkjogrun.net the total miles we walked were just over 10 (about 16.5km). Next time we should probably wear proper walking shoes!

More details to come.... Time for dinner!

A Chocolate Adventure in Paris

2008-05-31T09:05:00.000Z

It’s been two years and one month since I was last in Paris. Far too long. This time I’m better equipped for chocolate exploration. I’ve made a map with most of the chocolate shops and patisseries and printed out some additional details to remind me what’s what. Also, this time I’m here with my good friend who is, most conveniently, half-French and a chocolate lover and expert. It’s good to be here with someone who is as passionate about chocolate as I am! This way I don’t have to feel bad for dragging someone else into my obsession! Here we go….

Chocolate and Wine tasting

2008-05-24T17:01:00.003Z

On Wednesday night I went along to Seventypercent's Chocolate and Wine tasting. Surprisingly, though I've been to wine tastings and to (many) chocolate tastings and I've indulged in the two together many times, this was the first time I'd gone to a proper tasting. It was truly an education. I think I learnt the most from experimentation (don't we always?).

I arrived early to help the team set up and, in order to man the tables appropriately, took it upon myself to check out as many combinations as possible (without opening the champagne or the Eiswin which were both chilling.

I discovered that the 10 Year Old Tawny Port was fantastic with the Valrhona Ampamakia, quite good with the Pralus Ecuador, not so good with the milk chocolates. They were divine with the champagne and the Eiswin. The milk chocolates were Michel Cluizel's Maralumi Lait and the Amedei Toscano Brown.

Willie's 100% Rio Caribe was an interesting combination with an Angus Bull Red. It also went quite well with the fortified wine, Mon Amis.

If I had to choose for my own after dinner selection it would be the Mon Amis with Amedei Chuao or the Eiswin with the Amedei Toscano Brown. Heavenly.

and the Chocolate Awards go to...

2008-05-17T07:21:00.001Z

What a great night. Champagne, chocolate, what more could a girl ask for?

It was a really well-run evening and the award-giving part of the evening ran smoothly, there was the opportunity for it to drag a bit but the presenter kept it moving along swiftly. Perhaps he wanted to get back to the chocolate himself?

It was almost a clean sweep for William Curley who took home a swathe of well-deserved certificates and a mounted, spray-painted cacao pod as further recognition. I had the opportunity to try some of his, and the other award-winning chocolates, during the evening. I was in total chocolate ecstasy upon trying his juniper berry and cassis truffle. This gold winner was a jelly layered on ganache, enrobed in dark Amedei chocolate - bliss. His very lovely staff gave me some to take home too which I was delighted about because with all the different varieties around that evening even I couldn't have tried them all. Because of this I got to try his raspberry truffle which I had eschewed for the more adventurous flavours on offer that evening. It was similarly wondrous.

A few other highlights included Bill McCarrick's white chocolate with passionfruit and drambuie. I don't even like white chocolate especially so this is saying something. Paul Young had a refreshing goats cheese and citrus filled chocolate and Theo (of USA) brought along his award-winning fig and fennel truffles - delicious.

I was still on a chocolate high at 10am yesterday, having woken - eyes wide - at 5am, even at 10am my eyes were gleaming and limbs moving just a little too quickly and erratically as I gestured excitedly telling people about the chocolate. What a great way to perk up the day. I love chocolate.

Soon, so soon, there will be more. Off on the very first Chelsea Chocolate Ecstasy Tour today!

Off to the Academy Awards

2008-05-15T16:18:00.001Z

The Academy of Chocolate Awards, of course. It's tonight. What fun! Hmm, just realised it could be a formal affair. Oops, no time to get changed between there and work. Oh well, I'm sure people's focus will be on the chocolate!

Bonny Scotland

2008-05-11T08:19:00.004Z

Gosh, it has been a long time. I've been on holiday this week, in Scotland (had you guessed?). Somehow we fluked the first turn to consistent warm weather and in Scotland. Two days ago it was warmer in Inverness than in Barcelona. Never can anyone tell me that I bring bad weather, this may be the warmest week Scotland has all year.

It was nice to have a holiday where you just get in the car and drive, particularly when the sun is shining and the temperature hovers in the early twenties all week.

Enough talking, here are some pictures:
Go in Spring when there are sweet lambs like this one.

Real countryside, with cows and everything. :-)

And we climbed hills (!):

I found a great little cafe/bakery in Edinburgh where they sell all the top chocolate brands and make their ice cream and chocolate treats from Valrhona:

L'Artisan biscuits are back

2008-04-17T21:14:00.000Z

I'm in heaven! And maybe just a little sick. I should have stopped a biscuit or two ago. :-) I was just so excited that L'Artisan du Chocolat have started making their chocolate biscuits again. They are so good. Sophisticated buttery biscuits with a deep fruity chcoolate.

The Real Food Festival is on next weekend (Thurs 24th to Sunday 27th). I know L'Artisan du Chocolat will be there. I'm not sure who else yet but I'm certain it will be worth a look!

New Chocolate Entrepreneurs

2008-04-12T21:50:00.006Z

After the chocolate tour today I went back my usual way through the Cabbages and Frocks market. Lo and behold, a new chocolate maker is on the scene.

Check out Will and his team:

That's Will with the headphones. This is his first foray to selling to the public (he's been supplying events for the last year or so).

And these are his exciting chocolates (all three boxes):

The passion just oozes out of this guy. I love it. I promised him I'd get Alice to deliver next week's tour group to his stall next week. They might be chocolate-ed out but it'll be worth it.

This, I believe, is how he made it through the week preparing the chocolates for market:

Super sugar.

Go along and check him out on Saturdays at the Marylebone market or at his website.

the youngest person to ever come on a chocolate tour

2008-04-11T18:40:00.000Z

Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

My friends' baby had his six month birthday on the trial of the new chocolate tour last Saturday. This was us in Fishworks having some food afterwards. They make the best taramasalata ever. You can see my fresh mint tea in the left of the picture. It came with an incredibly moreish brownie chunk that they make in-house. Yes, my capacity for eating chocolate is virtually limitless. Hey, we had a savoury break of fish and bread in between!

The little man was supremely well behaved throughout the whole tour. Chocolate tours aren't really the place for babies but you can take this one anywhere. He is a dream. All down to a very chilled mum and dad, me thinks.

oh, so full

2008-04-10T23:15:00.003Z

It took me until about 10am today to feel remotely hungry. Ok, I know that's not a particularly long time, but I still didn't eat much then.

I stuffed myself so much at dinner last night. A complete glutton. I went for a run at lunch today to try and make myself feel slightly better about it. But, then, I don't care too much. It was totally worth it.

We had the tasting menu at Petrus and it was superb. It's funny, I'm half-way through reading Gordon Ramsay's second biography and everything he says about his service in his restaurants is true. They offered to do substitutes if there was anything we couldn't or wouldn't eat and offered a vegetarian version of the tasting menu which I chose (with a fish dish from the a la carte in the "main" course). This way we get to try more, though the man was quite stubborn in letting me try his dishes. After I chose the vegetarian menu they came back with risotto ball canapes for me, sensitive to the fact that the lamb koftas and foie gras with blackberry powder might not be my favourites. The risotto balls with truffle oil were divine (though the lamb koftas were pretty good too!).

In his book Ramsay mentioned the champagne trolley "to make things simpler for the table in deciding aperitifs" and candidly admits that the £9.50 rose champagne helps the upselling of the bill. I expected the prices may have risen since the book was published (2007) but was still somewhat aghast at the £25-a-glass addition in the bill. Live and learn. I should have asked. I did get a small box of chocolates to take home (mmmmmm) so that went a way towards making it all ok. Frankly, it was better just to pretend the entire bill didn't exist and not to look at it again. La di da.

I do love going to restaurants like this but I'm glad not to do it too regularly. Mainly because I find it difficult to leave food on my plate (though the budget blow-out is the real reason!). The truffle risotto (my 2nd official course) was delicious. I was surprised to find a few of the dishes - this one included - overly salty, but the variety of breads we were offered mopped this saltiness up reasonably well.

The turbot was delectable too, as was my halibut with truffles and baby vegetables. Melt in the mouth good.

Our final course was a chocolate molleux (warm) with banana jelly cubes and banana icecream for me and a lemon creme with brioche crisp for him. We couldn't decide which was better but both were incredible. The chocolate was Valhrona 70%. Caraibe, I assume. We thought we were done but oh no... The chocolate tree came our way. An elaborate set of hanging truffle baskets. There were six varieties and I ended up trying them all (not knowing I would get a box of four when I left). My current chocolate craving is for chcoolate and nuts so the milk chocolate praline was the most satisfying but I really loved the mango and passionfruit. It was a dark chocolate shell filled with a fruit puree. There was also a plain dark caribbean truffle, a cassis (its white chocolate shell overpowered the delicious blackcurrant centre a bit too much), a coconut (too sickly, but perhaps only because I was so full already) and a salted caramel. For the first time in a long, long time I was chocolate-d out. I genuinely thought I might not eat any chocolate today. But it was a dull train journey home so I picked up a large slice of chocolate cake at St Pancras. "Oops."

