Not just any chefs, my friends, but the best chefs in LA were on the street at Melrose Place in West Hollywood last night. The guests - fashionistas & foodies from Europe, New York, LA - were decked! I’m neck-craning - where to look? Beautiful people or beautiful food? Ah, t…
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Posted by Susie Norris on May 6, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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Here's a post from my chocolate blog (www.chocolateallthetime.com/blogspot). Comments?
You don't get to see cacao pods in the USA unless you go to Hawaii, and even there they a rare sight. Cacao trees (from whence, of course, chocolate) are cultivated only sporadically around the Hawaiian Islands. But Tony Lydgate of Steel Grass Farm on Kauai hopes to change that. His botanical garden (www.steelgrass.org) specializes in cultivating organic plants that bring value to the islanders and the earth.…
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Posted by Susie Norris on April 28, 2008 at 12:04am —
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From over at
Serious Eats,
an article on decoding PLU stickers.
It turns out that there is more there, there, then you might immediately infer. For example:
Conventional produce gets a four-digit number. Organic produce gets a five-digit number that starts with 9. Genetically modified items also get a five-digit code, but that code starts with 8.…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on April 20, 2008 at 11:49am —
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The other day, one of my vendors unequivocally stated, that a certain Amarena cherry in Vodka piece, sold from a Manhattan chocolatier, was orgasmic. Being a literally minded person, I felt it was my duty to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that chocolate has never given me an orgasm and never will. How about you?
I am not troubled by the fact that chocolate does not send me into the throes of ecstasy. Perhaps I am boring you when I suggest that chocolate is chocolate and orgasms are orgasms. I…
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Posted by Gwen Borders on April 19, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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Lest we forget ... this is a look at the dark and bitter side of chocolate. A very twisted case of "high"er education. He is no longer with us, God rest his soul.
PROFESSOR PLEADS GUILTY IN POISONED CANDY CASE
PermalinkBy ARNOLD H. LUBASCH
Published: June 10, 1987
A former head of the anthropology department at New York University pleaded guilty yesterday to mailing valentine boxes of poisoned chocolates to a former colleague and a Federal judge.
The guilty plea to the Federal charges was made…
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Posted by Gwen Borders on April 17, 2008 at 7:30pm —
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As a child of the late 50's and early 60's, I grew up next door to a chocolate and pastry goddess. Her name was Marianne Jason. She was tall, slender and wore her hair in a black bouffant hairstyle.
Jason’s Fine French Pastries catered to the elite of Grosse Pointe. To the consternation of my mother, my goddess neighbor would bestow things like Napoleans glazed with feathered chocolate sauce and poured fondant into my little extended arms, as I carefully reached over the back fence of my childh…
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Posted by Gwen Borders on April 15, 2008 at 7:30pm —
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Just when you think you've pretty much seen it all, something comes along to let you know that you just can't make these things up.
A Swiss company is selling a box of four chocolates for $620. That's not a typo - six hundred and twenty dollars. What makes these chocolates special is not the chocolate, that's plain old Felchlin Maracaibo Clasificado 65% or the Cru Sauvage 68%. No, what makes these chocolates special is that they are decorated with gold or silver leaf or "edible diamonds" and pa…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on April 15, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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I am just really starting to awaken my senses to the chocolate world around me. It is one thing to eat chocolate, but to actually open your self up to the flavor notes and textures, is another thing entirely. As a child I knew that certain chocolate tasted better , or had a smoother texture than others, but I would never have imagined the extent at which chocolat…
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Posted by Amber on April 10, 2008 at 8:22pm —
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A couple of years ago I experimented with some of our local wild berries and made some jellies for people to taste. I added them to my chocolate collection that I had put together. There is a berry here that the locals call "laughing berries". They are salal berries and are extremely flavorful. People use them to make jams and jellies and pancake syrup.
I made jellies out of the salal berries and they were very well received. They had ten times the flavor of the other jellies I had made with wil…
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Posted by Nina on April 8, 2008 at 3:33pm —
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Well today April 4th ,2008 I have decided to join the blog by sharing with The Chocolate Life members my story of taking historical figures from American History/culture and transforming these historical people famous faces(profiles) into what I call "Profiles in Chocolate"
Back in 2004 I started to think about a ways to combine my Passion for American History and Chocolate ! and after a few weeks the concept of our first "Profiles In Chocolate " was Choosen it was to be our 16th President--Abr…
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Posted by Megan Hardgrave on April 4, 2008 at 10:39pm —
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Thanks guys for reading and commenting on my posts. It means a lot to me.
