Jacques Torres loves bûches de Noël, but even he doesn't take them as seriously as they do in Paris, according to the New York Times. There the Christmas logs are "opportunities for creativity, commerce, competition, and consumption among various Parisian shops." The great Paris bakery Lenotre hired de Givenchy this year to design a $160 bûche that features a a golden ribbon of pulled sugar and a light dusting of 22-karat gold. I guess there's gold in them thar buches. Me, I still prefer pie during the holidays....
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"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...
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