I think I should probably go running again tomorrow.

in anticipation of Ramsay proteges

2008-04-07T21:13:00.002Z

Snow. In April? What's going on?! At least it's lighter in the evenings. It's amazing how much that can lift spirits. Despite spending more hours in the office last week than I have so far this year, I felt energised and awake. I thought it was just because I was enjoying the work I was doing. I realised today on my pilgrimage to a chocolate shop that last week was the first week after the clocks changing for daylight saving. Ah ha! So, despite the snow, summer must be on the way. Right?!

The good thing about snow is it makes hot chocolates all the more enticing.

On Wednesday night we're eating at Petrus. I can't wait. I'll be sure to eat something chocolate-y and report back.

the New Chocolate Tour

2008-04-05T16:39:00.003Z

I've just got back from the trial of the new Chocolate Ecstasy Tour. This one is in the Chelsea/Kensington area. In the time it took me to put on a load of washing my lovely man - who came with me today - had fallen asleep! Despite sleeping later than me this morning! Though I guess I am able to keep going and going and going once I've had chocolate! Tours always give me a high, too. I just love introducing people to great chocolate All the shops did a spectacular job today and I can't wait to start taking more people to these shops as well. I just need to schedule the public launch date! Due to other commitments it looks like it might be the first weekend in June. I'm really excited that each tour is unique. All but one of my guinea pigs today had been on the original Chocolate Tour and all agreed that each tour has its own specialness.

I've got to go get ready to go out for dinner with friends now (will the eating never stop? :-) ).

If you are interested in being part of the public launch of the brand new Chocolate Ecstasy Tour let me know!

Brownies made by me!

2008-03-29T21:31:00.002Z

Whenever possible I give people chocolate brownies in their goody bags on the chocolate tours. This week I wasn't organised in time so I didn't have any ready for today from Cocoa Loco, in Sussex, so I made my own!

Here they are in the container before I packed them into plastic bags this morning. Made with organic free range eggs, organic butter, organic flour, organic sugar and Belgian chocolate. We tried them last night and they were pretty darn good (if I may say so myself!).

Chocolate tour this Friday 28th March

2008-03-25T22:24:00.002Z

There are still a few spaces! No more after this until May 31st.
Book now if you want to come along!
(The link keeps playing up, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Email me if you want to come along!)

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter! I made the cookies from the recipe on my website. Soooo good.

Cake made with Willie's chocolate

2008-03-17T06:47:00.002Z

This one was cooked, not like his Cloud cake. It's very good. I'm going to putthe recipe in my Easter newsletter which I'll send out this week. You can sign up for it via the free cookie recipe form on the left of the Chocolate Ecstasy Tours homepage.

No French chocolate in the French Alps

2008-03-16T12:20:00.002Z

A week in the great outdoors. Well, the great, manufactured outdoors. As we were skiing in France I didn’t take any chocolate with me, assuming that, being France, good chocolate would be easily accessible everywhere. Bizarrely, whilst all of the supermarkets had a slightly different selection, the majority of the chocolate was Swiss. Having said that, the closest airport is Geneva so I expect this is not so bizarre as I first thought. Fortunately the Lindt Caramel Creation got me through the week! This isn’t a bar I’ve seen in the UK and although it has the tell-tale ever-so-slightly overroasted taste to the chocolate, the thin caramel and mousse layers that this chocolate enshrouds more than make up for this lacking. Towards the end of the week I found a patisserie that had a selection of bon bons (small, filled chocolates) that were made in house (according to the sign, at least). My French and the assistant’s English could not get me to a point of understanding what couverture they used but the passionfruit filling in one of the chocolates was scrumptious, nonetheless. (If you go to Val Thorens it is in the little shopping centre where the pharmacy is, but, again, it's only the fillings that are good, rather than the chocolate.)

We had two days of lovely weather when we first arrived, while I slowly tried to remember what to do with these things strapped to my feet, and then the weather turned sour on Sunday night I had to wonder on Monday as I traversed the grey slopes in the biting cold, what the appeal of this skiing thing was. The miserable weather continued through until Wednesday, the nightly snowfall making the slopes too powdery to appeal to a pretty ordinary skier like me, especially as the winds revealed icy patches by the afternoons. But when the sun came out again Thursday and gave us three days of continuously cloudless sky it was easy to forget that I had vowed never to bother coming skiing again. I love it! Ah, so fickle.

So, today, I am going to bake something with Willie's chocolate whilst the washing machine churns through load after load. Part 3 airs tonight. I keep getting contacted by people who say they have seen me on TV, but I've not seen the trailer myself. I kind of forgot the cameras were there.

Cocomaya in this very chocolate-y week

2008-03-06T22:19:00.003Z

I had planned to write about my chocolatey exploits of last night, where I experimented with Willie's 100% chocolate liquor, clotted cream and St Dalfour cherry jam (on ciabatta from Wholefoods, it was gooooood). So good, in fact, that I repeated it tonight with an M&S mixed berry smoothie and some honey instead of the jam. This version was also all too moreish.

OK, so I have ended up telling you about my homely chocolate feasting, but much more briefly than I might have because in my inbox this morning I fortuitously actually read the Daily Candy email that arrived and discovered that Cocomaya opened in Connaught St, W2. I heard rumours a few weeks ago that a new chocolate shop was opening in the area and, lo and behold, here it was, opened!

I was delighted to be able to get there in my lunch break, and even more thrilled that two of the three masterminds behind it were in-store to chat to. Lovely chaps indeed, as were all the others in store, too. The store is beautifully decorated in purples and greens with butterflies in frames on the wall and unique cake stands that delicately display delicious chocolatey delights. I was so enthralled in the chatting and tasting that I forgot to take any pictures. It's fortunate I have no plans for a career in photo-journalism. In Cocomaya the chocolate-making happens at the back which you can observe through a glass partition. My next tour version is launching in May but it looks like I'm going to have to add No 3 to the mix shortly afterwards!

It's always inspiring to see how each chocolatier creates their own unique chocolates, therefore making visits to all of them essential (I can see how that could be a bad thing, I suppose). What's unique here? Strawberry chilli truffles, milk pomegranate domes and sour cherry truffles. More too, I'm sure. The milk and honey ganache I tried this evening from my take-home box was a delight. In the next few weeks Jonathan (the chocolate master) will complete his range, of around 35 chocolates in total. I'm going to have to go back soon to check out what else he comes up with.

Tomorrow I'm off to France, with limited internet access. Hopefully with unlimited chocolate access. Ski slopes or hot chocolate? Hmmm... tough one.

Sir Hans Sloane Hot Chocolate

2008-03-04T22:44:00.004Z

We went to the Liberty Cardholders' evening tonight. When the invitation arrived a few weeks ago I immediately spotted the chocolate tasting with Sir Hans Sloane Chocolates. I was excited to get to see the lovely Bill McCarrick again, and particularly to taste more of his chocolate. He scolded me for not having been down to see him yet. I've really wanted to!! I will get down there in April - diaries permitting - and give you all a full report of his chocolate studio.

His chocolate was even better than I remembered. We came home with a few of his bars and a tin of his hot chocolate. I tasted this just after he discovered it, when he spoke on my full day chocolate tour last October. Crunchy sugar granules that are sprayed with layers of chocolate and spun in a metal bowl until they shine, it is both pretty and delicious. As we had a pint of organic whole milk in our fridge (very rare for us) we decided to mix some up when we got home. Taking great care not to boil the milk we mixed up our nightcaps, then frothed them with the mini electric frothing gadget we got as a gift last Christmas. Yum. Well, actually, I prefer to eat it straight from the bag. As a drink it's a bit sweet for me (but then I am a fan of 100% chocolate!). The other half was thrilled with his cup, made meticulously to Bill's directions. I added some of Willie Harcourt-Cooze's (of Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory) 100% Hacienda El Tesoro and some Valhrona cocoa powder. The kitchen is now a lovely chocolatey mess and when I went for a shower a short time ago I discovered I'd even managed a chocolate smudge on my forehead. If you saw Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory you'll know that 100% chocolate isn't really the best thing to have at bedtime. While milk contains tryptophan that helps encourage sleep, chocolate gives you a buzz, hence this rapidly written post. Oh well. I'm tired enough I'm sure I'll get to sleep anyway. I used to be such a morning person. Somewhere in the last few years I transformed into this night owl who gets far more excited and active and productive late in the evening. I do love mornings though. I've been making more of an effort to set my alarm earlier and go for a short run. It's not much but it helps keep me awake during the day, and now that it's getting lighter earlier the sky is gorgeous when I'm out.

It's hard to discern whether it's chatting to chocolate people or eating the chocolate that gets me so excited. I think a mixture. I get excited speaking to anyone who's passionate about their work. I always get excited about chocolate too, and together it's compounded.

So, I should probably lay my weary (and buzzing) head. I have written some posts in the last few weeks that I haven't published yet. I just need to find them!

One more thing: I found out Willie's chocolate is on sale in Waitrose too! Very exciting for him. You can get Sir Hans Sloane chocolate in Liberty (obviously), Selfridges and The General Trading Co. Go and get some of his pralines. I wish I had.

Willie and the Chocolate Factory starts tonight!

2008-03-02T20:49:00.001Z

Ahead of plan people! 9pm Channel 4 tonight. Watch it!!

A weekend of eating (and drinking) in Belgium

2008-02-05T17:13:00.000Z

Food, glorious, food. It’s possible I actually ate less chocolate in Belgium than I would normally. But I bought more than I have in a long time, at least, in one day. I was far too easily persuaded by the much cheaper prices of the chocolates there than the same chocolate in London. That was my excuse for buying 1.5kg of Valrhona chocolate. Yes, it's French, but it was much cheaper there than it is here. 1kg of that was in a single block that I intend to use for cooking. Maybe.

