Clay Gordon's Blog (58)

I am often asked ... about how I approach my pairings, where I get my inspirations, and what my thought processes are. I recently had the opportunity to conceive and prepare a five–course prix fixe tasting dinner at Jimmy's #43, a craft beer bar and restaurant in New York's East Village. The occasion was April, which at Jimmy's is the inspiration for April Sours month - a celebration of sours, Lambics, and wild ferments. As I was working on the menu I…

This weekend (November 9-11) saw The Chocolate Show in New York City. The show is organized by Event International, the company that organizes the Salon du Chocolat in Paris and more than 15 other cities around the world. New York is the only location that does that does not incorporate the Salon du Chocolat brand into the name.

I like The Chocolate Show for a number of reasons, including the fact that it brings out the core of the NY chocolate community every year while bringing…

To All Members of TheChocolateLife:

I was thinking this morning about the ways in which the ChocolateLife community might be able to aid in Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. And not just aid ChocolateLife members who make their livings making chocolate, but also people whose lives have been been tossed upside down and inside out who are in need of assistance.

After all, I know that there are ChocolateLife members up and down the East Coast that were within the path of the storm…

Check out the album of photos.

Traveling to Amsterdam

I have only ever been to the airport in Amsterdam before - Schipol - changing planes 'twixt here and there. So I was looking forward to spending a few days to learn and explore. 

I know why I took the early train from London (8:05am out of St…

Check out the photo album from the weekend. [ Note: I am working on a new approach to blogging, which is to put all the photos in an album and to write detailed notes for each photo. Blog entries cover topics not shown in the photos. ]

Featuring well over 50 exhibitors this year from all over the world and representing a wide variety of styles of chocolate and confectionery,…

Friday dawned just as many days do in London, chill and damp.

Still, I am in London where it is warmer than New York, and by the time I make my way from the Sloane Square tube stop to Piccadilly and make my way to the Royal Automobile Club (venue for the Second Academy of Chocolate conference) the sun is shining and I am very much looking forward to the day even though I was too rushed to have coffee before…

London. 

Believe it or not, London is probably the most dynamic city on the planet for chocolate It's hard to overstate just how much creativity and interesting work is going on here.

My plane arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and the best thing that can be said for the flight was that it was uneventful. The only downside is arriving at a sleepy 7:30 am (2:30 am New York time). I sailed through immigration, customs, and baggage claim, and found my way to the…

I am writing this in the chocolate factory I have been helping to build for Fine & Raw Chocolate. I am getting ready to leave for London - I leave for the airport in less than six hours. There is still much to do and I am going away for two weeks at a critical juncture. Sigh. Construction projects do tend to stretch, but this has taken longer than even a stretch schedule.

It's less than four hours before I head to the airport and my Heritage Radio Network program streams live at…

The New York City Craft Beer Festival took place on Saturday, March 3rd, at the Lexington Avenue Armory in Manhattan. Close to 60 craft breweries and cider makers from around the country were pouring over 100 different offerings covering the gamut of beer styles.

I was asked by Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy's #43 and the host of…

The Setup

I was given the opportunity, earlier this week, to do the chocolate, wine, and beer pairings for a holiday party, co-sponsored by Valrhona, Fresh Direct, and Manhattan magazine, to which over 200 people were expected to attend.

There are always challenges with doing large scale events like this, but the major hurdle for this particular event was that I'd never tasted any of the wines that were going to be served and it had been a while since I'd…

GetRealNY's 2011 Belgian Festival took place July 8-9 at New York City's Altman Building.

Featuring brewed-in-Belgium and Belgian-style beers brewed in the US, the event attracted well over 2000 beer lovers during its four sessions. Nearly 80 beers of all styles were served from an innovative central…

Now you can shop for chocolate on-line anywhere in the world and support TheChocolateLife at the same time.

You can shop at major merchants like Amazon.com (and amazon.co.uk - or anywhere, including eBay) for chocolate products:…