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Time for chocolate showpiece

11/30/2020

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Step 1 The original Concept

Santa's coming to town, but his reindeer are jumping over a boulder, and Santa is loosing control of his sleigh.

Step 2 Prepping molds and the work list

I used Easter egg molds for the body of the reindeer, taped together acetate sheets into cones for the top of the trees, and into a tube for the trunks. I also used a smaller diameter tube for the legs and arms of my characters.

Step 3 Adding texture and refinements to the reindeer

I used a milk chocolate "putty" to refine the volume of the reindeer as well as giving them a more organic texture. The antlers were simply piped on acetate plastic and let to set in a large can to give them a curve.

Step 4 The sleigh

The panels of the sleigh were cut out of poured chocolate, the volume was given thanks to 2 pieces of tube and more flat chocolate. The curve was done thanks to chocolate poured on a thick paper, that was glued to the sleigh structure right before setting. The sleigh was then airbrushed white, and red. the golden accent were glued after.

Step 5 Santa

Simple assembly of the elements that were already casted, once assembled the character was glued on a stand for easy manipulation while being painted. The face was made with colored white chocolate. The boots weren't added until final assembly.

Step 6 Base and final assembly

The base was sprayed white, the tree were added and textured (with the help of milk chocolate "putty").
Finally the sleigh was glued in place, and Santa, the reindeer were added and the top of the trees.

The final showpiece

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Portland February 2020

6/13/2020

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La Petite Provence

Our first stop was at La Petite Provence for breakfast, where we met Pascal. As always the generous portion and the excellent food was nicely complimented by an assortment of pastries and bread to go.

Salt and Straw

A day in Portland would not be right without a stop at Salt and Straw. Luckily the Portland ice cream chain has three location to choose from ; here the division store.

Twisted Croissant

Woodblock Chocolate

La Rose

It was our first time at La Rosé, located a little outside Portland in Beaverton, it was refreshing to find a mousse cake offering reminiscent from Europe. More info here.

Park Avenue

Masia

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Portland November 2019

11/28/2019

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Proud Mary

As always delicious food...

Twisted

Twisted a newcomer on the croissant scene in Portland and their baked good are top notch.

Nuvrei

Great assortment of viennoiseries and macaron. We especially liked the sesame croissant!

Saint Honoré

Classic french pastries and bread is the building blocs on which Saint Honoré built their rock solid reputation, it was nice to visit their first store.

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Seattle Sweet Scene November 2019

11/19/2019

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1-Sea Wolf Bakery

As usual, very good laminated goods, croissants and pain au chocolat are delicious!

2-Café Besalu

Talking about laminated dough, my favorite place in town has been and still is café Besalu, if you're looking for a super flaky croissant that oozes butter this should be your destination.

3-Larsen's bakery

Larsen's has been an institution for well over 30 years, they specialize in Danish pastries.

4-Le Rêve

Le rêve, is a nice patisserie and café on the top of Queen Anne.

5-Indi Chocolate

For the past 10 years the bean to bar movement has been growing, one of the more recent addition to this trend is Indi Chocolate, which offers a selection of bean to bar products, and sweet goods.

6-Lady Yum

If you 're looking for a place that will provide you with exquisite mousse cakes, Lady Yum in Pioneer square, will not only content but amaze you.

7-London Plane

Halfway restaurant, halfway bakery, London Plane offers an assortment of baked goods, as well as small fares.

8-Fran's Chocolate

Delicious chocolate, amazing store, did I mentioned packaging? Fran's chocolate is on world class level!

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Portland February 2019

2/25/2019

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Here we are again, this time in Portland!
Our first stop, is our usual Proud Mary.

Salt & Straw

We enjoyed a flight of the February chocolate Ice Creams.
From the top down :

Woodblock'c Ecuadorian Chocolate W/ Cacao Fruit Jelly.

Xocolatl's Oaxacan Honey & Pasilla Fudge.

Cloudforest's Gray Chocolate & Matcha.

Alma's Chocolate PB&J.

Good Coffee

What a delicious marion berry latte.

Cloudforest

VooDoo Doughnut

Bullard

Rosa Rosa

Kachka

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Vancouver BC, the new Eldorado of fine pastry in the North West,

2/15/2019

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Last January I was lucky enough to visit British Columbia’s capital for another edition of its now famous, hot chocolate festival, as usual my buddy Craig (#craigsentme) was the team leader and we were accompanied by a new comer Evan (@evan_s_potter).

Back in 2018, we welcomed the opening of Mon Paris Patisserie, which was outstanding, fast forward to this year, and I am glad to report that Vancouver welcomed another high end patisserie :Forêt Noire.

Lucky Doughnuts

A solid classic hot chocolate this year, we were glad to see a doughnut included with the hot choc!

Forêt Noire

Forêt Noire was the surprise of the trip, located on Broadway, this pâtisserie offers a full range of viennoiseries, macarons, chocolates, cakes, and assortment of jams. We tried a couple mousse cakes, an exotic mousse and the house speciality a Forêt Noire. Both were delicious, the sponge inside were perfectly soaked, the mousses had a perfect texture, and the chocolate work was so perfect that it left us scratching our heads.

