Indulgence or Real Chocolate

Indulgence: One Man's Selfless Search for the Best Chocolate

Author: Paul Richardson

From Willy Wonka to Ferrero Rocher, chocolate is embedded in our culture as perhaps no other foodstuff. And although it has been swooned over endlessly in print, Indulgence takes the subject into entirely new realms. In a pleasurable mélange of travel narrative, historical writing, and literary gastronomy, Paul Richardson discovers a substance that still has much to say about the joys and agonies of our human debt to pleasure. In this whimsical chronicle of one of mankind's ruling passions, he concludes that, despite the wholesale debasement of a once-sacred substance, chocolate has lost none of its mysterious capacity to bewitch. Paul Richardson is one of Britain's leading food historians.

The New York Times - Tobin Harshaw

A British food historian, Richardson is sometimes trenchant, sometimes sophomoric, but always good-humored. And while he has a thorough grasp of how this Central American plant took on its ritual and romantic baggage, he's more interested in finding out, on foot, how that history lives on today.

New interesting textbook: Hippos Go Berserk or Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse

Real Chocolate

Author: Chantal Coady

In Rococo Real Chocolate Chantal Coady, proprietor of London's exquisite Rococo Chocolates in King's Road presents over 50 groundbreaking and highly unusual recipes that anyone can make at home. Painstakingly tested and illustrated with beautiful, easy-to-follow, step-by-step photographs, the book makes the mysterious art of chocolate accessible to the amateur home enthusiast. Coady is an ardent proponent of what she calls "Real Chocolate" and explains the difference between excellent natural ingredients - the only used in Rococo recipes - and the over-sweetened, fat and additive-laden confections most widely marketed in the world today. Simply put, "Real Chocolate" is chocolate made with only the very finest all-natural ingredients. Fun to make and divine to taste! Recipes will include basics like plain and flavoured ganaches and truffles, decorative chocolate leaves and curls; unusual offerings like chocolate tempura and white chocolate and cardamom pannacotta, and savory recipes like black beans with ginger and cocoa, and chocolate tapenade.

The book is also filled with amazing chocolate lore from irrefutable evidence of chocolate's physical and mental health benefits, to the fact that white chocolate is the closest thing found in nature to human breast milk!

Author Biography: Chantal Coady is founder of the Campaign for Real Chocolate and co-founder of the Chocolate Society. She is evangelical in her mission to share with the world the "Real Chocolate" she has sold in her shop for over 15 years.

Publishers Weekly

Founder of London's Rococo chocolate shop and author of two previous chocolate books, Coady has now unleashed her inexhaustible passion for all things chocolate onto a full-scale cookbook. Coady (who co-founded the standard-bearing Chocolate Society) has made it her personal mission to keep the informed consumer away from "fast chocolate," with its hydrogenated fats and nasty byproducts. Despite its principled stance, this is a highly functional cookbook. It can be used as a chocolate primer-how to make ganache and truffles, how to temper chocolate, how to work with simple molds. But it also contains an intriguing exploration of chocolate as a savory ingredient (a gesture toward chocolate's often overlooked South American origins). Many of these depend on an unexpectedly logical invention: chocolate-balsamic vinegar, the active ingredient in Hangover Fried Eggs; Eggplant, Chocolate and Goat Cheese Pizzettes; and Quick Pan-roasted Chicken with Chocolate Vinegar. Coady also covers surer territory with Classic Mousse, old-fashioned hot cocoa, Chocolate Brownies and an assortment of the usual cakes and cookies. While ingredients can be expensive and not always easy to find (Coady has a ruinous affection for saffron and cocoa nibs, for example), the recipes are generally appealing and straightforward. The photographs are mouthwatering and the design elegant beyond belief-virtual prerequisites for chocolate books. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Coady (The Chocolate Companion; Chocolate: Food of the Gods) acquired an international following with her London chocolate shop, Rococo. Her new, lavishly illustrated book features recipes as well as a history of chocolate and "master classes" on ganache, tempering, and other special techniques. Along with indulgent, mouth-watering desserts and other treats (e.g., drinks such as Chocolate Manhattans), she offers an eclectic selection of savory recipes, from Chocolate Tempura to Pan-Roasted Chicken with Chocolate Vinegar (some of her "nonsweets" may be a bit too exotic for many readers). It's a bit surprising that she doesn't include more information on chocolates with "high cocoa content" (i.e., extra bittersweet and the like) that are increasingly available to consumers. Nevertheless, professionals and other chocolate lovers will find her latest book delectable and a bargain; for most baking collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.