On top of these fabulous deals there were a few gems that you can’t get in London. I ignored the ones you could, and I also ignored all the other “chocolate shops” with samey products. I would stick my head in (sometimes not even that) and do a quick assessment of whether it was worth my time. I don’t think it was too intolerable for my ever patient traveling partner. He shouldn’t complain, I did get all the boxes made up with two of pretty much everything.

I understand now why one of the people who came on my tour suggested I should run tours to Belgium. In some ways, it's pointless because that's what people go there for anyway, but having now seen for myself the sheer number of chocolate shops... It is quite overwhelming and quite difficult to discern what is quality and what is not. Unfortunately price, though a reliable indicator, does not always suffice.

The chocolate museum, behind the Grand Plac, was fantastic. It was really interesting and the enthusiasm of the chocolatier doing the demonstration was wonderful. I love passion in people, which is a further benefit for being part of the "chocolate world", people in the industry usually have so much passion for their vocation.

Travelling by Eurostar was brilliant. We arrived in time to leave our bags at the hotel and go wandering for supper and beer. We found went to a brasserie and ordered as tourist-Belgian as we could: moules naturale with frites, Belgian beers, followed by waffles with chocolate sauce and ice cream. Saturday we caught the train to Brugges for our extravaganza at the three-starred Michelin restaurant, De Karmeliet. We couldn’t ignore the tasting menu. Seven courses. The cheese course procuring the full cheese trolley (le chariot de fromages!). Before we chose our menu option we were given five amuse bouche each, which included a tartlette of tomato, basil and cheese, an olive friand, mackeral with salsa and a langoustine mousse. These were a great incentive to order the full degustation menu.

Our seventh dessert course turned out to be first a stand with 7 petit fours each, then a plate of three apple desserts (including sorbet, pastry, icecream, foam, mousse, crisp and rice pudding) and finally they whisked away this empty plate and returned with the chocolate construction below:

We were ridiculously and deliciously full, and we still have kilos of chocolate to work our way through. Now you might see why we bought to take home, rather than sampling too much while we were there!

Highlights:

The Chocolate Line in Brugge was inspiring. I get the feeling the main chocolatier doesn't make all of the multitude of chocolates he offers but I bet he makes these ones himself:

The one at the front is Fried Onions. Yes, fried onions. It was pretty hideous to be truthful. I wasn't a big fan of the Saffron Curry either (but that's partly because I don't love white chocolate). The Wasabi was interesting, and really well balanced. The Black Olive, Sundried Tomato and Basil was less appealing but provoking nonetheless. His better chocolates were some not featured in this image. The passionfruit, the raspberry and some of his pralines. Plaudits for his adventurousness though!

Pierre Marcolini in Brussels (on the grand sablon):

He is the only chocolatier in Brussels to make his own couveture from the bean. Fantastic chocolates. His nut-encrusted truffles were particularly moreish.

Others in Brussels worth going to (that are harder to find in the UK):
Wittamer for their square ganaches and raspberry hearts (ignore the truffles in hard shells) and Galler (though you can find them in Harrods Chocolate Hall there are a few extra treats you won't find in the UK yet).

On the way to the chocolate capital, Brussels.

2008-02-01T23:08:00.000Z

Sometimes life is great. Like, right now, I’m on the train on my way to Brussels, planning moules et frites for when we arrive, staying in a nice (albeit chain) hotel and a three star Michelin restaurant booked for lunch tomorrow. I’m in the middle of Lollipop Shoes (I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read it!) and it’s as wonderful as Chocolat. The prose used to describe the chocolate make me so glad that I have a business in chocolate. Then there’s the fact that on top of all the chocolate lying waiting for me to explore in Belgium, there’s also Belgian beer and the fact that people have been saying nice things about my tours. Hooray. I stumbled across this blog post written by a fabulous American girl who came on my tour a few months ago. I love people who love food! And I also had a call from a lady to book her gift certificates that were bought for her by her son who had loved the tour so much he had to buy it for his parents. I remember him and his lovely wife, a singer. That was a fun tour. I get to meet such great people.

If this post all sounds a bit gushy, I apologise. What can I say? It’s the start of a weekend, I’m going to another country for the weekend (I love living in London!), and people have said nice things about something I’ve put quite a lot of love and effort into. Oh yeah, and all the deliciousness to come. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to give you all the details!

Willie and the Chocolate Factory

2008-01-24T08:21:00.000Z

What are the odds of the first man to start making chocolate from the bean in the UK to have the name of Willie? Love it. Mr Dahl, I’m sure, would be very pleased.

The lovely chaps from Seventypercent invited me to a tasting for Willie Harcourt-Cooze. To be filmed as part of a four-part documentary showing in March. I’m guessing this section is demonstrating the chocolate revolution in the UK and exactly why there will be a demand for Willie’s chocolate liquor in stores. Now, I should clarify: Mr Harcourt-Cooze Is not making chocolate as we know it. He has a farm ( a “hacienda”) in Venezuela and rather than selling his beans to other manufacturers he decided to grind the beans to liquor himself. Liquor is the early stage of chocolate, you will see it as an ingredient on the back of chocolate (also seen as cocoa solids). It doesn’t yet have sugar mixed with it and hasn’t been conched with additional cocoa butter and the sugar to make it smoother and more palatable (this process destroys a lot of the flavanoids that give us antioxidants but, on the upside, remove the bitterness (one and the same in this case, unfortunately).

Only recently, two UK businesses have started to make chocolate themselves, but even these companies buy in the liquor. The making of chocolate they do is all in the blending of the liquor to their own times and temperatures and with varying amounts of sugar. Willie’s product will be completely niche in the UK. It’s not a big production but it will appeal to all of you who, like me, love the idea of stripping food right back to the raw ingredient and then messing about with it in your own kitchen. In order for us to get a taste for his product Willie made it into a tartufo (the liquor, a small amount of sugar and cream). You could tell that the quality was good. There’s a definite difference to the taste and texture because it’s pre-conching but it was miles better than cheaper chocolate in stores and a better flavour profile than some of the other pure bars we tasted on the night. Unfortunately because it was all being filmed I couldn’t really take any pictures but the documentary debuts the 2nd Thursday in March. The tasting is unlikely to be until at least the third hour but I think the whole series, beginning at the plantation in Venezuela, will be just fascinating.

The first line of the liquor goes on sale exclusively in Selfridge’s on February 18th. Sometime in the next few month’s I’m hoping to get down to Devon to see his factory, and one day I might run a chocolate tour to his plantation in Venezuela. Now that would be cool.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-12T19:28:00.000Z

OK, it's a little late, but it isn't quite Christmas again yet. Though I'm sure that this year it will arrive as quickly as it seemed to last year! In the meantime, there's a lot of chocolate to eat.

Back in the UK now and I'm tempted on almost every corner by quality European brands and my chocolate consumption has returned to its sky-high levels, unfortunately this hasn't been accompanied by resuming regular exercise. Oops. Though I have been doing quite a bit of wandering around London in my research for the 2nd Chocolate Tour, which will launch in the next few months (hooray!).

I hope you all had a fabulous start to 2008. We did, celebrating at home with great friends and great food (well, the ingredients were good, I shouldn't shout too loud as I made most of it). We did have lovely homebaked bread (not made by me) and our friends brought taramasalata from Fishworks (soooo good, if you haven't tried it and you are anywhere near a Fishworks restaurant, go now!) and they also bought chocolate cakes. So we had two chocolate desserts, the one I prepared (to be more specific, this is one I had only got as far as getting the ingredients out for but decided to make even after hearing they had brought another chocolate dessert) and the Christmas Logs from La Maison du Chocolat. The home-made dessert was a peach and chocolate pudding. What can I say? it's Winter here, and hot chocolate pudding was required. I feel I should perhaps clarify that we also had a main course of baked salmon, kale and hazelnut and parsley mash potatoes. I'm getting hungry writing this...

Three days later I was treated to dinner in Claridge's. We discovered they do a fabulous deal on a three course meal. Delicious food, and they use Valhrona Manjari in their chocolate dessert (though the raspberry was actually the tastier dessert, I think).

If you have found this site through Red Magazine, welcome! I hope to see you on a tour sometime!

Now it's really time for dinner. Wishing you all good food and good chocolate and good health for 2008!

Back soon...

homeward bound

2007-12-29T23:55:00.000Z

Well, there was more baking, more chocolate and there was more proper activity. A few more farm walks, I pedalled a few laps of some of the paddocks while the boys played with the motorbikes, and we had a few hits of tennis (I’m so bad at it!) and on the gorgeously sunny boxing day we did make it to the beach AND managed to make this spectacular sand castle.

We packed so much into every day, yet felt completely relaxed the whole time, it was more in retrospect that we realised in one day we’d baked (twice), played tennis, gone to the beach (twice) and spent a fair bit of time just hanging around. Other days were similarly busy and it passed all too quickly before we had to pile our luggage into my mum’s toy car and drive back to Melbourne for our flight home. Not before catching up with a few more friends at a pub, riverside. Melbourne is more gorgeous now than it was when I was a student there, though I am very happy living in London. I was sorry not to have spent more time with my Australian friends, it was all too short, sorrier still I didn’t see some at all, though this always happens, and glad that this time I got to see some I’d missed the last time. It’s amazing how quickly the years pass and how when you return after not seeing people for so long it all feels so easy still.

