We now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with the Seven Meme, which Kelli of Love’s Cool asked me to complete. No food post today–just some idiosyncracies about me.

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:

1. Visit Paris again.
2. Go on a road trip, visiting every state in the continental U.S.
3. Get married.
4. Meet the “First Lady of Chocolate,” Alice Medrich.
5. Learn how to cook good Chinese food.
6. Go on another mission (goodwill) trip.
7. Learn the rules of French pronunciation, so I can discuss desserts intelligently. I know you generally drop every last syllable, except __________ but not _________.
8. (sorry, couldn’t narrow it down) See my favorite actor, Ralph Fiennes, perform live on stage.

Seven Things I Cannot Do:

1. Work with chocolate without staining my fingers, clothes or face brown.
2. Whistle.
3. Enjoy alcoholic beverages. Every time I try, I contort my face as if I’m going to be sick because of the taste. I like cooking with alcohol, though.
4. Live without the Internet.
5. Be in a career that I’m not passionate about.
6. Go through life without friends or family.
7. Roll my “r”s.

Seven Things That Attract Me to Blogging:

1. Meeting a bunch of cool people in real life, such as at the Amateur Gourmet’s second birthday party, Newsroom lunch with Nic (of The Baking Sheet), Clotilde’s (of Chocolate & Zucchini) NYC bloggers meetup, NYC bloggers potluck, and a dessert trade with Kelli of (Love’s Cool).
2. Imparting knowledge to others.
3. “Chatting” with people via comments.
4. Learning about innovative restaurants, recipes and ingredients without the media hype.
5. Improving the detail I pay attention to food.
6. The freedom in writing about whatever I want.
7. Telling people about my blog is a great conversation starter.

Seven Things I Say Most Often:

1. Oh!
2. Yeah.
3. Um.
4. Hmm.
5. Oh my gosh.
6. Well…
7. No way.

Seven Books I Love:

1. Huck Finn – Mark Twain
2. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
3. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
4. Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts – Alice Medrich
5. The Bible
6. October Sky – Homer Hickam
7. anything by C.S. Lewis

Seven Movies/DVDs That I Watch Over and Over Again:

1. Gattaca
2. Back to the Future trilogy
3. Indiana Jones trilogy
4. Lord of the Rings trilogy
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. The Rainmaker
7. Pretty Woman

Seven Bloggers I Want To Join In Too:

1. The Baking Sheet
2. Foodite
3. Words to Eat By
4. Bite by Byte (aka Slice, a Hamburger Today)
5. The Amateur Gourmet
6. The Traveler’s Lunchbox
7. The Wednesday Chef

Purists insist that dark chocolate should only have five ingredients: cocoa mass (aka chocolate liquor or paste), sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla and an emulsifier (usually soy lecithin). Is there butter or vegetable fat in your chocolate, as in Godiva’s? That’s a travesty: substitute fats don’t quite melt in your mouth. Is there vanillin, an artificial flavoring, instead of vanilla? That’s another chocolate no-no.

Chocolat Michel Cluizel of Normandy takes chocolate purity one step further and eliminates soy lecithin. Lecithin makes chocolate smooth, since it evenly disperses the solids and fats. Thanks to Chez Pim’s Menu for Hope II raffle, I won three single-origin bars of Michel Cluizel’s chocolate, sent by Pascale of C’est moi qui l’ai fait (or “It is me who did it” as translated by Google).

Michel Cluizel’s prestige line, 1er Cru de Plantation (translated roughly as “1st Vintage of Plantation”) featured beans from just one plantation to create distinct flavor profiles. Due to variations in climate, soil and harvesting, beans from around the world taste different. Some say that single-origin chocolates allow tasters to appreciate the nuances. Others, like Jacques Torres, say that chocolates with many types of beans have a greater range of flavor. Most chocolatiers blend beans to insure against a bad crop. For more info on single-origin v. blended chocolate, check out Love’s Cool.

