| When you first hear about it, a bacon chocolate bar sounds
like something only Homer Simpson could enjoy. In reality, Mo’s Bacon Bar,
made with applewood-smoked bacon and milk chocolate, is the work of haute U.S.
chocolatier Vosges, whose bars are creating major buzz south of the border by
featuring crazy ingredients like curry powder, wasabi and kalamata olives.
Here in the West chocolate tastings have become the trendy new reason to gather
and palates are growing more sophisticated. A new wave of artisanal chocolate-makers
have taken what the ancient Mayans called the “food of the gods” to
adventurous new levels, making use of cutting-edge techniques like molecular gastronomy
to marry chocolate’s familiar goodness with non-traditional ingredients
like lemongrass, ancho chilies and rhubarb-stilton cheese.
Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut
Bernard Callebaut has one of the most famous names in chocolate:
in 1850, his great-grandfather started a company in Belgium (it was initially
a brewery) that today sells $3 billion worth of chocolate every year. The great-grandson
has brought the family tradition to Western Canada, where he’s known for
his fresh, handmade creations that use organic cream and butter. And while the
Belgian normally sticks to traditional iterations, of late even he has caught
the experimenting bug with such creations as a cinnamon ginger ganache and marion
berry (the Pacific Northwest fruit, not the disgraced Washington DC, mayor) hearts
on Valentine’s Day.
Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates and Patisserie
“There are chocolatiers out there who get creative to the extent
where they are innovators first and chocolatiers second,” says
Thomas Haas, a two-time finalist for North American Pastry Chef
of the Year. “Our philosophy is based on classic combinations— sometimes
with a twist.” Haas, who prides himself on using only the best ingredients
from around the world, believes it’s the choco- late itself—and not
the surprising ingredient—one should taste first. For more daring palates,
he has an almond praline (a chocolate flavoured with caramelized sugar and almonds)
with a roasted organic espresso bean from Kenya inside, a bittersweet caramel
truffle sprinkled with Maldon sea salt from England, and a caramel whose sweetness
is paired with syrupy 25-year-old balsamic vinegar. At Haas’ North Vancouver
store or through its website, one can order three different types of hot chocolate—including
one variety laced with chipotle and ancho chili.
Kerstin’s Chocolates
Since 2003, Edmonton-based Kerstin Roos has been creating chocolates inspired
by her German upbringing. Her signature line of chocolate bars, Chocophilia, features
sugar-free and single-origin variations. (Much like high-end coffee beans and
olive oil, single-origin chocolates preserve the cocoa bean’s “terroir,”
the distinct characteristics of the specific varietal and the soil in which it
was grown.) Her Chocophilia bars with sea salt and cayenne pepper add a pleasantly
odd twist to the high-cocoa (i.e., dark) chocolate. “Chocolate is a good
medium for
other flavours,” says Roos. “I often use spices or herbs from ethnic
foods as an inspiration.” Roos says the weirdest chocolate she’s
tried was an anchovy truffle that a friend brought back from Spain.
“That didn’t work for me at all.”
DC Duby Wild Sweets
Dominique and Cindy Duby have earned accolades from across
North America for their adventurous use of molecular gastron-
omy—taking scientific techniques and industrial chemicals into the
kitchen—to create chocolates that look like they belong on Star Trek.
“Molecular gastronomy really is about research,” says Dominique about
their interest in developing new flavours and textures. “We want to understand
the whys of cooking as opposed to the hows.” The Dubys are currently working
on a food perfume with fourth-year food science students at UBC. Wow, not why
or how, might be your reaction when you open a box of DC Duby’s chocolates
and notice the toy marble-like swirls of colour on each treat. The equally unorthodox
lavour combinations of these colourful treats—one chocolate matches raspberry
with red pepper and a vodka emulsion, another one mixes apricot with a chanterelle
emulsion and a port wine reduction—might sound odd for the sake of being
odd, but instead boldly goes where no
chocolate has gone before.
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Chocolaterie
