Chocolate Demo

The chocolate demo today was very interesting. I was surrounded by about 40 potential employers, as well as about 10-12 teachers from my own school. I learned a lot about chocolate. I tasted many chocolate concoctions (by tasting I mean one bite that you just let dissolve into your mouth and take in every aspect of the flavor). I tasted an intense and rare chocolate that is of limited quantities. It tasted of “bananas and red wine” according to Chef Raymond.

This man knows chocolate very well. This guy eats, sleeps and breaths chocolate. He grew up in Holland and entered the the pastry field at the age of 12. He has been working in pastry for over 20 years. Amazing. What a rare and wonderful opportunity I had. I even got thanks from Chef Peter, which I was not expecting. Thanks again to Chef Josh because he “thinks highly of me” according to Chef Peter.

There were two varieties truffles, both swiss truffles I believe because they were molded instead of hand rolled. Rolled truffles are French. One was filled with cassis(red currant) caramel ganache and oolong thyme ganache. Yum. We tasted 2 types of mousses. There was a standard chocolate mousse with candied ginger, as well as a cassis mousse, made with Mycryo instead of gelatin or starch. It was fabulous.

Mycryo is a new product in the chocolate world. Mycryo is a cryogenic-ly frozen cocoa butter. This stuff possesses tons of benefits to both the culinary world as well as the pastry world. For the chocolate aspect it makes tempering chocolate a walk in the park, just 1% of this added to warmed chocolate tempers it within minutes. Amazing. It can also be added to meats. Use it as a “breadcrumb” mixed with spices. Mycryo is butter and really keeps the natural juices intact. I will have to try that with my sample.