Chocolate Celebration in Paris!

Chocoholics were in chocolate heaven this weekend at the  Salon de Chocolate, an annual affaire that is hugely popular here.    A chocolate extravaganza and orgy all wrapped into one spectacular show that delivered on its promise to dazzle.

And dazzle it did!  As soon as I walked in, the aroma of chocolate engulfed me, which promptly set my mood at a higher notch!  We know that eating chocolate has mood lifting properties, but wow, just the smell alone did the trick for me.

Paris is the most sought out destination in the world for seekers of the finest chocolates in the first place, so when the Salon de Chocolate opens,  its like adding  cherries and whipped cream to the best chocolate dreams ever!

I am not talking about just any chocolate that one pops into your mouth to satisfy a chocolate craving.  Here chocolate is taken to the highest level possible with some of the best chocolatiers in the entire world, all gathered under one roof.

Not only are the majority of the best tasting chocolate to be found there, but the most artistic expressions of chocolate too. Chocolate as an art medium is perhaps nothing new, but here it is taken to a level of  expression beyond  any of our imaginations.

While I was swooning in drifts of aroma, the first exhibit to catch my eye was a complete rendition of an airliner sculpted in pure chocolate as seen in the photo.  As an introduction, multiple booths from the chocolate producing countries demonstrated the process from cacao beans to making chocolate.

Cote d’Ivoire, which is a major producer of cacao beans, had a very informative stand showing the raw beans,  then cacao nibs and after fermentation and processing,  the  resulting rough hard chocolate mass, from which the white coca butter is extracted, as seen in the photos.

Peru, Mexico, Vietnam, Ghana, and multiple others were proudly displacing their countries raw beans.  Good chocolatiers know that each country ‘s beans will produce chocolates having different attributes, and they can then make melanges , producing uniques taste melodies.

Pierre Marcolini, one of the finest chocolatiers from Belgium,and one of the few to roast his own beans, likes to makes chocolates highlighting the tastes of each country.   His stand was also one of the more generous ones with samples of chocolates made uniquely from Vietnamese beans.

Not all of Paris’s most acclaimed chocolatiers were represented; most noticeably absent were Jacque Genin and Patrick Roger.  It was great to see the legion Bernachon chocolates from Lyon though, which has resisted setting up a boutique in Paris.

France boasts extremely talented creators of chocolate all over the country, who like Bernachon ,prefer to keep their glory locally.  The Basque area is also noted for their chocolates, for example.

Italy, Spain, Belgium, Korea, and Luxembourg were represented, but Japan had the most booths outside of France.  The Japanese are fervent Francophiles, and now creating fine chocolates is one of their proudest luxuries to offer.

Japanese pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki, who has several boutiques in Paris, likes to do asian French fusion in his creations, and was demonstrating making his green tea “waffles” bedded around his chocolate macarons.

Some of the most unusual and most surprising lovely chocolates I tasted were from Lebanon, seen in the photo. The most elaborate display was the gilded white merry-go-round from Laduree’s pastries here in Paris.

The pink studded pralines, seen in the photo, are brioche type sweet breads filled with red candied almonds from Pralus chocolates in Paris, who has his own chocolate bean plantation in Madagascar.

The last time I went to the salon was several years ago, which proved to be a real ordeal fighting the crowds of folks, that frankly I came away more frazzled than delighted.  But, this time is proved to be different, as it was held in a much larger space at the Paris halls of exhibitions at Porte de Versailles.

The entry fee was rather high I thought at 13 euros, but in the end it was all worth it.  For those chocolate lovers who were out  to sample each and every stand, well then, it was a definite bargain.

The exquisite chocolate sculpted dresses, seen in the photos were for eye candy pleasure if not to taste.  Same with portraits painted in chocolates. The flowers seen were edible.

Jewelry made from chocolates, macaroons, and candies were ingenuous for sure, but I wonder how long they would last?  Tooting chocolate as a beauty agent, especially cacao butter is not new, but I had never seen chocolate proposed as an epilation agent, as seen in the photo.

The creative artistry of chocolatiers here in Paris has made some of them as sought out as rock stars.  It is not unusual to find hoards of tourists around the world, clambering  to buy their treasured morsels to take home.

Fine chocolates really should have a minimum of 70% of cocoa butter, without lecithin, and be made with real vanilla.  Most important besides starting with the best elemental chocolate, is not adding too much sugar, so one can appreciate and discern the different nuances of great chocolate.

Industrial chocolates cover up poorer grades of  chocolate with sugar, the all time great masker of flavours, and emulsifiers , like lecithin, and use artificial vanilla, which is unfortunately what most of the world eats as chocolate.

Given the sky-high prices of artisanal chocolates, which here in Paris can hover around at least 100 euros plus a kilo, I treat myself to just a one or two pieces at a time  as my mood dictates.  Better to taste the very best occasionally, in order to keep my chocolate palate honed, than drown it with the ordinary.

I generally will buy bars of Valhrona or pellets of Callebaut chocolate  from G. Detou on rue Ticquetonne, to make my best chocolate cakes and pastries, as do the majority of professional pastry makers do in Paris.

Downstairs at the salon, loads of the greatest of various candies were on display, way to numerous to even try to describe.   I am not a great fan of “candies”, with the exceptions of some sublime caramels I tasted from a Japanese maker called Douze.  Here in Paris Jacque Genin’s caramels are one of the most celebrated in addition to his chocolates.

I discovered that President Obama was selected this year as a special recipient of a creation of cacao and cola, given America’s obsession with cola drinks.

I wound down the salon by planting myself in the first two rows of the pastry demonstration that featured renown pastry chefs showing how to do their masterpieces.  One chef by the name of Cédric Grolet, literally blew me away with his extremely intricate recreation of a red pomme d’amour, seen in the photo.

All of 27 years old, and having been at Fauchon under his belt, he is now chef patissier at the beautiful and very expensive Hotel Meurice.  His pastry was a melt in your mouth shell of white chocolate subtly flavoured with rose, and wrapped a rounded a small compote of apples sitting on top of a lemon biscuit.

Dipped in a red gel and topped with his own pulled sugared rose petals, it made for a magnificent presentation!  I was delightedly shocked when his assistants from Ferrandi culinary school, very generously passed out petit little pommel d’amours for us to try.

The lemony apples merged beautifully with the  very little sugared white chocolate .  You were able to taste each component, and yet at the same time a sublime marriage of flavours. Mark my word, this guy is probably going to be the next Pierre Hermé!

After tasting Grolet’s monumental creation, I was pleasantly satiated with the most marvellous of endings, and felt ready to brave the stuffed tramway home.  The night air was cool with a light drizzle still falling and I found myself going over all the individual steps of making those literally ambrosial little love apples.

With all of my six euros remaining in my purse, which was what I had foolishly taken into the salon, I really wasn’t able to buy anything with such a little amount. I could have charged up a stratospheric amount given there was so much to choose from, but congratulated my disciplined refrain.

After all, I do feel very blessed to live here and I guess just knowing that if and when I want the best of all chocolates in the world, all I have to do is make a few rounds in the this beautiful chocolate haven, called Paris.