I heard this morning on the news that the US lost another
80,000 jobs in March. That’s added to the 50,000 lost in February. Wow! That’s a lot of jobs. So now it’s more important than ever to start a new business. Any business is good. The food business is good but tricky. But if you hit a winning formula, you have a block buster. It seems you might have a bit of an edge…
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Posted by Jim Sanders on April 4, 2008 at 3:21pm —
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I have found a service that enables me to 'cast - in real-time over the web while simultaneously hosting a chat session. I am interested in knowing if holding regular, say every two weeks or so, video chats would be interesting to members. If a reasonable number are, I will set things up, get the equipment working, and schedule the first chat for sometime after Tax Day.
One thing that I thought might be cool to try is a sort of quasi-interactive chocolate tasting. We could agree on one or more…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on April 3, 2008 at 6:11pm —
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Today, Monday, March 3rd is the national launch date for an ambitious new line of chocolate products from Starbucks. But don't go looking for them at your local Starbucks coffeehouse because you won't find them there. In an interesting branding twist, Starbucks Chocolates will initially be made available through mass retailers, grocery stores, and drug stores and it is unclear when, if ever, you will be able to buy them at the counter where you order your half-caf no-foam skim latte every mornin…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on March 27, 2008 at 5:39pm —
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The World Pastry Forum is a series of five-day intensive programs (demo and hands-on) offered immediately prior to the National or World Pastry Team Championship. Both the forum and the championship are organized by a company called Carymax, one of whose founders is one of the founders of Chocolatier Magazine. This year's events are being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN, August 26-30 with the World Championship immediately thereafter.
This year's
Demo Program (…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on March 27, 2008 at 11:00am —
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One thing I’ve learned about a start up business is that there is a disconnect between production and sales. You either have too much product and can’t sell it or you have too many sales and can’t fill them. It can be very nerve racking but I think it’s fairly par for the course. Especially when you’re manufacturing a brand new product like I am with
Brownie Shotz. If you’re buying your product, the same thing holds true. How much do you buy so that your…
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Posted by Jim Sanders on March 26, 2008 at 11:21pm —
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Terrific! Someone out there has encouraged me to continue my story (thanks Carol) so that’s enough for me.
Well, after the first blush of starting a new business wore off a bit, it came time to figure out how to really make
Brownie Shotz a going concern. For the first few months, I kept baking brownies in my kitchen, refining my product as I went along. I made a few sales but it was very evident from the start I’d need help, especially in the enrobing p…
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Posted by Jim Sanders on March 23, 2008 at 10:07pm —
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Yesterday was the first anniversary of
Brownie Shotz and I wanted to mark the occasion somehow. I thought I would relate my adventures thus far. (I wanted to do this yesterday but I got too busy). So anyhow, one year ago (the first day of spring) I had dinner with a friend and one of her clients. The client (whom I hadn't met before) had started a potato chip business several months earlier. As he related the story of how he started, I became more and mo…
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Posted by Jim Sanders on March 21, 2008 at 1:01pm —
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Interesting article on "Four hybrid cocoa species developed in Ghana to have improved resistance to pest damage during storage have similar nutritional properties to conventional cocoa, says a study that topples a barrier to commercial trade."
Ghanaian cocoa hybrids have no nutritional drawbacks
I can't help but wonder, in comparison, how do they
taste? :P
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Posted by Sera on March 18, 2008 at 11:30pm —
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The Mark Hotel in Manhattan (no longer a part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, located on E 77th St.) has regularly hosted wine classes directed by Master Sommelier Richard Dean.
In 2004, the program was expanded to showcase the pairing of wine and chocolate and to do so it enlisted the support of Valrhona and the winemaker Louis Jadot. Representing Valrhona were Mr. Bernard Duclos, the director of US operations for Valrhona, Kim O'Flaherty, their US Corporate Pastry Chef, and Frederic Bau…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on March 17, 2008 at 10:35am —
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Colin Gasko has released his next three origin chocolates — Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Trinidad. Like his first two releases, these chocolates are all 70%.