What will I miss? My dad’s breadmaker bread, made from flour he mills himself, the sunshine, trying more of the restaurants and discovering all the food changes that occur in my absence, being able to go to the farm and relax and eat my mother’s famous chips. I’ll miss walking along the beach. Mostly I’ll miss the people, especially my delightful niece and nephew who made Christmas so special.

Back to Old Blighty. Does anyone know why it’s called that? I could Google it I suppose… Except I’m writing this on the plane and there’s no search engine up here… In fact there’s not much of anything on this plane, no personal TVs, not even a personal air conditioning vent! Good on the way out with back to back night flights we slept, with no distractions to watch films, I’ve managed to fill almost the entire twelve hour flight to Shanghai with a thick and very addictive novel bought for me by my Holly for Christmas. Perhaps I’ll nap on tomorrow’s flight.

Ain't no sunshine while we're here...

2007-12-21T21:53:00.000Z

We keep getting scolded for bringing the weather with us. But it’s not true! Most of the days we have had here have been sunny and nice! Well, maybe slightly more than have been raining. Today it is cool. Time for scrabble and films. Might as well have stayed in the UK! Though I would rather this than the high thirties they are predicting for the week after we leave. Especially this is suitable weather for a sweet-toothed frenzy. Mind you, all of the desserts I’ve made so far are cold ones: chocolate ripple cake, the biscuits soaked in cherry juice; a chocolate-cherry cake; and a loganberry marscapone trifle. The chocolate-cherry cake was pretty ordinary. I was glad I didn’t use all of the good chocolate in it. If I’d had cocoa (forgot to buy cocoa, silly) I would have swapped it for some of the flour and I should have left out the lemon rind as my gut instinct was telling me. It was a confusion of being a fruit cake and a chocolate cake, and not in a good way. I love the combination of chocolate and cherries though (the chocolate ripple cake was divine) so I might have another go at the recipe. There’s still more baking to do before I leave, to use up more of the ingredients I bought. We might have to get up to something more active than one gorgeous walk along the bush tracks though!

the best meal ever (so far...)

2007-12-19T23:35:00.000Z

Wow. What a meal. That is the best meal I have had so far in my life. True, I have a lot more restaurants to try but previously I would have struggled to pick a favourite meal. Not so anymore.

In the six non-consecutive nights we had in Melbourne we managed to fit in meals at Taxi, Vue de Monde, Koko and Jacques Raymond. There are so many incredible restaurants in Melbourne and not enough time to go to all, but these seemed like a good selection. We were gluttons at all of them, accepting the full menu at two of the four. At Vue de Monde this was the ten course Gourmande menu. Gourmande, meaning someone who eats a lot, very appropriate. Of the ten courses, plus amuse bouche, palette cleansers and petits fours, only two were just ok, and the rest were outstanding. There was a lot of food theatre at the table, but a meal is partly about entertaining and the smoking bowls, the dry ice drinks and the bouillabaisse made at the table in a 1970s coffee machine were all delicious as well as entertaining to watch. I hate going out for a meal and receiving a dish I feel I could have made better myself. Only the chocolate dishes here were in that category (and maybe the cheese course). All of the other dishes were far beyond my culinary abilities, the creativity was inspiring and the ingredients both difficult to obtain and luxurious (too expensive for an amateur like me to experiment with!). Flavours were perfectly matched to be interesting, complementary and without overwhelming each other. Challenging the palette without distracting from the quality of the ingredients. Our first dish of salmon, with smoked, fresh, mousse, foam and jerky set the standards for intensity of flavour and variety of texture. The crayfish mousse wrapped in courgette (zuchinni here) and topped with a buerre noisette sat in a shallow Provençal vegetable soup with crayfish pieces was a favourite of all of us. Just divine. The first dessert course matched our first savoury in strength of flavour and texture variety, this time the central ingredient was raspberry: a raspberry mousse on crisp rice flavoured with raspberry and dotted with snap-frozen raspberries. On the side of the bowl was a raspberry cannelloni (striped raspberry sugar shell) filled with raspberry rice pudding and drizzled with a raspberry coulis. Yum, yum, yum and yum. The service was friendly and knowledgeable though I was surprised that after one of the servers knocked my brother’s glass of red wine over me (the poor waitress) they didn’t refill his glass and though the manager came with his card and offered to pay the dry cleaning, they didn’t offer any discount on the meal. Strange.

Of the five courses at Jacques Raymond only two were really good. The others seemed, to me, to be an attempt to be too clever, pairing strange ingredients that didn’t quite gel. Steamed spinach and dehydrated strawberries is an interesting idea but not particularly compelling and especially not next to vegetables I can't remember decorated with rubbery slivers of black truffle, a special “extra” we were persuaded to have. A piece of pumpkin laquered with palm sugar and miso, served on a vanilla puree with coriander, fennel and a soy and sake glaze was suberb, however. It was obvious when the ingredients weren’t as high quality, and too many of them weren’t. It isn’t like me to be too critical and I guess I just had too high expectations after hearing it was given best restaurant for 2008. Perhaps they were foreseeing better things for the coming year than they were able to produce for mid-December 2007? Though it’s considerably less expensive than Vue de Monde I’d still rather pay more and eat there.

Taxi was fabulous. Great quality food, beautifully plated. Slow service but pleasant enough. I was taunted by a cherry mousse with a Valhrona centre that had one tiny square of Manjari in the middle of cherry-hinted warm air. It had me (and my brother) digging into the chocolate stashes at home. With the views of the Yarra and the relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, and obviously the great food overall, I would definitely go there again.

Koko reminded me of an episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares where the chef was scolded for cooking everything on the grill and Gordon told him it was making all the food taste the same. We had teppanyaki. Our first course of sushi and sashimi was fantastic and the quality of the seafood and meat cooked to follow could not be argued with, but I kind of missed the impressive plating and accompanying sauces that normally happens in these restaurants. Even though we were given three bowls of sauces each to dip into as we pleased, somehow sloshing a bit of soy over the sizzling steak and a dab of butter and squeeze of lemon on the toothfish made it just seem less magical. But I guess everything just pales now in comparison to Vue du Monde... But I'm happy to face up to the challenge of trying to beat the best meal title in 2008!

All-Australian Experience

2007-12-13T21:03:00.000Z

I hadn’t expected this to be as much of a holiday as it is so far turning out to be. We’ve spent the most of the last few days in planes and cars, baptising the man to true Aussie experiences. On the first day we made it to the beach (albeit only the sand, the water wasn't too inviting), on the second a barbie with my friends, on the third we flew to Sydney and climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. An All-Australian experience for our first few days. At this point it finally rained, leaving him questioning the insults he receives about the weather in the UK, but it made the walk up the steel pylons all the more adventurous!

We’ve been treated to gorgeous seafood spreads and this morning a tropical fruit spread with fresh croissants before heading to the airport to fly back to Melbourne. We also saw Australian animals (and more) at the Taronga Zoo and swam in the beach at Noosa. We were completely spoiled in Brisbane with seafood followed by sparkling wine in the hot tub and a swim in the outdoor pool in the morning.

A giraffe with Sydney in the background (!). We went for lunch in the viewing tower you might be able to make out in the distance. Don't bother unless you are just going for the seafood. It's ok but I'm not a huge fan of buffets at the best of times, I like the choice but hate that the lack of focus that usually means most things aren't great, or that they have been sitting in the warmer for hours. The view is lovely though. I did get to introduce the man to some Aussie desserts though: Lamingtons, Cherry Ripe Slice, Caramel Slice. Unfortunately not the greatest examples of these, I might have to make some with the kids over Christmas.

The only blip in our fabulous Northern side trip was this:

He was actually ON the toilet roll when I started to pull it. Needless to say, I screamed. I don't mind spiders, unless they surprise me in a small room at such close quarters. I was just grateful I had only just closed the door and could escape quickly!! (And that there was another toilet in the house.)

Back in Melbourne, we've got a few fancy meals planned while we're here. Taking advantage of the fact that nice restaurants are slightly cheaper here than restaurants of a similar quality in London. Tomorrow night we're off to Vue de Monde, given the Best Restaurant in Melbourne for 2007 title. As we can't try them all we might as well try the best!

Lazy last weekend in London (with Chocolate Wine)

2007-12-03T05:32:00.000Z

I love lazy weekends. I have needed one. These last six weeks have been hectic and living the last four months in just one room of what was a one-bed flat has made weekends at home pretty unappealing. We finally got the carpet laid last week and moved all the furniture last weekend (ok, he mostly moved the furniture, I ate chocolate, but it was my birthday, so that's ok right?).

Last Friday evening was magical. We went to Somerset House to go iceskating, and I managed to stop thinking that I might fall and have my fingers sliced off by blades, and just relaxed into skating and gazing at the gorgeous building that surrounded this sparkly circle reflecting the coloured lights all around. Mulled wine, music and a brisk pre-Christmas evening.

