Mr. Chocolate

Jacques Torres is the Dean of Pastry at the French Culinary Institute, and a world renowned chocolatier. The former Pastry Chef at Le Cirque in NYC now owns his own business and stores around Manhattan and Brooklyn, Jacques Torres Chocolates. In fact, there is even one in my neck of the woods, on 74th and Amsterdam, that I have walked by a million times but never made the connection until this week. Chef Jacques told us of plans to open up an ice cream shop in Brooklyn, which will also serve up Belgian waffles paired with creative ice cream and candy creations. In addition he has purchased an ice cream truck to bring the goodies to us in Manhattan, which will also serve up some hot chocolate creations in the winter time. Keep your eyes open!

If Jacques name is slightly familiar to you, it may be because he has been making news lately. In fact, just today the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about this famous chef who lives on his boat in the Hudson river, which you can read about here. He has also been in the news regarding a legal matter between Mr. Torres and Hershey's Chocolate. Apparently, Hershey's is unhappy with the Chefs "Champagne Kiss" chocolate, which they believe is illegally using their trademark "kisses", and feel a consumer may mistake his chocolate for theirs. Um, Hershey's, I don't know if you have ever tasted Jacques Torres chocolate, but it is 1,000 times better than your Hershey Kiss! A mistake may actually BOOST your sales!

Anyway, here is the link to the article. I think it's quite funny. And apparently, so does Jacques - next Wednesday, if you go into a Jacques Torres Chocolate store, they are offering free samples of their Champagne Kiss chocolate to let you be the judge....is there anything that would lead you to mistake it for a Hershey's Kiss???

Headlines aside, this man is good. He did a demo of "petit fours", which included a peanut butter marshmallow, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate with candied ginger, pistachio and crasins, and a chocolate basket filled with raspberry and topped with a butter cream ganache. He also made some mocha chocolate squares for us to munch on during the demo. So freaking easy to make....melted chocolate mixed with some instant coffee, spread on a sheet pan and voila! Yummy goodness!







Fun fact - Chef Torres will be hosting a birthday party this weekend for twenty five 5 year olds! What is on the agenda? These lucky kids will get to make chocolate lollipops with a famous chocolatier! Good luck, Chef!