My earlier post about
Rogue Chocolatier has all the background info and includes reviews of the first two bars, Ocumare and Sambirano. Trinidad and Hispaniola chocolates were purchased at Kitchen Window, and the Jamaica was purchased at Surdyk's. Al…
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Posted by Casey on March 12, 2008 at 4:56pm —
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Clay Gordon is leading a small group of us throughout Europe upon a 5-star quest for the best chocolate in Switzerland, France & Belgium in July.
CALLING ALL CHOCOLATE LOVERS to join us inside the salons, factories and kitchens of Felchlin, Bonnat, Pralus and Bernachon. We will be personally introduced to world-class master chocolatiers and sample a good deal of chocolate throughout this spectacular and once-in-a-lifetime journey!
Enjoy sumptuous multi-course dinners on Lake Lucerne and th…
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Posted by Holly & Paul Stabin on March 8, 2008 at 3:43pm —
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"Since its foundation, the United Nations system has been collecting statistical information from member states on a variety of topics. The information thus collected constitutes a considerable information asset of the organization. However, these statistical data are often stored in proprietary databases, each with unique dissemination and access policies. As a result, users are often unaware of the full array of statistical information that the UN system has in its data libraries. The current…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on March 7, 2008 at 12:30am —
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Local press coverage of the 6th Annual Death by Chocolate Festival at Copia can be found
here.
Copia bills itself as the American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts and on February 23rd they should have added chocolate into that title somewhere - at least for the day. California and Ziad Kurjie of the US operations of Patchi Chocolates (who are headquartered in Lebanon).
I had the pleasure and the privilege to…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 27, 2008 at 2:30pm —
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I am a friend of Clay's. He helped me get my start in the chocolate industry. A lot has happened since he gave me my first advice 5 years ago! Everything from Food Network to Newsweek, opening and closing my first chocolate shop and now writing a book that will be released nationwide in September of 2008. Life is exciting and delicious!
I have a lot of successes and some failures that will be great food for thought for some of you. Feel free to post questions on my blog and I will answer as I c…
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Posted by Bethany Thouin on February 26, 2008 at 1:57pm —
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The Academy of Chocolates has announces the winners of the
Chocolate Awards for 2008. I think many of you will be pleased with the results.
I, for one, feel tickled that I'm familiar with most of the names and bars, but also that I've been lucky enough to taste some of them too. If nothing else, this list will work as a good starting point for my next chocolate order. :)
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Posted by Sera on February 26, 2008 at 12:06am —
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Here's a question for any seriously informed chocolate people. What's the story with the Smith (aka W.C. Smith) company? The used enrober market is peppered with Smith machines, and a quick search turns up enrober patents listed under a W Smith & Sons Inc. My search for info on the company that makes/made these machines has been fruitless, however. Are they closed? Were they bought out? Is the Smith line currently made/supported by another company? Is it some kind of national secret?…
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Posted by Brendan on February 21, 2008 at 5:59pm —
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I've noticed a trend that disturbs me. There are enough misconceptions and unjustified biases in the chocolate world already; it's time this one was laid to rest. I've seen it time and again, in news features and in company literature. I saw it just now. As interest in fine chocolate rises and the number of domestic bean-to-bar manufacturers rises (thank goodness), I see it more often.
"We don't just melt other people's chocolates."
The sentiment is a fair one, but it's so of…
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Posted by Brendan on February 18, 2008 at 2:30pm —
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I am spending the year in Israel with the goal of interviewing every chocolatier in the country. So far I'm about halfway through. If you have questions about choc in Israel or kosher chocolate, I'm your woman. My blog,
Chocolatespeakis also a great resource.
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Posted by Sandra Andrews-Strasko on February 18, 2008 at 6:46am —
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Last November Canadian Competition Bureau began investigating Canadian divisions of Hershey, Cadbury, Nestle, and Mars on suspicion of price fixing. Last week, the German Federal Cartel office raided the offices and seized documents from the German headquarters of Nestle, Kraft, and Mars, for the same reason.