So despite it being a "lazy" weekend I have done quite a lot of my backlog of filing and emails and feeling reasonable proud of myself. I also managed to find time to make a scrumptious chocolate and berry pudding and to have Sunday lunch at a friend's house. Where we drank this wine:

How cool is this? It concerned me that they'd named it so because it was quite high in tannins and therefore slightly bitter but it was delicious with dinner.

Chocolate as Fuel

2007-11-30T19:04:00.000Z

And not just for humans! I know I can definitely run further and faster on chocolate, but now it appears cars can too!

This provided interesting canape conversation last night so I thought it was about time I wrote about it in my blog:

Two chaps from the UK, Andy Pag and John Grimshaw, have converted a truck and two 4WD vehicles to run on the misshapes of chocolates and are travelling to Timbuktu. Brilliant! I'm so excited about the use of this "chocolate" (I don't think they're using top notch stuff here) for fuel. This trip is not just carbon neutral, it's carbon negative. Though this calculation includes the fuel that will be offset in the coming year if the citizens of Mali use the biofuel conversion machine they are delivering. But it's also because if they weren't using the chocolate rejects for fuel they would only be taking up space in a dump somewhere.

It also works out at about 15p/litre. (That's about US $1.16/gallon.) Isn't it great when things are good for the environment and good for your wallet?

Nice work, gentlemen!

Check out more about biodiesel from chocolate at their site.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T18:39:00.000Z

Today I was thankful for the happy music that made me bounce along in the car on the way to work, for the road that took me there smoothly and the sunrise that lit the way after the lights were snuffed out along the journey. I was grateful for the gym at the end of my ride that allowed me to feel good about eating three courses at dinner last night.

Pacific Bar and Grill is such a friendly local restaurant. We stepped into the warmth from the rain and this pub made shiny was almost full with smiling diners. The two waiters looking after the whole floor were attentive though a little scattered! But I haven't had such friendly service in a long time. The food was fresh, simply prepared with good ingredients, and a delicious combination of flavours that didn't try too hard - it didn't need to. Both the tuna and the salmon we had were cooked perfectly and served with bright green leaves (mine Cos, his rocket) and light dressings. The high point was still to come: The Chocolate Brownie, broken up, warmed and topped with ice cream and hot chocolate sauce, it was just divine. Crisp on the edges and chewy and fudge-like when you got towards the middle pieces. A delicious dessert that couldn't seem to decide whether it was cake or cookie or something in between, made in-house apparently. I had to use my fork to fight away the persistent attempts to steal it. At this point the head waiter told us he would bring us something to go with the brownie, and promptly brought us two glasses of frangelico on ice. Now that is the way to bring warmth to the heart of your customers and get them to return.

food-full weekend (chocolates too)

2007-11-19T14:50:00.000Z

I only started feeling hungry again at noon today. I've been too busy eating this weekend to write in my blog. Which now leaves me with a backlog of things to post about.

On Friday night I went to the BBC Good Food Show. I got there quite late so it was a bit of mad dash around as many stalls as I could get to. So many chocolate stores! Including a new one, Vanini:

New to me, at least. They have apparently been making chocolate for decades in Italy but only just been brought over to the UK. I tried all the ganache bon bons and their dark bar too. Delicious! And no nasties in their ingredients either. I look forward to them coming into the shops. By the time I got back from doing the loop of the other stalls they had closed so I didn't get to buy any this time.

After the food stalls closed we went to explore the drinks vendors and then the dining experience. It wasn't quite the choice, or the quality, of the Taste London festival. Theo Randall did have a soft chocolate cake made with Valrhona. The menu said it was made with Lindt but the host told me that Lindt offered them the chocolate and they accepted and then tasted it and decided to use Valrhona instead. It was delicious. I really don't think it's as obvious what quality the chocolate is in cakes as much as in tarts and mousses though...

On Saturday I was chocolate touring all day then went to a friend's hens' party for dinner and karaoke and finally yesterday went to another friend's house for more eating. I feel like I didn't stop eating all weekend. Here are some of the "raw" chocolate desserts we made:

blueberry and orange mousse cake

chocolate fudge!

chocolate and apple cake

a chocolate brownie gift!

2007-11-16T12:55:00.000Z

I received a note this week that I had a parcel delivery attempt. I ran to the post office this morning to get it. When I returned home I ripped open the discreet cardboard box to find...
BROWNIES!

Sent to me by the lovely Jane of Coco a Moi. Seemed like a great way to start a Friday so I ripped open the box and tucked in. They had pecans in them so surely a good way to start the day? They come in brownie bites so it's easy to just have one or two (or three...).

They are completely different to the brownies I sell on my website. Not just because of the nuts. They are slightly more cakey and it's a very different chocolate flavour, a completely different texture. Yummy. Both so yummy. Mmm...

Chocolate taster and packers wanted!!

2007-11-16T11:39:00.000Z

Is anyone looking for some extra work leading up to Christmas? One of the BEST chocolate makers in London is looking for some help packing the chocolate boxes. You will get to taste lots of great chocolate as well as be in fabulous company while you work.

Help needed ASAP! Please contact me on info[at]chocolateecstasytours.com if you are interested!

Chocolate Ecstasy Tours Facebook group

2007-11-15T18:03:00.000Z

I finally got around to starting a Facebook group. I thought it would be a fun way to answer people's questions about chocolate or for people who met on previous tours to reunite. At one point I might get my website to have a forum or something on it but for now I'll just use Facebook. If you are on Facebook please join the group! It is Chocolate Ecstasy Tours.

I was on a conference earlier this week and there were chocolate desserts both evenings. I asked, as I almost always do, what type of chocolate they use. I was specific this time and said "what brand". The waitress came back and told me it was their own brand. Ugh. I don't think so! It's a simple question, I don't know why people have so much trouble with it. Even chefs in some restaurants are vague about it. True, the waitress was possibly quite scared of me seeing as I'd sent my meal back both evenings. I don't remember ever in my life having sent a meal back before. The first night it was a vegetarian "curry". A watery yellow soup with overcooked, tasteless peppers and mushrooms. After pushing it a few times with my fork I plucked up the courage to ask for just the mash and roast vegetables without the lamb shank (didn't trust it would have been organic or even nicely reared). The mash and roast veg were really good. The second night my risotto was lovely and I was so pleased they had managed to make a proper vegetarian substitute. They even gave me the vegetable sides from the chicken dish on a smaller plate (someone saw me coming, I guess).

Now, I say the risotto was tasty, but that was until I bit down on a metal bolt. Well, half a metal bolt. Not sure now if the shavings I thought were pepper were actually ground metal. I felt kind of bad for the waitresses who were mortified. Things like this do occasionally happen and I only had mild stomach cramps later in the evening (!!). I just hope the conference organisers got a discount! The complimentary already opened bottles of wine they offered me, when I already wasn't paying for the wine was hardly compensation!

a weekend in the country

2007-11-11T12:18:00.001Z

I'm up North this weekend, and reveling in the space of a large house and garden. Something about fresh country air and wide expanses of space that instills new spirit in me. Hopefully it doesn't dissipate on the train journey back to London...

The only downside to being here this weekend is that I'm not in New York at the Chocolate Show. The fact of having a job as well as the tours and booking all my holiday to visit the family later in the year. It's too hard to go to New York for just 48 hours! Being here means I'm not even at the Spirit of Christmas show where lots of lovely chocolatiers are showcasing their wares. My friend called last night to say he had just had a hot chocolate from Bill (McCarrick). Jealous, me? Never. Well, maybe a little. In the New Year I am definitely going to Surrey to visit the Hans Sloane Chocolate studio.

We spent the afternoon yesterday raking up leaves. We didn't bring the appropriate cord with us so I can't upload the before and after photos until we get home. I found, surprisingly, it was fun! Plus, really satisfying. This was the same experience I had a few weeks ago on an outward bounds course where we had to build a barn, and spent the day outdoors climbing and lifting and drilling. Perhaps there is yet more of my father's characteristics in me? I was quite the little tom boy when I was younger and loved climbing trees and building animal sheds and fence. Then I started to realise it was exploiting child labour and did my best to rebel. Suddenly it's become fun again to be outdoors accomplishing something with physical effort.

It certainly hasn't been all hard labour. I picked up the book, The Undercover Economist, from the window sill and managed to get through a few chapters already. Most of it so far is familiar, but a nice refresher on my university subjects. It made me glad I chose the university I did (or that my mother chose it, I might say). Most of the universities offering business studies has a long list of compulsory subjects but the one I went to had only four: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics 1 and Statistics 2. Interestingly, I think perhaps only one of these was on the compulsory list at the other colleges. They have absolutely been the most useful to me in the outside world. Sometimes I wonder what value I got from university, save for a huge amount of experience running committees and things as part of my extra-curricular activities. Then I read a book like this and realise how most of us are so ignorant to market dynamics and why the world works as it does and I'm grateful I had an introduction to it before I joined the real world (ahem!). Though, frankly, even the best economists struggle to exlain the whole picture. Reasonably so. My father always said that the more you know the more you realise you don't know. Is that a way to make the stupid feel smart again? Well, if that's the case, the further I get into this book the more grateful I am for this comment.

I think I'll revert to what I do know: chocolate. (Though even here there is surely much more to know.) Specifically, Sinking Currant Cake. It doesn't have chocolate in its name but it has chocolate in the icing. It started as mocha brownies when my man was small but his mother decided to adapt it for little people's taste and removed the walnuts and replaced them with currants. The currants always sank, hence, Sinking Currant Cake. I'll see if I can get the recipe and put it here or in one of the newsletters (next one coming soon!). It is the only cake he admits to liking, and I just like making cake so better I make one that he will eat too! On second thoughts I might have to make two, to save any arguments!

