Chloe Doutre-Roussel

Things about "REAL" chocolate connoisseurs, according to Doutre-Roussel:

Chocolate does not go with coffee - they should be enjoyed separately.

Only ginger and orange peel are acceptable flavors to mix with chocolate (though she helped make a tea-infused ganache).

Fine chocolate should move away from including additional cocoa butter and vanilla, towards just being cocoa mass and sugar (emulsifiers not addressed). There is one guy who does this.

Organic chocolate probably doesn't really exist, as shipped beans probably have to be sprayed with pesticides. Also, organic does not equal quality, though Dagoba and a few others make some good stuff and hopefully this will become a trend.

Chocolates should never ever contain alcohol.

Chloe Doutre-Roussel can tell you what company made a chocolate she has never tasted before.

I guess I will never be a REAL chocolate connoisseur, though I am now working on my palate. And on making fine chocolate with alcohol in them. Hey, she doesn't have to eat them!

Initial review: Charming and enthusiastic writing and I LOVE how the book flows into and out of the information boxes so you don't feel like you're jumping around but can read straight through. I'm learning a lot (including that "true" connoisseurs always prefer a bar of plain chocolate -- fair enough: I guess I may just not be one!)… (mehr)