The dark gala dress

13. The dark gala dress

Many years ago I used to argue a lot with the cocoa supplier of our organic restaurant. The cocoa he was delivering to our kitchen was not dark enough.

“It is hazel! What kind of cocoa is that? Where is the dark cocoa, almost black, of high quality, that the other restaurants have? The one you used to give us? "

He would reply almost offended: “Quality? What quality?” Me: “Our cakes are not as beautiful as others'!”

Supplier:“Of course! Because you are using a natural cacao…”.

Me: “The good cocoa is the dark one!”

“Not the good one: the one that's been chemically alkalinized!”, he replied as if he had just revealed the most horrible of secrets.

I was feeling like I just got hurt, shocked as a child who has just discovered that Santa Claus does not exist. Since then I have not asked once for our gluten free rice flour cake to be black. An intense brown would be just as good.

Brown like the cacao powder sprinkled on our tiramisù made with spelt flour biscuit.

14. The Prince chocolate

Irradiated at 400 degrees C, roasted at about 160/200°C, chopped, the beautiful cocoa paste is then further caressed, honed, and refined to a velvety smoothness.

Add sugar, lecithin and so much love and so many more caresses, and the chocolate, still a little slow and viscous, is ready to dive into the big jetting tanks.

At a temperature ranging between 60 and 80°C, for a period of several hours or a few days, chocolate takes on its final appearance. Slow contact with air eliminates most of the residual tannins and volatile acidic components, evaporates the remaining moisture and leaves us with a brilliant, fluid and sweet product.

The Prince is almost ready to be flavored with various ingredients.

From here it is placed in tempering machines. These machines that, with their temperature control system, create in the cocoa butter the ideal crystalline structure that gives a shinny, brittle and stable final product.

The Prince is blossoming: elegant and majestic, it's now ready to take on various appearances whether in chocolates, bars or whatever the mastery and art of our chocolatiers can imagine and create.