Chocolate Ecstasy website down temporarily

2007-11-08T10:52:00.001Z

In case you managed to find this site instead of www.chocolateecstasytours.com. It is currently down. I'm swapping servers and it keeps disappearing and reappearing. Grrr. This means no emails are getting to me either. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Boycott of chocolate

2007-11-04T13:12:00.000Z

I came across this interesting article today. The bitter life of chocolate slaves. In it, the spokesperson for the Confectionary Manufacturers' Association says that they can't guarantee their chocolate has not touched the hands of slaves. Granted, not an easy thing to do until you decide it's important, and even then, not necessarily transparent. What actually made me laugh - and despair - was his suggestion that "Boycotts will not help anybody. Hand-outs to people without change will achieve nothing." Excuse me? Of course Boycotts will help! How else can consumers make a real difference to large corporations except by voting with their dollar, or pound, or whatever currency?

You might be wondering why I appear to be suggesting we boycott chocolate. I'm not suggesting we stop eating all chocolate, just that we pay more attention to where our chocolate is coming from. Sadly, a Fair Trade seal neither 100% guarantees the farmer's are getting a fair price (corruption has been found within the channel of money passing to the farmers) and some chocolates have no Fair Trade sticker but are absolutely committed to the livelihood of the people who produce their cacao, otherwise they couldn't get the quality they need to make their fabulous chocolate. Amedei, Malagasy and El Rey are brands like this that come to mind.

I've been reading Ethics of Eating by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. The tag line is "What we eat and why it matters." It's actually all about industrialisation of farming and primarily the horrendousness that goes on behind closed doors to the animals, but it is certainly making me think a lot more about everything to do with what we eat. It's a great book if you want to know about why we should care, along as you can handle some gruesomeness.

Chocolate Week is over

2007-10-22T12:11:00.000Z

Every week is chocolate week for me, but Britain's official Chocolate Week has now come to a close. The tour on Saturday was deliciously fun and it seemed all my guests had a great time too (hooray!). As soon as I get hold of the photos I will post some of them up here. In my opinion, it was the best full day tour yet and each of them have been quite different. It still felt we had too short a time in each place but I think that will always be the case - why would we ever want to leave a chocolate shop? - and this tour was definitely much more relaxed with more quality time than the previous tours. Rather sadly at this stage it will be the last full day tour until Chocolate Week 2008 while I focus on the half-day tours and the other tricks I have planned! But there's plenty of fun to be had on the regular tours. I feel the highlights of Saturday's trip will be better discussed with the pictures so I will return with them to tell you more about it!

Hope you all enjoyed Chocolate Week!

Chocolate Week: 1st event: Damien Allsop and Seventypercent

2007-10-16T23:33:00.000Z

Some of the bars we tried:

My chocolate high is only just beginning to fade... It's good though because I've been really productive since I got home. I was even productive on the tube on the way home!

It was a fabulous night. Damien gives such great talks about the science behind chocolate. Here is him making a ganache for us:

I learnt the very useful fact that when chocolate appears to seize it just needs more of whatever liquid you are adding to it! And I learnt - by comparison - that a chocolate ganache made with water is MUCH nicer than one made with cream. Oh and I learnt that I REALLY want a foam maker. The silver canister-thing that uses little gas cylinders to produce instant food foam (or instant chocolate mousse equivalent).
This is a picture of the water-based chocolate foam:

Here's my tasting plate. I like to try a little bit of each and save part of the piece so I can compare along the way (because the plate fills up one piece at a time):

Damien also told us a little about his current pet project: adventures with an olive oil ganache, which we got to try with a fifteen year-old balsamic vinegar. I love the balsamic and chocolate but I'm personally not overly fussed about the olive oil. Especially after having the water-based ganaches which are so much lighter. Apparently the size of the microns of fats are larger than those of your tastebuds so fats tend to coat your tastebuds thus impeding your taster to some degree (as well as adding texture/"mouth feel".

Gosh, I really need to sleep. I'm off to a preview of Stardust tomorrow night (non-chocolatey).

Oh, I've finalised more details for Saturday. There's only four tickets left now though! If you want one of them go to www.chocolateecstasytours.com/luxury.htm.

Sweet chocolate dreams...

Chocolate Fondant

2007-10-15T21:09:00.000Z

I didn't look at these pictures for a while and they aren't as pretty as I remember. I didn't even take a picture of it cut into and oozing. Darn. Might have to make them again. Though perhaps not this week!

Well, you can at least see what the coating of sugar in the dish looks like, and how they are supposed to be cracked on top!

Chocolate Week has started!

2007-10-15T12:15:00.001Z

Hooray! It's finally here. In some ways it started for me on Saturday with one of the regular tours - we managed to squeeze 14 people on this one! I did my best to limit my choc consumption on this one, knowing the week that lies ahead. I'm not actually going to be able to go along to too much as I have a full schedule in my day job this week and I have to prepare for my own event on Saturday: the Full Day Chocolate Ecstasy Tour. (If you haven't bought a ticket yet there are just a few left! Click on the previous link to buy now.)

I am planning on popping in to Seventypercent's event with Damien Allsop tomorrow night on origin chocolates. My chance to input into a new creation? I couldn't miss that one!

If you want help choosing what to attend this week (there's so much on the website!) drop me an email through my website, or post to this blog!

I'll post a review of what I do get along to.

Have a delicious week!

PS. Newsletter readers: I will post the pics of my chocolate fondant tonight, I've had computer issues this week!

I'm reading this:

2007-10-07T14:42:00.001Z

Real flavours, by Glynn Christian. This is such a great book about food. Even better the author has lived in both the UK and Australia so I was remindeded of Australia's place in the culinary community, more significant than most people realise. I can't wait to visit again.

When I borrowed this book from my local library the man asked if I was starting up a deli. Er, no, I just really like food. It's an absolutely fascinating book. But maybe just to a food-geek like me. I've only properly read the chapters on bread and chocolate so far but it also has chapters on cheese, charcuterie, spices, oils and basically all the stuff you would find in a deli, which I've scanned too. The reason I haven't read more is because it makes me want to eat and cook and shop for food so I only allow myself to read it if I'm about to do one of these things, otherwise I end up completely distracted (and hungry).

The chapter about chocolate isn't as thorough as other books I have, but still as part of a bigger book about food it gives it a decent coverage. This is an essential book for anyone who wants to seem clever when they go to visit their local farmers' market or explore more of what tastes are out there. Speaking of which, I went again yesterday to the farmers' market in Chelsea to collect brownies for the tour from Clare, and ended up coming home with bags of watercress, olives, brocollini, cheese and other treats. Oops. Clare sells dough so you can go home and bake you own too. Unfortunately her cheese straw dough made such nice biscuits they were gobbled before we could photograph them. Eventually I might get in the habit of taking pictures.

Chocolate Ecstasy in Chocolate Week

2007-10-05T07:03:00.000Z

Yum. My favourite week of the year is coming! Chocolate Week. This year seems to be the biggest ever with a HUGE amount of events.

I'll be running a full day Chocolate Ecstasy Tour on Saturday 20th October (in conjunction with Seventypercent.com. It's going to a delicious day where people will be personally guided to some the best chocolatiers in London and have the opportunity to ask about all the others too. We get VIP access into stores and we'll be having lunch with an innovative new chocolatier (well, I say new, he's been in working with chocolate his whole life but has only recently started his own chocolate business).

If you're interested in joining us (there are only a few places) go to www.chocolateecstasytours.com/fulldaytour.htm.

You can check out the other events here. (The full day tour isn't up yet but it will be soon!)

I hope you can join me!

Chocolate gets better and better

2007-10-01T09:17:00.000Z

Chocolate helps fatigue syndrome too! Hmm, wonder if this explains my sleepless nights? Got to love it, people are finally catching on to the fact that, although a treat, chocolate also comes from a bean (seed) incredibly rich in nutrients.

Read more here.

Like they say though - moderation, people! ;-)

It's nice when people say nice things about chocolate tours

2007-09-23T21:40:00.000Z

How lovely. A friend of mine complimented me on this article this evening, so I went to look it up.

It's a shame they spelt ecstacy wrong. So many people do... A bigger shame I hadn't registered the incorrect address which it links to! I thought I had. Darn. Other than the spelling and linkage error I don't think I could have asked for nicer things to be said. It's made my day. Yesterday my day was made by seeing Clare's (of Milk and Honey) fabulous stall at Kings Road market. She's there every Saturday now. I was thrilled to finally try her other delicacies, already being a raving fan of her brownies which everyone who comes on the tour gets in their goodie bag. She also makes chocolate banoffee biscuits. Yum. She even sells the cookie dough so you can bake your own. She was educating me in the science of making crisp versus soft biscuits (oven temperature + cooking time) and so today I made my own dough and experimented. Bizarrely the lower tempature (160C) came out more crisp - so crisp they just kind of disintegrated. I think I left them in a little too long (14mins). I also should have added a bit more butter. I was also experimenting with the recipe too. I did use the same dough for each temperature test though and the 2nd hotter (190C, 9 mins) batch were still pretty good, though also a teensy bit dry. The kind of cookies you need to have with a glass of milk. Except we don't have any milk in the house, because no one drinks it here. It's bought occasionally for cake making, or guests. The cookies made me nostaligic for the super-dark double-choc cookies I used to make during sleepover weekends in high school. I can't wait to see my girlfriends again later this year.