Thomas Haas (on Broadway)

Au Comptoir & Beaucoup Bakery

Being in the area, we stopped to visit our friends at Au Comptoir, then it was time for my favorite "pain au chocolat" at Beaucoup bakery.

Chocolate Arts & Koko Monk

Koko Monk, recently opened a second location, we stopped by to check the new store.

Juke Fried Chicken

Juke was a welcome break from the sweet, Vancouver's most famous fried chicken, definitely have an interesting breading.

Perverted Ice Cream, and Thierry Pâtisserie

After our stop at Chocolate Arts, we headed downtown and enjoyed meeting the owner of Perverted ice cream, and later went to check out Thierry Pâtisserie.

The Grand Final
St Lawrence & Kissa Tanto

That was my second time at St Lawrence, and I am glad to report, that it is still an amazing experience.

Since one dinner is not enough (hum hum) we ended up the evening trying a few new dishes from Kissa Tanto, and got the amazing Yuzu Pana Cotta and Tiramisu so Evan could try these delicious desserts.

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Portland October 2018

10/28/2018

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Here's where Craig sent us this time!" (#craigsentme)

Shakespeare, coffee house

Shakespeare coffee house in Chehalis, offers a delicious cup of coffee in the coziness of a former gentlemen club.
Besides coffee and light fare, the house also doubles as a bookstore! What an interesting concept.

La Petite Provence (Sandy Blvd)

Our friends at La Petite Provence have been hard at work, and managed to open a new location, next to a new central kitchen, we had to go say hello, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, make sure to stop there, for a pastry or breakfast.

Canard

Third stop of the day was at Canard, which is especially famous for their "duck pancakes". We ordered the Duck Stack, Prosciutto and English muffin, the French toast, and our favorite of all time the Quinoa Veggie Bowl (carrot harrisa, avocado, cucumber raita, plus the egg and chorizo add-ons).

Cloud Forest

Among Portland's chocolate maker (all great in their own way) we decided to stop to Cloud Forest, because David had yet to try their product.
We tried a really unique bar the "Holy Wood" made from wild cacao from the Bolivian Amazon and infused with Palo Santo wood from Ecuador (where chocolate maker Sebastian is from).

Other bean to bar chocolate maker in Portland:
Woodblock Chocolate (site)
Pitch Dark Chocolate (site)

Good Coffee

Consistently, talked as one of the best coffee, and coffee place in Portland, we had to try Good Coffee and their October special lattes.
We tried 3 out of the 4 flavors,
-Spice Figg & Allspice,
-Marionberry Cacao & cacao nibs from Cloudforest,
-Maple & Smoked orange with cinnamon garnish
We passed on the Matcha Lavender.
The three of them were perfectly balanced and not over sweet.

Spice Figg & Allspice, Marionberry Cacao & cacao nibs from Cloudforest, Maple & Smoked orange with cinnamon garnish

Normandie

The team at Normandie, was nice enough to allow us to dine with them during their soft opening.
Husband and wife owners Judson and Amanda, and their Chef Heather, are from recently shuttered Veritable Quandry, despite being their first night of operation, our experience was very smooth, the staff was friendly and caring, the food came out perfectly, and was delicious.

The food:
We ordered:
the Miso Glazed Carots, the Oxtail Croquettes, the Pork Rillettes, and the Grilled Levain for starters ;
the Seared Scallops, the Tasmanian Ocean Trout, the Bavette and the Family Style Cured Pork.

Xico

A Portland journey, would not feel right without a stop at Xico, we were unfortunately too full to get anything else than desserts...

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Autumn Sunflower

9/13/2018

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Autumn is coming, or might actually be there, this morning I craved some of fall favorite flavors, chocolate, caramel, hazelnut, could I pack these into a cake?

Chocolate glaze

100gr chocolate
500gr pate a glacer (or prima dipping glaze)
200gr simple syrup
250gr heavy cream
50gr glucose
10gr cocoa powder
Simmer the heavy cream, syrup, glucose, cacao powder, and pour over the 2 chocolates.

Albinao chocolate mousse

50gr heavy cream
50milk
25gr sugar
50gr yolks
150gr Valrhona Abinao 85% chocolate
300gr whipped cream (soft peak)
Make a crème anglaise, pour it over the chocolate, emulsify.
Fold with the soft peak cream.

Liquid caramel

580gr sugar
150gr glucose
150gr heavy cream
150gr milk
3gr salt
Caramelized the sugar with the glucose, add the salt, uncook with the cream and milk.
Pour spherical molds, and freeze.

Praliné cremeux

100gr milk
5gr gelatin powder
30gr blooming water
350gr heavy cream
700gr praliné paste
Bloom the gelatin, warm the milk, dissolve the gelatin in the warm milk.
Add the praliné paste in a mixer, add slowly the warm milk (with gelatin).
Add the cream, mix until the cream is homogenized, refrigerate.

White chocolate cream

300gr pastry cream
150gr white chocolate
200gr heavy cream (whipped soft peak)
Whip the pastry cream, with the melted white chocolate, fold with the whipped cream.

