Haute Cocoa
Refined and redefined, chocolate is receiving a makeover in California’s high-end restaurants
Richard Ruskell, pastry chef at the Montage Resort and Spa’s flagship restaurant, Studio, is on a roll. Words like “aroma”, “texture” and “mouthfeel” roll off his tongue, descriptions that appear better matched to wine or cheese than his current topic – chocolate.
“Concepcion is by far my favourite,” Ruskell says of the Venezuelan estate chocolate he uses to create a densely rich chocolate banana flan. “It has very earthy and red wine-ish tones, with a ripe berry flavor.”
Clearly, this is not Hershey’s. This is estate chocolate. Sourced from the cacao beans of a single estate and made under the watchful eye of high-end chocolatiers (much like a winemaker would blend their wines), the result is a chocolate with distinctive and complex flavours.
It’s along way from the mass-produced varieties of large-scale candy manufacturers.
Just like wine, estate chocolates each have a unique taste profile – the sharp and assertive notes of Costa Rican losa ancones from high-end French chocolate makers Michel Cluizel, or an aromatic Caribbean caraibe with overtones of dried fruit and fresh tobacco from Valrhona. “Wines made from a single vineyard express the uniqueness of the land,” explains Michelle Meyers, pastry chef at Sona. “In the same way, estate chocolate is the ultimate expression of the flavour of a single plot of soil.”
It’s that defined flavour that enamors pastry chefs and appeals to a dining public growing in awareness and sophistication. Deciphering a chocolate’s origin may become the next one-upmanship among the foodie elite. “Palates are more educated and a big giant slab of cake isn’t what people are looking for,” says Donald Wressell, pastry chef at the Four Seasons. Instead, Wressell will prepare bonbons with Valrhona’s flowery guanaja, pair it with a fruit essence, and then enrobe his ganache in the same chocolate for an intense yet subtle finale.
Given the current craze for small bites, its appearance on menus is timely – the chocolate’s layers of complexity lend themselves to petite desserts. At a recent chef’s dinner at Studio in Laguna Beach, a tasting of Michel Cluizel’s chocolates included a shot glass of hot chocolate with avocado mousse and a rich chocolate ice-cream sandwiched between two pint-sized chocolate meringues.
And just like sommeliers with their favourite winemaker, chefs pledge their allegiance to a range of boutique chocolatiers. For Meyers, it is the strong singular notes of El Ray’s Venezuelan chocolates, while Ruskell favors Michel Cluizel’s finely conched varietals for their prolonged mouthfeel. Andrew Sutton at Napa Rose in Anaheim plays with a variety depending on the desired result. Valrhona’s robust flavour makes it ideal for a liqueur-spiked dessert, he says, while Michel Cluizel’s silky smooth texture is perfect for a soufflé-filled crepe.
But like other boutique ingredients such as truffle oil and foie gras, estate chocolate still belongs in the domain of professional kitchens. Though not quite out of reach of do-it-yourselfers (bars of Valrhona estate are now available at Trader Joe’s), the chocolate’s true worth is best uncovered by the hands of the masters. “You wouldn’t make a brownie out of estate chocolate,” Wressell says. In other words, don’t try this at home.