There were also some people at the market who made amazing soup, and incredible icecream that used agave syrup instead of sugar. If you didn't know, agave syrup has a low GI, but sweetens like sugar. In layman's terms: you shouldn't get a sugar rush. I'm sorry I can't remember the name but I'm going back next weekend so I'll write it down and even take a picture and let you know then! Or just go along and check it out for yourself.

What I saw in Warsaw.

2007-09-17T12:27:00.000Z

Greek fish:

This was part of the Italian/Polish wedding feast. We also ate pierogi (Polish dumplings), traditional smoked and grilled cheese, sour soup, red cabbage, cold meats and salads, bread and many desserts.

That was an awful title, I know. I am my father's daugher. This, because I make bad attempts at plays on language. I also know this because it's what my mother refers to me as if she's ever annoyed with me. Interestingly, when my father is frustrated or amused by me I am my mother's daughter. Nice, hey?

Back to Poland: the brief trip this weekend for the wedding. I didn't see much of Warsaw in Warsaw (not even the couple kissing!) but I was priveleged to attend this union of Polish and Italian friends of ours. The ceremony and reception was a blend of traditions from each, and not having attended either an Italian or a Polish wedding I'm not too certain what came from where but it was all very entertaining. Much singing and dancing. Thankfully neither country has a wedding speech tradition because versions in three languages would have made it quite a lengthy session! The bride and groom briefly thanked us all for coming, in Polish, Italian and English, and after that we got on with six courses of food, Italian wines and Polish vodka shots, in between random cheers and songs. Well, they seemed random but given the languages were foreign I couldn't tell you this with certainty.

The wedding cake... (White chocolate curls on a chocolate cake with an alcholic cream middle that was thicker than either layer of cake sandwiching it.)

A poignant point. I love passion for food and drink.

I love the people in the Chocolate world

2007-09-11T13:31:00.000Z

Another indulgent weekend that began with a chocolate tour on Saturday morning (my favourite way to start the weekend, this tour special as a final goodbye to one manager leaving, and a hello to a new manager starting in different store). Then I travelled onto a garden party in the West Country, complete with brass band and full-size skittles runway, and finishing at the London Food Show at the Islington Business Design Centre. I just realised I was wearing my high-heel boots for 18hours straight, with the exception of two hours in the car on the way down when I was a passenger. No wonder my calves hurt still.

It's a shame that the Food Festival wasn't advertised better, at least, it didn't seem like it was. The trouble with going at the end of a three-day show is that the exhibitors are just keen to get home, and many of them have already left, including one of the chocolate exhibitors I really wanted to see.

It was great to see the couple from Gorvett and Stone again. Not only do they create delicious chocolates but they are just lovely as well. Their dark chocolate bar with strawberry and black pepper is perfect. I pinched this picture from their website because mine didn't quite do it justice.

I went by to visit Paul of Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates afterwards and was delighted to find him in the shop - and with exciting news too! He is opening another shop in the Royal Exchange in Bank in just a few weeks. So business is obviously good. And with good reason: divine chocolates with no expense spared on the ingredients. His Autumn range is slowly coming into the stores (how sad to be acknowledging we really aren't getting a summer). Paul also had a strawberry and black pepper chocolate, his was a milk truffle and perhaps even more perfect, as a truffle at least. I never seem to buy enough of his chocolates when I'm there. He's now mastered how to make stilton chocolate truffles that last more than one day - add port! Brilliant. Bizarre, but good.

Other lovely finds at the fair were CurrySlim jars of sauce and FleurDelicia chutneys and marmalades (NOTE: second website isn't there yet). Now, normally I won't touch any products with the word "slim" in the title. Not because I'm not conscious of my diet, but because in my experience tags like "slim" and "lite" tend to imply a whole host of additives, artificial sugars and fillers. As always I scanned the ingredients on the labels and not only is their virtually no fat there is also no sugar. The only sweetener I could spot is pineapple juice, and all the other ingredients are normal things you might find easily in many people's cupboards. I met Fleur as well and was impressed by her insistence on only buying fresh fruit and vegetables and not compromising on ingredients. Her spicy tomato and hot aubergine chutneys are great, they're being picked up by Asda (please don't let that put you off!). Fleur, like a lot of other gourmet food producers these days, left a city job to have a go at making her talent into a business. She's doing pretty well so far, it seems. Good luck to her!

John Scharffenberger - an American pioneer of chocolate

2007-09-06T22:54:00.000Z

Last night I was invited to a talk by one of the co-founders of Scharffen Berger, the US chocolate company, Mr Scharfenberger himself. Cloistered in a basement room in a Mayfair members' club a group of around ten chocolate obsessives listened as John gave us a history of his own career and Scharffen Berger chocolates, and the complete biography of cacao. Rather than being a patisserie chef, as most of the people who start their own chocolate shops are, Scharffenberger was an agricultural historian, and then a successful sparkling wine maker (Scharffenberger cellars is now owned by Maisons Marques & Domaines).

We tried the "candy bar" brands, the ones sold in most supermarkets. Still real chocolate, but the 70% was a bit rough and woody, according to John this was because there were too many Ghana beans in the mix, and not enough Venezualan. In Venezuela right now the political situation is such that no one can get cacao beans from there except Domori. Sadly, political unrest and poverty affects so many countries that grow cacao. John also brought along a few of the artisan bars for us to sample, including a delicious bar solely from Trinidad and Tobago that had a hint of black cherry to it. In Trinidad and Tobago the reverse is true, where people are choosing not to farm cacao because industry is so great there they can get paid better in other jobs. Scharffen Berger have been making efforts to make it more worthwhile for them, so we get to keep eating chocolate made from their delicious beans.

One of the most interesting bars he brought along was a virtually unconched bar. It was very grainy, sugar crystals and bits of cacao nibs, crunchy and fun like a "candy bar" as I would refer to them - chocolate with extra bits. Keeping the ingredients in more of their natural form means added antioxidant benefits for all of us.

The guests were rather a who's who of the chocolate world in London, which makes sense because it was hosted by the Academy of Chocolate, whose mission is to support and encourage the creation and consumption of fine chocolate. There were obviously many missing, the chocolate world is expanding fast here in London, it's fun to get together with its constituents and discuss (and eat) the good stuff from time to time. Damien Allsop brought along some of his divine ganaches. His USP is that he makes his ganaches without cream. They are water based, though one he brought along was from a fine vintage olive oil, "plant to press in 8 hours". He topped the enrobing on one side with a pinch of maldon sea salt and indented the 2nd bite to hold a small drop of balsamic vinegar. These ones are sold in three restaurants in the UK, the waiter joins you at the table to pour the balsamic, quite an experience. I enjoyed the fuss of this one, though my two favourites of those he brought along were a milk anise with a pear jelly layer, and the pure ganache he made from Bill McCarrick's couverture created here in the UK. Bill, of Sir Hans Sloane Chocolates, is one of only two UK companies to make their own couverture from "scratch". I've been invited to go and visit his studio in a few weeks time - I can't wait!

September already?

2007-09-02T18:09:00.000Z

Time is flying and I am rarely blogging. Instead I have been working and socialising and, lately, baking a lot. It's been a bit crazy trying to work around living in one room of what was already a crowded flat while we waited for the bedroom to dry and now we wait for the new plastering and new carpet.

I registered at the gym two weeks ago and was told I have an athlete's level of body fat. Ahem. Now, I am slim, but I was pretty sure that couldn't be right. But who's to argue? I took them at their word and their word as free license to eat whatever I liked. Bad move. Polishing off entire batches of cookies and muffins is not good for anyone. It stops today. Who knew one could gain weight so quickly? Please be heartened that my current extra kilos are just from excessive eating, rather than chocolate. I was pretty excited to be living proof that you can be eating around 100g of chocolate a day and still be not just slim and healthy but also have low levels of body fat. Unfortunately you can't have 100g of chocolate and six cookies and other big meals. Oh well, lesson learnt! Back to the regular eating routine now.

It's quite sad to realise that the northern summer is officially over and the UK has had barely ten days above 25 degrees. If that? Cest la vie. We will at least have three weeks of warmth when we head to Australia later in the year.

I wish I had had my camera at my friend's 30th last night. She had the most beautiful cake with a design on the top that perfectly matched her funky 1920s invitation. I do, however, finally have pictures of some of the cakes from the four weddings we've been to in the last few months. One of them, much to the man's delight, was made entirely from cheese.

There was yummy chocolate cake under this pretty icing.

The cake of cheese (thank you Paxton and Whitfield, and the newlyweds, of course).

Notice another wedding cake cut with a sword? Fruitcake made by the groom. Delicious, even if there wasn't any chocolate during the entire day, the couple are real foodies and everything was delicious and so well thought out.

a delicious BBQ - with chocolate

2007-08-15T11:03:00.000Z

My friend turned 40 last week. He had a BBQ on Saturday and we went to help him celebrate, not just because his partner is such a fantastic cook. After devouring platefulls of delicious savoury food - barbequed salmon, chargrilled holoumi wrapped in red pepper (a surprise bite of chilli hidden in each parcel) and so much more, the desserts were brought out. Later in the evening we counted: a full ten options for dessert. Not bad given there were less than thirty people left at the time they were unveiled. Of these, three were chocolate: tart, mousse and flourless cake (the actual birthday cake). Every single dessert was homemade, except the icecream. Very impressive for a new mum. I wonder if this explains baby's sweet temperament?