Read more on
BBC and
ABC News
Cross pos…
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Posted by Casey on February 13, 2008 at 7:44pm —
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Review: Chocolate tour of Paris with David Lebovitz
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/tours.html
(note that he is not currently giving private tours but he is doing a
week-long, small group "Paris Chocolate Adventure")
In 2003 my wife and I made our own chocolate wedding cake from a recipe from David's book "Room for Dessert." In 2005 I had an exhibition in Paris and in our research on where to go we came across his tou…
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Posted by ari salomon on February 11, 2008 at 6:23pm —
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This is my second article on how to buy chocolate for Yahoo! Personals.
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 7, 2008 at 10:49pm —
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Global confectioners Mars and Nestle have joined a sustainable cocoa
programme, which aims to establish a traceability system for all
farmers in the Ivory Coast.
The Good Inside Cocoa Programme, established by the Dutch non-profit organisation Utz Certified, aims to eliminate environmental and humanitarian problems such as child labour, deforestation and low salaries.
As
consumer and regulatory concern over working conditions in Africa
increases, m… Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 7, 2008 at 10:38pm —
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Before Christmas I traveled to Washington, DC to appear on the Diane Rehm show produced by WAMU for NPR.
Click to visit the WAMU website to listen to what was said.
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 7, 2008 at 6:18pm —
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Albert Einstein realized that the speed of light was one of the defining measures of the Universe. Chocolate is the other. We don't however, know Albert's thoughts about chocolate or whether or not be used it to help him calculate the speed of light. You can however, in your kitchen, with just a few simple tools and a bar of chocolate.
Remember E=mc², the beautiful little formula that wrapped up the theory of relativity? Well 'c' is the speed of light. And you can measure… Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 7, 2008 at 1:17am —
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Although more commonly known as the City of Lights, the Yellow Pages for the city of Paris contain nearly two full pages of listings for confiseries et chocolateries, organized alphabetically by arrondissement. Even this lengthy list is not complete (several very well-known players are not included), often because they are best known for their pastries and not their chocolates and are therefore in another part of the directory. Complete or no, one thing the Yellow Pages can’t tell you is which o…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 7, 2008 at 12:10am —
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A panel of experts recommend that more countries be recognized as fine
or flavor cocoa producing countries in order to provide new
opportunities for trade.
The suggestions were put
forward by industry experts during a review of the International Cocoa
Agreement, 2001, which recognizes 17 countries as producers of either
exclusively or partially fine or flavor cacao.
The
aim of this agreement is to promote international cooperation in the
world… Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 5, 2008 at 10:50pm —
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Posted by Sera on February 5, 2008 at 2:15pm —
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Cooking intensely delicious food
with one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive," could be a reality for five
creative home chefs.
Green & Black's®, the organic chocolate
brand, announced today a call-for-entries for the
Green & Black's Chocolate
Challenge. Home chefs across the country are invited to showcase their love of
organic chocolate by submitting an
original five ingredient or less recipe
tha…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 5, 2008 at 1:32pm —
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COCOA: Cadbury seeks to reverse production declines by investing in areas where it gets crop.
According to this report, Cadbury Schweppes PLC plans to spend millions during the next few years to boost cocoa yields and to improve the lives of cocoa farmers, a move intended to gu…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 5, 2008 at 11:30am —
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The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America not as the sweet treat people now crave but as a celebratory beer-like beverage and status symbol, scientists said on Monday. Researchers identified residue of a chemical compound that comes exclusively from the cacao plant -- the source of chocolate -- in pottery vessels dating from about 1100 BC in Puer… Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 5, 2008 at 1:07am —
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Blommer Chocolate, North America's largest processor of cocoa beans and ingredient chocolate products, announced recently the expansion of the company's sustainable farming initiatives with a new program in West Africa. This program (called CIFOB) will focus on cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire.
According to Peter Blommer, COO of the company, "CIFOB is introducing programs to farmers focused on teaching moder… Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 5, 2008 at 1:05am —
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If you look across the navigation tabs, you'll see that I have moved the search widget from the left-hand column after the Latest Activity section to its own page. I did this to speed up page loads.. The widget searches for text, images, and videos related to chocolate and aggregates them all on one page of search results.
