A chocolatier's life is controlled by the rhythm of Chocolate High Holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, Easter and Mothers' Day. So while we just finished celebrating the end of 2014, in proper chocolate style of course, Valentine's day is just around the corner and will shortly dominate the schedule of every chocolatier. Valentine's Day is totally defined by the gift of chocolate, flowers, and romantic meals by candlelight, but how did this come to be? According to Wikipedia, and I quote, " the day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Chaucer in the late...
No wonder artisans of all stripes try to get selected for the SoWa Holiday Market! This 2014 event was my first as a vendor, and I was left stunned by the throngs of eager buyers and the overall warm, wonderful spirit of the two days. As a result, we now have hundreds of new customers! They bought everything from our Love Flowers ($10) to our Grande Passion ($86) gift boxes. I had made 2400 samples to hand out over the two days ( and 600 more to give out in little gold ballotins with larger purchases) and we ran out...
What do the chocolates’ insides look like? It’s a little tough to figure out mid-bite, so I thought it would be useful to provide this image of our two largest chocolates, the Giant Truffles (all 6 show on the left half of photo) and the Big Hearts (7 on the right side). As I mention on their pages, these chocolates are dessert-sized, the Giant Truffles weighing in at about 40 grams (1.4 oz) and the Big Hearts at 32 grams (1.1 oz). They will provide a great finish to any dinner party, at no work (and much glory) for the...
Welcome to the Chocolats Passion blog. A few days away from the official start of this little adventure, forever in the making! One of my earliest food-making memories was when I was 10 and standing at our kitchen stove in Clermont-Ferrand, France. My brother Bernard was at camp, in need of a home package, so I was cooking a dark caramel that would cover hazelnuts in a brittle/rock candy of sorts. It was a miracle he didn’t break his teeth on it, but to this day caramel and hazelnuts are among my favorite ingredients. After I moved to the States at...
My dear friend Fila is hosting his daughter’s Quinceañera’s party tomorrow. This is a huge event in the life of a young Latina, and I thought a big platter of chocolates would make the event even more festive. Creating color and shape contrasts with the seven flavors is so easy on a platter . The square silver plated trays I use are simple, and the dark brown base makes the chocolates look like little pieces of jewelry.