Perfect weather, delicious food, great company. A very relaxing weekend. Well, relaxing Saturday, the weather turned for worse on Sunday and there were chores to do...

Chocolate and Cherry Fondant at the Gate

2007-08-07T11:03:00.000Z

Dad made a flying visit through London last night so we took him to the Gate, reputedly London's best vegetarian restaurant. Despite my familiarity with the "cuisine" of the little town I spent most of my school years, where my parents still live, I was shocked to explain what hommous and falafel were to him. If I inherited my passion for good food from either parent I thought it was more likely to be him. Now I know it's neither. They both enjoy food, but generally care little about what it is. Though it was my father's insistence on home-grown, made from scratch food and my mother's compliance with fairly regular baking that gave me my love for ingredients and creating I guess.

It's been a while since we ate at the Gate and last time I was a little disappointed with the quality overall, which perhaps explains why the booking I made was a little unnecessary afterall. If you, too, have stayed away based on previous disappointing visits then on the back of our delicious meal last night I urge you to give it another go. It's still not guaranteed every dish will be delicious but some are divine and the worst is just good so a safe bet really. The arancini and the cheese and onion tart were fantastic. The dessert list offered myriad options I would have liked to have tried, unfortunately not the same for my father who was only sold on the chocolate and cherry fondant with creme fraiche. So we both had it. Of course I had to ask first what chocolate it was made from. Usually with a fondant it is less important than, say, with a tart or a mousse when the dessert is ruined by lesser quality chocolate. It was made with Callebaut. Our server got extra points for saying that Valhrona was his favourite though. It's nice to know people working in food know enough about food to know the difference.

It was divine and I'm glad I didn't opt for sharing. Properly soft sponge breaking to reveal warm, melting chocolateness and the surprise of a cherry soaked in kirsch with every other mouthfull (it only took me about eight bites I should add!). The Gate has won me back.

Menier Chocolate Factory and the curse of the Monmouth coffee

2007-08-01T16:43:00.000Z

Can you tell I have just finished reading Harry Potter?

The Menier Chocolate Factory is not actually anything chocolatey now, it's a theatre and restaurant (so, I guess a little bit chocolatey). For the last few years kind people have been letting me know about it. I thought I should at least visit. I took advantage of the new office relocation and my last lunch in my role at SpeakersBank. The food was actually really, really good. We all had burgers (veggie for me) accompanied by possibly the nicest chunky chips I've had in a long time. I love it when a restaurant knows which type of potatoes to use for which dish.

My (now ex) boss has been so excited about the move because it brings him closer to Monmouth coffee, his favourite caffiene company. For me, one addiction is enough. I haven't drunk coffee in about two and a half years, though not because I don't like it, I just don't need to be hooked on anything else. I agreed to try Monmouth coffee as the boss had welcomed my introduction to better chocolate, and accepted that I would buy the chocolate brownies for us from the Flour Power City stall. Also because I always want to try any food or drink someone raves about.

He was right. It was really good. Delicious, in fact. But, never again. I quite enjoyed the buzz in the afternoon. Totally happy to stay late making sure everything was sorted, I was so wired. I started to get a little tired of feeling jumpy by the evening though. And this morning my heart was still racing. I can handle a LOT of dark chocolate, and it does give me a slight buzz if I over indulge, but nothing compared to this. Made me realise that the caffeine in coffee really is a totally different ball game to whatever chocolate may contain.

"that story thing"

2007-07-26T06:25:00.000Z

This is what my mum refers to Facebook as. (She hasn't used it, yet.) To be fair, she did make this reference during a Skype conference call we had last night, her somewhere in the backend of nowhere in Oz and my brother similarly outplaced in Serbia and me in this soggy London flat.

Facebook. Ah, facebook. The first note on my wall was welcoming me to "the biggest timewaster ever". Hmmm. Its existence has meant I am in touch now with people I haven't heard from in years. While it's nice to be able to hear how people are doing, it's slightly disturbing that they, in return, get to learn all about you. Particularly as with just two clicks you get to this blog. Ironic that I should be concerned about this, why have a blog in the first place then? My cousin recently commented on the irony of when we were at school and girls kept diaries, and god forbid anyone dare read a page, they would face eternal wrath of the bearer; to this: an emptying of thoughts accessible by anyone with a pc and connection to the world wide web.

I was registered with the doctor on Tuesday morning, about time as I have been here five months now. When the nurse took my vitals it was revealed I have lost precisely 1.2kg since my pre-operation appointment a week and a half ago at the hospital. So I have taken it upon myself to chocolate-load, to make sure I don't cause any confusion when I arrive for my operation tomorrow morning. I assume this is, at least in part, due to my forced day and a half of fasting, and purging, on the weekend. Ick. I could never be bulimic. Sunday marked the fifth time I have ever thrown up, since I was about five. Two earlier encounters with food poisoning, a bout of gastro and the aftermath of my one-and-only general anaesthetic, when they put the screws, that they are about to take out, into my knee. Great. Looks like I have another healthy weekend to look forward to! :-)

I'm going to go to Borough Market today and get a Flour Power City brownie. I've got some catching up to do before the weekend!

what a week... (My website is down, in case you are trying to get to it.)

2007-07-24T16:28:00.000Z

1. Last Tuesday Jonny had food poisoning.
2. On Friday the flat flooded.
3. Saturday night I got food poisoning (from an expensive meal).
4. My website is down, which means my email address doesn't work either.

There are lots of niggly details that make all of these things even more annoying than they might at first glance, but, hey, my life is certainly a million times better than lots of other people's. I have chocolate, for one (and now I feel well enough to eat it again). Fingers crossed the website will be up again soon.

a true chocolate master

2007-07-21T10:56:00.000Z

My intention was to write yesterday about the launch of the L'Artisan du Chocolat range of chocolate bars that they create straight from cocoa liquor (roasted and squished cocoa beans, in a sense). They are divine. And also I had planned to write about how delightful it was to discuss chocolate with Gerard Coleman, the chief chocolatier at L'Artisan and the chocolate master I was referring to in the title. It was a thrill to be in a room with so many people who were passionate about chocolate, and knew criollo from forastero.

Unfortunately before I got around to writing all of this the rains came. I sat inside our little flat on my day when I do my own things at home and thought I'll pop out to run errands when the rain lessens. Sitting at the kitchen table under the skylight and quite enjoying the look and sound of the cascades. Then I touched my feet to the floor and water seeped through my socks. I looked around and there were giant puddles on the floor. Confused, I got up to see where the leak was. Under the front and back doors apparently. Rivers of water were entering and spreading across the floor, pooling in the slightly lowered and carpeted bedroom. Unfortunately I was half way through cleaning the house which meant that the down duvet was on the floor, so were the suede couch cushions, lots of books, clothes, hairdryer, hair straightener, Jonny's laptop, two computers and many power boards... Joy. Only having the one level I quickly ran out of higher ground to transfer things to and quickly realised I needed to switch off the mains before I got electrocuted wading around in ankle-deep water that covered plugs I couldn't reach to switch off.

It was knee high outside the door so I was trapped. (Well, unless I wanted to experience a rush of water into the flat.) Within an hour the sun came out and the water outside subsided. Thus began the sweeping of the silt and water back outside the house. Carpet in the bedroom is a lost cause. It's messy but it has brought us to talk to our neighbours which is nice. And right now I'm safe and dry in Mal Maison in Oxford while our flat probably sweats into a greater stench. Mmmm. Nice bithday present for the man!

I hope everyone else is ok!

People who eat chocolate are happier

2007-07-14T16:45:00.000Z

I read yesterday, courtesy of my fabulous friend Holly, that people whose mothers ate lots of chocolate while pregnant with them were on average happier. Scientific fact, that is. I think it must also be true for people who eat chocolate themselves too. The people who come on the chocolate tours are always so lovely. They make it such a pleasure (and that's saying something because it's difficult to find a way to make trying delicious, high quality chocolate and wandering around gorgeous London more pleasurable!).

I am still alive. Healthy (and happy) too. I will post more tomorrow. It's been a very busy few weeks! Off to a wedding party on a boat - hooray!

Taste London Festival

2007-06-24T18:27:00.000Z

I'm just about able to move again. A long rest was required after a day of concerted eating (and drinking). Soup, fish, beer, wine, port, sherry, cheese, beef, potatoes, scallops, ice cream, chutney, oil, bread, fruit, chocolate, juice and more. A delicious day.

I have the nicest man in the world. Despite my insistence that I was ok with going on my own, he magnanimously accompanied me in this feast of culinary delights.

My absolute favourite dish we tried was the Seared scallop, black polenta emulsion from Club Gascon.

The most delicate salmon I've ever tasted came from One-O-One in their "Confit of Norwegian salmon and scallop mi-cuit truffle potato mousseline, foie gras jus roti". Delicious.

Cocoa Loco were here too so I got to pick up some of their white chocolate brownies. I don't think I'll be trying them today though!

Sorry for the lack of pictures! (Next year...)