The first bar I sampled came from the Tamarina plantation in Sao Tome. At 70% cocoa solids (the upper limit for most people), this chocolate was the strongest of the bunch. It had an earthy flavor like my favorite chocolate, the Valrhona 70% Guanaja. There were notes of orange and raisin. Then it turned acidic, making the flavor unrefined. Since I’m not an expert at describing flavors, I’ll include the package description: “It expresses notes of a fertile, volcanic marine soil, which blend, in a superbly lingering delight, with subtle, grassy and liquorice aromas.” It was apparent that the chocolate didn’t have emulsifiers, as I had to coax it with my tongue to make it melt.

I then switched to the mildest chocolate, with Venezuelan beans from the Concepcion plantation. It had a minty aroma and milky flavor. The product description read, “…discover hints of vanilla, honey spice cake and caramel in a remarkable lingering aroma with hints of mixed dried and black fruits.”

The 67% Santo Domingo chocolate had just 1% more solids than the previous bar, but it had noticeably more chocolate flavor. It tasted most like what I associate with pure chocolate. This was the smoothest melting bar, but the acidic finish snuck in once again. The product description said, “…aromas of liquourice wood, then red berries and green olives with a lingering flavour of currants and apricots.” This one was my favorite.

Each bar had a unique flavor profile, but the acidity was a distraction. Although the bars were pre-scored, they didn’t break evenly, probably because of the missing soy lecithin. The chocolate also tended to melt in spots. Don’t get me wrong: the texture was better than 80% of the world’s chocolate, but at $6 for a 3.5-ounce bar, it should have been near perfect. My favorite chocolates are still the Valrhona 70% Guanaja and El Rey 70% Gran Saman, both of which are cheaper.

Michel Cluizel chocolate is available online, at fine food stores, a dessert bar in New York, and a flagship Paris store.

Chocolat Michel Cluizel
@ ABC Carpet & Home
888 Broadway (at 19th Street), 1st floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-7335

201, rue Saint-Honoré
75001 PARIS
+33 (0)1 42 44 11 66

http://www.cluizel.com – company info
http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel-na.com – online store

The Amateur Gourmet, right, entertains his guests

The Amateur Gourmet, arguably the most humorous food blogger, celebrated his site’s second anniversary this Saturday at The City Bakery.

Ever since reading Adam Roberts’ “Condoleezza Rice Pudding with Berries of Mass Destruction” entry, I fell in love with his writing. Since then, he’s been featured in the Sacramento Bee, Boston Globe and even has a book due out spring 2007.

I sweated up a storm while talking with Adam, but not because he’s intimidating in person. Actually, he was a gracious host, making sure to say “hi” to everyone, remember their names, and sharing a delicious tart that he now claims I stole.

No no, everyone’s pores opened up wide because The City Bakery was like a sauna. Their ovens must be on all day, constantly churning out fresh desserts.

I finally tried their chocolate chip cookie, which was revered by New York magazine, NY Daily News, Words to Eat By, and The Wednesday Chef. The cookie was still warm, with swirls of chocolate melting on my fingers and lips. There was a high crispy to chewy ratio; a thick brown crust and pale interior that suggested a high proportion of white to brown sugar (or maybe no brown sugar at all). The giant brown blob on the bottom left suggests that chocolate discs, in addition to chips, were used.

The City Bakery makes a great case for a crispy cookie. Usually, crispy means biscuity, like the Original Chips Ahoy cookies. Crispy at The City Bakery means buttery and crunchy. There was also an extra flavor to these cookies. Words to Eat By called it toffee-esque, but I think it tasted of almond paste.

It was a fun eating experience, but I honestly prefer my own. Chocolate chip cookies are typically described as cakey, chewy and crispy, but there’s a fourth characteristic: soft. Soft and chewy are often used interchangeably, as they tend to occur together. However, the City Bakery’s cookie did not have a hint of softness. The chewy middle required a bit of a workout. My favorite chocolate chip cookies are soft, where one bite can sink your teeth all the way down to the bottom.

Adam’s autumn tart was the best tart I’ve ever tasted. Tart cranberries and caramel-covered almonds came together harmoniously in a crispy crust. Too often, tarts have thick, soggy crusts (from soaking up fruit juices over several days). Everything is fresh at The City Bakery, so there’s no need to compensate with brick-like crusts. The tart would have been even better if it was combined with Johnny Iuzzini’s pate sable recipe. Yes, you can make City Bakery tarts using their book, The Book of Tarts!

