Cool Hunting
Patrice Chapon trained and worked as a pastry chef and as an ice cream maker (to Queen Elizabeth nonetheless) before finding his true calling as a master chocolatier, which he has been doing for the last twenty years from his workshop in Paris.
A sampling of some of his dark chocolate bars demonstrates his skill. The chocolate is dark but not too bitter. The added elements are not too big or too small and balance the flavors and textures of the chocolate. The Noir Mendiants (mixed nuts) and the Noir aux Éclats de Café (crushed coffee beans) bars get top marks from the CH team.
Available online from Patrice Chapon for €3.50, at his shops in Paris, and hopefully at a gourmet store near you. In NYC, try the chocolate shop at Bergdorf Goodman.
|
previous entry Simon Joyner: Beautiful Losers |
next entry the g |
Probably to quell our jealousy, a CH colleague recently brought delicious Bovetti chocolate bars back from a weekend trip to Paris. It worked. The artisan Tablettes de chocolate are wide bars of rich quality chocolate sprinkled with a single ingredient on one side. We sampled a dark chocolate with sesame and enjoyed both the complexly flavored chocolate and the subtle nutty accent of the...
I love chocolate milk, and French brand Cacolac is king. Out of the brown bottles or vibrant cans, the drink is the perfect blend of sweet milk and real cocoa. Bizarrely, even though it's been around for quite a while, many French people I've spoken to have never even heard of it. Perhaps because it's quite hard to find in Paris, but it seems...
Pascal Lac is a well known patissier, chocolatier and glacier in Nice and neighboring Beaulieu sur Mer in the south of France. Locals worship his perfectly simple confections, and some of the best restaurants in the area serve his work with pride. A visit to one of his two stores is a total sensory overload. CHHQ is very grateful that our friend Lorin, a...
The Bonnat family has been making chocolates in Voiron in the south of France since 1884. Their Hérisson (hedgehog) is a favorite of mine (a chocolate-covered hazelnut praline) and their single estate Grand Cru bars are intriguing. Our friends at Sur La Table are offering the Bonnat's chocolate and hazelnut praline-filled real eggshells-- at $35 for half a dozen eggs it's not a bargain,...
Normally bakeries aren't run by two guys formerly in the advertising industry, but Baked isn't a normal bake shop either. The Brooklyn dessert destination houses cakes like "Sweet & Salty!" and "Oopsy Daisy," "Monster" cookies and giant marshmallows, leaving us thinking guys should bake more often. While we'd love to bask in the glory of these rich, delicious desserts everyday, it's likely best they're...
Finally, chocolate is no longer a guilty pleasure. Le Whif, which just launched yesterday, combines chocolate and aerosol science with their zero calorie chocolate inhaler. Beginning in the spring of 2008 as part of a culinary art experiment executed by Harvard professor David Edwards and his students, the innovative concept moves "eating habits to their logical conclusion." While we've yet to actually try the chocolate,...
Emogayu Ceramics
Box 185 Clothing
Jo Ratcliffe x Edun: War Child T-Shirts
ExIT Shoes
Cool Hunting Guest Curates Etsy
Tumi Vapor: Polycarbonate Travel Bags
Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids
Frank Hülsbömer: The Fiction Of Science
Lama Hourani Jewels
