It’s not every day you get invited to dinner prepared by a top chef, but last week the lovely people at Gü Chocolate Puds invited me and fellow food blogger Kavey over for a meal specially prepared by their head chef Fred Ponnavoy.
And so it was we arrived at Gü Brand Manager Meghan Farren’s beautiful apartment to find Fred and his sous chef Jerome already hard at work preparing our six course meal. They’d actually been hard at work all afternoon – something that was soon apparent from the quantity and quality of the food.
This is apparently the kind of thing the people at Gü do just for the fun of it. Fred & his sous chef put various concepts for meals into a hat (“everything white”, “everything raw”, etc.) and pick one at random to prepare as a challenge. This time they chose “everything chocolate” and decided to invite a couple of bloggers along to share the experience.
The evening started with canapés and a simple but delicious cocktail made with creme de cacao and vodka, decorated with a mini cocoa pod. This was far too easy to drink, and I drank far too much, hence the slightly vague and rambling nature of this post.
Next up, beautiful crisp bread with foie gras made by Jerome’s mum and a chocolate spread.
And then there were the snails. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten snails before. It’s certainly not the kind of thing I’d order for myself in a restaurant, but when a top chef is preparing a meal just for you, you want to try everything.
These particular snails were prepared with chocolate (I’m not sure how, exactly), and served with mushrooms, bacon and green leaves. Lots of interesting textures here, and although I still wouldn’t order this kind of dish in a restaurant, I ate it all.
Probably my favourite course of the evening was the “Gülash”. A rich, thick goulash made with dark chocolate and lots of spices. Served with the most amazingly light gnocchi, it was the perfect winter warmer dish, and I couldn’t help but ask for seconds. Fred was kind enough to share the recipe for this, and we’ll be posting it soon.
And then came the dessert courses. Four of them to be precise, despite Fred’s insistance at every point of the evening that there were “only two more courses”, somehow the dishes kept arriving.
We started with a hot soufflé-like chocolate dish made with whipped egg whites and served with home made coffee ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Very rich in flavours, but light enough not to fill you up (as if we weren’t full enough by this stage).
Next up, a dish made with caramelised pears and crisped rice, covered in a dark chocolate dome.
Hot chocolate sauce is poured over the domes at the table, and before your eyes, the domes completely melt away.
By this stage in the evening, we were all pretty full. That could only mean it was time for the petits fours. Chocolate macarons (Kavey felt there was too much filling, I felt you can never have too much chocolate filling in anything), and little slabs of Madagascan dark chocolate.
The evening was finished off by a sharp and refreshing grapefruit granita – the one dish that didn’t contain any chocolate. Technically, I could argue that means that Fred & Jerome failed in their “everything chocolate” challenge, but it was the perfect end to one of the most memorable meals I’ve had in a long time.
Not only were the dishes beautiful and tasty, but the company was perfect. Meghan and her husband were perfect hosts, and Fred & Jerome came and joined us at the table between preparing courses. We chatted about Gü, chocolate and food in general, and the evening just felt like having dinner with old friends.
I’m still not entirely sure why I was lucky enough to be invited, but I’m so happy I was. It was such a unique opportunity, and something completely out of the ordinary. I doubt I’ll get the chance to do something like that again, but I’ll certainly not be turning down any dinner invitations from the people at Gü if they do.
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Last year I was lucky enough to have been invited to an evening of Italian wine, cheese and chocolate tasting which was co-hosted by my favourite London-based Italian chocolate maker, Ms. Rafaella Baruzzo. One of the treats on offer were these rather unusual Cape Gooseberries in chocolate, which were something of a revelation. Anyway, I had to wait until December last year to get my hands on a bag of these, and they were carefully rationed out among interested friends over Christmas (although I must confess to eating the vast majority of them).
The Cape Gooseberry is (I believe) better known as the Physalis – that small, tangy little orangey fruit which is often left with a couple of leaves on a stem and used as decoration by patisseries, caramelised or au naturel.