The chocolate tart was another winner, with its silky, dark chocolate custard. The crust was a little too much like shortbread than a chocolaty crust. Once again, I’d sub Iuzzini’s tart dough but add a little more sugar and some cocoa powder.

You want a meal? How about a thick slice of French toast with the syrup built in? The burnt edges were crispy, chewy and caramelized. The inside was very eggy, like a dense sponge. The whole thing was sweet, buttery and delicious.

The City Bakery is pricey: $12/lb salad bar, $6-tarts, $2-cookies, $3-French toast and $3.50-hot chocolate, but it’s worth a treat once in a while.

Oh yeah, on to the people, the reason why I sampled these desserts in the first place! About 20 showed up, including but not limited to Molly (Orangette) Gerald (Foodite), Stacey (Just Braise), Rebecca (who hosted the last NY food bloggers potluck), Anne (of Houghton Mifflin), The Anonymous Lawyer, Lisa (the infamous vegetarian who has posted while Adam was away) and Adam’s real-life friends. If I didn’t mention you, please say hi and remind me!

There was a pop quiz when Lisa asked me why American macaroons were made out of coconut and mine (which I brought along) were made of almonds. Off the top of my head, I explained that traditional French Italian macaroons were made with ground almonds and egg whites. When they came to the U.S., Jewish people substituted coconut and sweetened condensed milk. In short, macaroons are chewy cookies made with nut meat, lots of sugar and some type of binder. I felt unqualified to answer the question, as my macaroons have French ingredients, but they are domed and crackly like American macaroons. It’s something that I haven’t bothered fixing, because they taste so good anyway. Phew, everyone believed me, so I passed the test!

Now that I’ve talked to Adam in person, I know his dirty little secrets, like how he grossly exaggerates his blog. He’s made Lisa out to be a mean, picky eater, but she was nice on Saturday! In Adam’s recap, he claims that I hogged his tart, but I had two pieces that were the size of my thumbnail. This was after he passed his tart around to everyone, and he still had half of it left when the party was over. Honest!

Buy the Book of Tarts: Form, Function, and Flavor at the City Bakery

The City Bakery
3 W 18th St
New York, NY 10011
(212) 366-1414

Continuing on with four-star pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini’s grapefruit dessert demo, we have almond cake with frozen grapefruits and oranges.

The almond cake was served warm from the oven and was like a souffle: light, airy and creamy. It had a delicate browned upper crust. The frozen grapefruit and orange carpaccio’s (Italian for thinly sliced cold food) kaleidoscopic colors were elegant, but I didn’t care for the taste or texture. It was very icy, like a watered down popsicle. I think grapefruit sorbet, bursting with bright flavors, would have been more appropriate. Or, if you’re keen on contrasting textures from the pudding-like cake, a granita would work too.

The most elaborate dessert was the grapefruit-tarragon millefeuille. While it did not have a thousand layers as the French name suggests, it did have several components neatly stacked on top of each other. The base was pate sable (tart dough),then citrus sponge cake, sweetened grapefruit sections, white chocolate, tarragon pastry cream, another layer of white chocolate and candied grapefruit peel on top. What a mouthful to say and eat.

With so many layers, I focused on getting an equal amount of everything in one bite. I literally had to stab the beautiful creation in my feeble attempt. The chocolate shattered into shards; the pastry cream drooped out; an entire grapefruit section slid out leaving subsequent bites naked; the fork hit resistance with the coarse cake; and the crust crumbled. The eating experience could easily be remedied by cutting the citrus sections into smaller pieces.

The dessert was heavy on craftsmanship, but my favorite parts were just the top three layers: cool pastry cream, crisp white chocolate, and some citrus for a little tang. The flavor combo was like an elegant creamsicle. For home application, you could make white chocolate cups, fill with your favorite pudding or pastry cream, then top with citrus sections.

Rounding out the dessert tasting was a relatively simple chocolate crepe filled with grapefruit curd. My favorite dessert of the bunch, the smooth curd (a milkless pudding augmented with eggs and butter) oozed out of the crepe. Really great. At home, you can spread any citrus curd on a crepe, pancake or even tortilla. The buttery suzette sauce isn’t necessary, but the sugared lemon on top is a nice touch.

