Jacques Torres posing with his class. [Photographs: Tressa Eaton] With colored balloons, heavy cream, and chocolate galore, it was pretty clear that the participants in Jacques Torres' "Chocolate Creations" class at the New York Culinary Experience last weekend were having way more fun than the other classes. Yes, those are balloons. Torres is very encouraging to those who want to try difficult pastry recipes at home. He tells would-be pastry chefs who mess up a project the first time to just do it again until they get it right. He took a minute away from cracking jokes and teaching the class how to make his whimsical creations to share the top fives tools you need when you want to...
Continue reading »
Photograph from Lin Pernille ♥ Photography on Flickr The Huffington Post's Jane Levere posted about a panel discussion chocolatier Jacques Torres participated in at New York's 92nd Street Y. It turns out that, just like millions of people around the world, Torres has a keen appreciation for M&M's and Snickers bars. Surprisingly, when asked which chocolatiers he respected most, Torres mentioned not only Francois Pralus, a contemporary French chocolate-maker famous for his single-origin bars, but also Forrest Mars."If I can go back in time and work with someone, I would love to work with Mr. Mars. I love the character, he was a very interesting man. He created the two first candies in the world today, M&M's and the...
Continue reading »
"It’s something special. I go out of my way to make that." In his new book A Year in Chocolate, Jacques Torres claims that the "bûche de Noël, a classic dessert of the French Christmas season, is quickly becoming an American tradition." Torres has a history nearly as illustrious as the chocolate that is his medium. When asked to describe chocolate, he waxes didactic: it was traded as currency, used as an aphrodisiac, exalted as a food of the gods, and served as a royal exclusive. In his more than a decade as pastry chef at Le Cirque, Jacques created aphrodisiac desserts for royalty, that certainly traded for a lot of currency. In 2000, Jacques opened his own chocolate factory...
Continue reading »
Chocolate malt balls from Jacques Torres Valentine's Day is fast approaching and you've got to deliver the goods. You cannot go wrong ordering from any chocolatier I mention below—each one on my list represents fair value when it comes to chocolate. Good chocolate is made with high-quality expensive ingredients by people with know-how and experience. When it comes to chocolate, you don't always get what you pay for, but with these particular makers that is indeed the case. This isn't the first time I have tried to come to your aid chocolatewise. Holiday time in 2006 I tried to get people to give chocolate every day of the 12 days of Christmas by renaming the holiday Chocomas—alas, nobody embraced this...
Continue reading »