What makes this widget cool is that I get to train it by specifying sites that are related to chocolate and giving it keywords that define the "tag cloud" or "buzz cl…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 4, 2008 at 12:07pm —
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Chocolate Landmarks Food Network Challenge Feb 10th at 8.00pm. Watch Fritz and Torben Bang compete amongst the best in the chocolate industry. The show also airs Feb 11th 3.00am, Feb 13th 9.00pm, Feb 14th 12.00am, Feb 16th 2.00am, Feb 17th 7.00pm.
Fritz's throwdown with Bobby Flay will also be aired on Food Network the same night at 10.30pm. The show also airs Feb 11th 1.30am, Feb 19th 9.30pm, Feb 20th 12.30am and Feb 23rd 4.30pm Continue
Posted by Clay Gordon on February 4, 2008 at 11:00am —
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Rogue Chocolatier is the newest American “bean to bar” chocolate maker. Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this efficiency apartment sized chocolate factory was started just a few months a
…
Posted by Casey on February 2, 2008 at 9:03pm —
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When it comes to learning about the history of chocolate, most people never look past the excellent book,
The True History of Chocolate by Sophie and Michael Coe. I have to say that the timing of the publishing of this book (1996) was instrumental in my quest to become a chocolate critic. While I am sure that the Coe's did a fair amount of primary research, much of what they wrote was gleaned from the writings of others, which can be confirmed by taking a look at the bibliography.…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 2, 2008 at 12:30pm —
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If you scroll down the home page of The Chocolate Life you'll see a new calendar of events I have created. If you have (or know of) an event that can be included on this calendar, send me a message and I will add it. Better yet, please leave your recommendations as comments to this post.
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Posted by Clay Gordon on February 1, 2008 at 4:46pm —
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I went to a talk last week about the dynamics of biotic communities on coffee plants on a 100 year-old organic shaded coffee plantation. The biotic interactions were fascinating, and ever increasing as the speaker elaborated on her research. The speaker was Ivette Perfecto from the University of Michigan. Here's the gist:
Arboreal ants live in nests in the shade trees and come down to tend scales (coffee herbivores) on the coffee plants and eat the honeydew produced by the scales. At fi…
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Posted by Lorna on January 29, 2008 at 8:12pm —
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According to their monthly newsletter, Costco says that Theo is making a "limited" (as limited as anything that is sold in Costco can be) edition Valentine's Gift Set.
This follows a trend for well-known chocolate companies to sell their wares through Costco. While probably less destructive to the bottom line than selling through WalMart, the fact that people can purchase the chocolate at 20% normal retail prices would indicate that Theo is not making its customary margins.
The…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on January 29, 2008 at 2:26pm —
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Hold on to your hats everyone, rumor has it that Starbucks will be getting into the "artisan" chocolate business in a big way pretty soon. Given the number of doors (that's the technical term that people use when they talk about the number of stores) in the Starbucks franchise it stretches credulity to believe that the chocolate will actually be made using artisan production methods. When I know more I will let everyone know what I find out.
In the meantime, take a moment to post your…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on January 29, 2008 at 10:39am —
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The majority of the growth in the premium chocolate business in the US over the past several years has come as a result of an increase in interest in artisan confections. This has led to dramatic growth in the number of artisan chocolatiers capable of commanding premium prices for their goods.
Less dramatic, but no less interesting, has been the growth of artisan chocolate makers in the US. In 2005 the list contained one name: Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.
Their success, ho…
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Posted by Clay Gordon on January 29, 2008 at 9:22am —
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CHEFS & CHAMPAGNE IN LA
Decoding those pesky PLUs
How Embarrassing ... Yet Intriguing
Chocolates in Alaska
Megan's "Profiles In Chocolate"
Brownie Shotz, adventures in starting a chocolate business, con't.
Article on Ghana's Cocoa Hybrid's Nutritional Similarities
Rogue Chocolatier
Amazing Trail to the World's Finest Chocolate with Clay Gordon
Introduction
Not-so-trivial trivia
Chocolate in Israel
Review: Chocolate tour of Paris with David Lebovitz
Do biotic community dynamics of shaded coffee plantations inform cacao plantations?