The experience made me more aware of the different styles of dessert. Iuzzini reminds me of The French Laundry’s Thomas Keller: both bring several components together for the final dish. Iuzzini is no doubt a talented craftsman. He has only worked at four star restaurants: Payard, Cafe Boulud, Daniel and Laduree (they claim to have invented the macaroon sandwich cookie in Paris). He has appeared on several best pastry chef lists from New York magazine, the James Beard Awards and Pastry Art & Design. However, his desserts aren’t for me. It’s haute cuisine: art that’s admired more for its concept than its usefulness (in this case, my stomach). I prefer not to be blatantly aware of every dessert component. It’s as if each part cries out, “Pay attention to me, I’m honey!” “I’m Meyer lemon!” “I’m tarragon!”

It’s not that I’m mindless when I eat. My philosophy is just to use a few quality ingredients and handle them minimally.

More info on Johnny Iuzzini:
New York profile
The Amateur Gourmet’s two reviews of Jean Georges

Jean Georges
1 Central Park W
New York, NY 10023-7703
(212) 299-3900

Photo courtesy StarChefs

Every day, four-star pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini dazzles diners at New York’s Jean-Georges with his signature dessert tastings. Contrasting textures and temperatures come together in a central theme, be it chocolate, berries or even beets. This Saturday, he did it for free at the French Culinary Insitute. The demo and tasting was sponsored by Pastryscoop.com (an online publication of the French Culinary Institute) and TexaSweet Citrus Marketing, Inc. Can you guess what the theme was?

For three hours, about 80 guests watched Iuzzini prepare five grapefruit desserts and ate the fruits of his labor (pun intended). As a bonus, each person brought home a grapefruit giftbox, a zester (made for dang right handers!) and Iuzzini’s recipes, which I’ve provided through the links below.

Although the desserts were specially created for this event, the building blocks are mainstays at Jean-Georges. The instructions are sparse and assume you have a working knowledge of pastries. If you get past the French terms like chinois and quenelle, you can re-create four-star desserts at home. Where applicable, I’ve included Iuzzini’s tips. I felt like I was at culinary school, greedily jotting down the master’s secrets. Also, the quanities are by weight. One cup of flour can weigh between four and six ounces, a 50% difference! The beloved cup and teaspoon aren’t so accurate after all. Pastry Scoop lists conversions for liquids, flour and sugar to help you out.

Iuzzini’s first dessert was a warm honey tart, accompanied with grapefruit-shiso granite (ice) and charred oranges. The tart crust was technically a pate sable, which is French for “sandy pastry.” The term sounds like a coarse, mealy dough, but it’s not! Pate sable is like a crisp cookie that disintegrates in your mouth. If you only try one tart dough, make it this one. The custard was exceptionally smooth and hid a layer of tart grapefruit sections for contrasting flavors. Continuing with the theme of contrast, the grapefruit granita was cold and chunky. I thought the soul of this dish was the custard and the crust. For home application, I’d skip the citrus sections and the granita. Besides, I couldn’t even tell what that Asian herb, shiso, tasted like.

Next up was honey ginger ice cream, accompanied with grapefruit mirroir (like a runny Jell-O), brioche (a rich bread with lots of butter and eggs) croutons, and a drizzle of Thai basil oil. The point here was to contrast sweet, smooth cream with tart, textured jelly. The mirroir’s texture reminded me of (dare I say it?) brains. Sorry, all that time working at Court TV is infusing me with morbid humor. Iuzzini intended the crunchy croutons to add another dimension of texture, while the basil-infused oil was supposed to contribute a fresh flavor. I thought the dessert could have been fine without these two. At home, you can just layer premium vanilla ice cream with tart jam or citrus curd to get a similar experience.

Coming up in part two: almond cake with frozen grapefruit and oranges, grapefruit-tarragon millefeuille (layered pastry), and chocolate crepes filled with grapefruit curd.

Jean Georges
1 Central Park W
New York, NY 10023-7703
(212) 299-3900