Fleur de Xocoatl's New York series.
Pieces of chocolate beans.
Sunday morning in Chelsea. It’s Gabbi, Barrie and I. Armed
with water bottles and non-sweet snacks. We’re on a mission. Our stomachs
empty, our pants loose. We’re ready. We enter a huge pavilion, where sixty-five
companies from forty countries present their chocolate products. And I don’t
mean Hershey’s. I mean fine quality, handmade chocolates. Four hours of
sampling. At least that’s how long we lasted.
Chocolate peanut butter, chocolate ice cream,
chocolate fudge, brownies, cakes, macaroons, éclairs, truffles. Live cooking
demonstrations, chocolate dresses, chocolate sculpture. You’re feeling nauseous
yet? Chocolate covered bacon. Chocolate wine, which is a combination of
chocolate flavour and red wine. I take a sip, feeling my knees getting weaker.
Hold on, have I died? Is this heaven?
We circle around like hungry vultures on the battle field. Between the stands with No chewing allowed -
French truffles - I don’t need to explain, do I? ; Raw Chocolate by Gnosis - which apparently has healing properties,
and Pralus - pistachio nuts, almonds
and praline coated with milk chocolate; we find Hawaiian chocolates with salt. They
make a perfect combination, like wine and cheese, like pumpkin and cinnamon, like
me and a bucket if I won’t take a break soon.
We stop by Éclat
Chocolate Looks like Antohny Bourdain and Eric Ripert have their own chocolate
bar, called Good & Evil, which
had its debut on Friday. It is made with extremely rare Peruvian cacao beans
and studded with nibs. Here is part of the PR description:
Good
& Evil captures the essence of the two iconic chefs’ personalities while
telling the story of one of the rarest cacao trees on earth: a prized variety
called Pure Nacional that was thought to be extinct for nearly a century before
being rediscovered growing on small isolated farms within Peru, the only place
in the world where it is found. This duality mirrors the connection between
Ripert, who only sees the “good” in food, and Bourdain, who embraces the “evil”
of the dark cocoa nibs. Together with Curtin, they hope Good & Evil will
give everyone who tries it a sublime taste experience of the world’s rarest
cacao beans.
What can I say, it is to die for. I’m at my happiest -
chocolate, wine, chocolate-wine, Anthony Bourdain, Peruvian beans…I’m somewhere
in between smiling and running around in ecstasy. And then I turn, and notice Him.
He’s wearing a white apron, holding a bowl of chocolate in his hands. He’s
saying something with this incredibly charming, familiarly sounding accent. He’s
French. Of course he is. Handsome, French and Chocolatier in one sentence.
Things don’t get better than this. Now, I’m in love and seriously considering
proposing. I’m saved by Gabbi, her face looking paler but she’s still on
top of her game. She shifts my attention to the cookies. And I mean THE
cookies. I don’t even like cookies that much. But these cookies I’d marry
tomorrow and have their babies. And I don’t even like babies. They’re called Oh my God Cookies and that’s exactly
what we said after tasting them. They should be called The Orgasmic Cookies. We’re past the point of endorphins, happy
hormones and aphrodisiacs. Here comes the dizziness. I feel my head spinning
and pulse raising. I’m having difficulties speaking. I’m high. Literally, high
on chocolate.
I need to breathe. I need distraction. We make another
loop and meet Fleur de Xocoatl.She’s
a young lady from Paris, who makes probably the cutest chocolates I’ve ever
seen. Four years ago she decided to
change her career, and became a chocolatier. Clearly it was a great choice. Her
chocolates are not only delicious (she uses pure cocoa butter and seasonal
fruits) but also beautiful to look at. Each chocolate is hand painted, unique. For
this years’ Chocolate Show, she designed bonbons to honor New York. In three
boxes we see tiny, painted faces of Woody Allen, Audrey Hepburn, Roy
Lichtenstein. They’re almost blinking at us. I’m stunned, fascinated by Fleur’s
passion. The combination of sophistication, creativity, elegance and taste.
This is the point where chocolate meets the art. Bon appetite!
We end up watching a presentation by Allison and Rhonda Kave. A mother and a daughter, fixing Chocolate Manhattans. I can’t taste the chocolate anymore. The
whiskey though is as strong as my headache will be tomorrow morning if I have
two more glasses. I’m sipping on it, while Gabbi takes it as a shot. The girl
can hold her liquor. And her chocolate for that matter.
Out of curiosity I bite a piece of chocolate bean.
It’s really bitter, the flavour gets even more intense with the second piece. I’d
ask for milk and sugar to turn it into chocolate, but I can’t take it any more.
Oh sugar, I had enough of you for the next few months.
Enough, something I never thought I’d say, about chocolate.
K.