Caramelized hazelnut

125gr sugar
120gr hazelnut
25gr sugar
Bring the sugar and the water to 240°f (120°c), add the hazelnut, and stir until they caramelize, empty on a Silpat, once cold cut them in small pieces.
Add the pieces of caramelized hazelnut to the white chocolate cream.

Chocolate génoise sponge

130gr flour
18gr cocoa powder
18gr corn starch
5gr baking powder
90gr yolks
55gr sugar
110gr oil
150gr whites
110gr sugar
Whisk the yolks with sugar 1 and the oil. Whip the whites with the sugar 2. Sift the dry ingredients.
Mix the yolks with the whites, and fold in the dry ingredients, spread on a sheet pan and bake (350°f for about 8 minutes).
Once baked cut thin discs to lay at the bottom of the tarts.

Sugar dough

250gr sugar
500gr butter
50gr eggs
760gr cake flour
Cream butter and sugar, add the egg, and finally the flour. Allow to cool, roll and lay in tart rings.
Freeze, and bake (350°f for about 10 minutes).

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The Art Institute of Seattle Baking and Pastry program at the Penny Arcade Expo of 2018

8/31/2018

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For the second year The Art Institute of Seattle culinary school is showcasing a chocolate showpiece on the Art Institute booth at PAX West, in Seattle.

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Vancouver BC, August 2018

8/25/2018

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Another crazy day in Vancouver BC.

Yes! Craig did it again!
After weeks of research, and a month of anticipation, Craig finally managed to push us,
into joining him in one of his MAMMOTH food tour.
Since we started doing those about 10 years ago, we have enriched our experience with this blog,
now are also using social media (Instagram and Twitter) with this hashtag : #craigsentme . Find more pictures and behind the scene there.

After a fairly uneventful drive from Seattle to Vancouver, we stopped at Au Comptoir for a quick coffee and vienoiserie.

Au Comptoir,

Fable

10h00 am came around and we were ready for some brunch, we ended up at Fable, where we had 3 dishes, salmon benedict, duck benedict and finally the pulled pork Johnny cakes.

Pete's Meat

Fable make a very delicious black pepper jam, which happens to be available at Pete's Meat, so we had to stop, to get a jar.

Gem Chocolate

We were back at Gem chocolate to check the new flavors, and got to try the last of the strawberry rhubarb chocolate, and the new passion fruit licorice.
Follow this link for more info.
Read more about chocolate here.

Temper Pâtisserie

Temper pâtisserie, has always been one of our favorite, this time was special because we got to meet with its owner Steven Hodge, as well as one of his first chef, Chef Gianni Picchi.
Read more about Temper Pâtisserie here.
Read more about chef Hodge here.

Sebastian & Co

While being in the neighborhood, we had to poke our head in one of the best butchery of Vancouver.

Faubourg

Since its beginning about 10 years ago Faubourg has grown from one store to four, we had yet to visit the fourth, so we had to make a stop.

Perverted Ice Cream

Perverted Ice Cream, is an interesting concept playing on cheeky innuendo, that delivers delicious ice cream.

Ladurée at Holt Renfrew

If your in need of a tea and a pastry while experiencing indulgent shopping.
Ladurée at Holt Renfrew, offers an opulent setting.

St Lawrence

Where do I start?
-The food is awesome!
So awesome indeed that we decided to skip the deterring picture taking,
so awesome that we took mental note of each dish to be able to draw them for this blog.
So awesome that we didn't share anything, and ate everything.
St Lawrence is not a place for dieter, its a place for food lovers, with appetite for life, its a place that will satisfy your hunger and leave you with a smile on your face.
Read more about St Lawrence here, and here.

All the drawings by @thecharcoalgoblintt (chef Wynne).

Kissa Tanto

Unfortunately, for we were "kinda" full upon arriving at Kissa Tanto, but we had to try a couple new dishes, it is always a pleasure to go there, we will have to go back on an empty stomach...

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<<Previous

Step 1 The original Concept

Step 2 Prepping molds and the work list

Step 3 Adding texture and refinements to the reindeer

Step 4 The sleigh

Step 5 Santa

Step 6 Base and final assembly

The final showpiece

1-Sea Wolf Bakery

Salt & Straw

Good Coffee

Cloudforest

VooDoo Doughnut

Bullard

Rosa Rosa

Kachka

Lucky Doughnuts

Au Comptoir & Beaucoup Bakery

Chocolate Arts & Koko Monk

Perverted Ice Cream, and Thierry Pâtisserie

The Grand Final St Lawrence & Kissa Tanto

Shakespeare, coffee house

La Petite Provence (Sandy Blvd)

Normandie

Xico

Chocolate glaze

Albinao chocolate mousse

Liquid caramel

Praliné cremeux

White chocolate cream

Caramelized hazelnut

Chocolate génoise sponge

Sugar dough

Another crazy day in Vancouver BC.

Au Comptoir,

Temper Pâtisserie

Faubourg

Kissa Tanto

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St Lawrence & Kissa Tanto