What Rafaella has done is to take dried Physalis and coat them in a rich 70% cocoa dark chocolate before dusting them in cocoa powder. The resulting combination of flavours is a delight as the sharpness of the cocoa powder is balanced by the melting chocolate. Allow the chocolate to melt before biting down on the tart, acid fruit or chew the whole thing and release the fruit to mingle with the cocoa – either way the bittersweet contrast is just fantastic.
They’re very grown up treats, particularly given that I paid almost ten pounds for this little bag, but believe me, I haven’t tasted anything like this before and I wanted to spread the word. Like a lot of Baruzzo’s products they tend to be seasonal and do come and go depending on supply, but they’re definitely worth tracking down.
I really do try not to be a chocolate snob but sometimes it is hard, and while I’m more than happy to eat an unfeasible number of Flake bars every now and again, I’m getting to the point where it is hard to eat low quality chocolate. And make no mistake, the President’s Choice Swiss Praline Collection uses low quality chocolate.
I’m not a fan of the use of palm oil in chocolate, but sometimes it is more noticeable. In the case of this box, the chocolates feel greasy when you pick them up. Not a positive sign. And as the chocolate melts in your mouth, it becomes even more obvious and not in a good way. Nevertheless, I worked my way through the three different varieties.
The Almond Mousse Praline has a decent almondy flavour, but it struggles against the milk chocolate because of its oily texture and strange aftertaste. It isn’t really light enough to be a mousse either.
The Double Dark Chocolate Praline is good in theory and has the best flavour of the trio because there’s no clash between the two components. It isn’t a very dark chocolate though and lacks the big chocolate taste that its name suggests.
The Stracciatella Praline at least has a bit of texture to it because of the little bits of chocolate nibs mixed into the praline, but it still isn’t very tasty.
It is as simple as this – when the chocolate isn’t very good, it doesn’t matter what might be hidden on the inside because it isn’t going to taste good. And this oily chocolate doesn’t taste good. Definitely my least favourite of this batch of President’s Choice boxed chocolates and one that I can’t recommend at all.
Let me get it out there first that I like the name Snake & Butterfly: it has that blend of mythology and nature. The name belongs to a three-year-old company I found at the Salon, where they stood out as one of the “conscious” groups. They strive to be both environmentally and people friendly. That last part goes to both customers (the ingredients are organic and a couple products are raw) and those growing the cocoa (a nice quote from their site: “we produce all of our own chocolate: we are not remelters”). I must have had some faith in the products that would go under the name as I don’t recall tasting anything at their booth before walking away with one bar and a selection of truffles.
I went with the 67% Madagascar bar, whose ingredients are limited to cacao nibs, sugar, and cocoa butter. The handmade look comes through with the not-quite-perfect molded surface, yet I have no complaint with this bar. The fruity Madagascar flavor is there, with the sweetness of the relatively low cacao content holding hands with a shy bit of tangy bitterness. The texture isn’t rough, but good and smooth.
The truffles were another matter. I only looked up their names after trying them, finding that the first I had was Bourbon & Apricot. No surprise there as this one had a strong (quite strong) alcoholic presence and bits of fruit, though those I really couldn’t taste. The second was Lapsang & Mandarin Orange Peel. The orange opens up the act, with the almost spicy tea taking the lead from there. A new and unexpected experience.
Third was rum and cherry. Also strong on the alcohol side, which could just be a dream come true for some, I’d imagine. But it’s the last one that took away the good direction I was leaning in. That little being in the green wrapper with the coconut on the outside, I can’t stand it. And I think it despises me back. It’s so sweet, like a pound of butter (it does have butter added), and the green curry paste and lime and lemongrass also inside just don’t make me happy. I’m afraid of having nightmares of this truffle, yet I must share that it is a Thai truffle and as I do not even like Thai food, perhaps this is just a preference issue. Perhaps.
I’m trying not to let this hurt my opinion of Snake & Butterfly. I did enjoy the bar and thought well enough of the first three truffles, if alcoholic and adventurous chocolates aren’t my top picks. It’s still a a blossoming company, and I get the idea they’ll be ones to improve themselves with time, not fall back.
