A cake fit for a Queen

     Birthdays, I find, should always be about receiving pleasure.  The ultimate pleasure.  To me, nothing brings more pleasure than chocolate, especially when it is the best, most refined European chocolate made into a dense, unique, cake.  It is the philosophy of one of New York’s best chocolatiers, Maribel Liberman. 

     Liberman, a native of Honduras, understands good chocolate when she tastes it.  She owns an exquisite store in New York City called MarieBelle Chocolatier.  And as someone who understands the importance of a good piece of chocolate, she also finds that “life is all about the pleasure and happiness we find in food, art and beauty”.

     Until I became a fan of all things French, I couldn’t picture beauty as being present in food.  The French excel at this.  Everything from the packaging to the way edibles are presented, the thought placed in creating and enjoying meals, the quality of the ingredients, and the sharing of those experiences is conducive to beauty.  Beauty inspires art, and chocolate was the venue, this birthday when I turned 45, for that inspiration.

     The treat for my birthday was a Marie Antoinette Vintage Truffle Cake, made by this chocolate house that also creates artfully illustrated chocolates, raw cacao confisseries, signature ganaches and decadent hot chocolate mixes.

     I ordered the cake through Dean &Deluca, but it is also available through the company’s website.  The cake honors Queen Marie Antoinette of France, who adored the chocolate pastilles that then chemist to the French Crown, Debauve & Gallais, created for her so she could swallow unpleasant tasting medicines.  Marie Antoinette adored chocolate, and this cake, which comes packaged inside a box simulating an ancient book, includes a poem in her honor, and her chocolate:

She stares with puzzle at her treasure book

She can’t help but wonder

What the story is all about inside

She flips the cover

And to her surprise:

A mysterious dark slab

With a rich golden chandelier

Simulating the entrance of a Palace

How amazing!!!

He contemplated her with joy

As she closed her eyes as if

She was going into a trance

He was the man she loved

But at that moment

He took a second place

People warned her that one

Becomes a prisoner of obsession

She held the slab and took a first bite

Melting cream in her mouth she screamed

                                    OH… CHOCOLAT!!

     Indeed, the Marie Antoinette Vintage Truffle Cake is like biting into a truffle.  It is quite small, about 6.5” by 4.5”, but it compensates in richness.  The truffle cream chocolate lies on top of crisp chocolate wafers, so when one bites into it, there is also a certain crunch.  It is decorated with the image of an antique chandelier, faintly showing out of a sprinkle of gold glitter, and to my surprise, it did not fade throughout the life of the cake.

     I recommend a rich, dark shot of Italian espresso to accompany this luscious dessert.  And of course, a trip to this chocolatier is de rigueur during a visit to New York City.

      After the cake is consumed (which will not take long, believe me), the simulated case can be used for storage of cherished secrets – love notes, valentines, etc.

A small piece with a cup of strong espresso is all this cake needs.  It should be cut in triangles as shown here.

You will get 8 portions.

L'art du pain

     The French and their bread are a case apart.  One can spend hours debating on the subject of bread with French people.  It is just as important to them as wine is.

     In France, pairing the proper bread with one’s food is something taken very seriously.  Rye bread is the only one eaten with oysters, while breads made with lemon or aux hèrbes are reserved for fish.  Pastries, such as tea cakes or cookies, are mostly consumed for the mid-afternoon treat called le goutier and are rarely eaten in the morning.

     Originally, bread was the staple food of the peasants.  It was not until Louis XIV’s reign that bread started to be refined into what is known today as the ubiquitous baguette, and all its extensive varieties.   In the 18^th century, the aristocracy decided that the pain de campagne was a bit too heavy for their stomachs, and the refinements of flour in order to produce white bread began.

     Bread was one of the main causes of the French Revolution.  Following a bad harvest, the government decided to raise the price of cereals.  This meant the common folk were not only deprived of the beautiful palaces and glamour the aristocracy enjoyed, but were now also going to starve.  The people revolted, and the rest, as they say, is bloody history – literally.

Kirsten Dunst uttering the famous line “let them eat cake” in a 

still from “Marie Antoinette”

Another still from “Marie Antoinette” showing beaucoup du pain!

     When Marie Antoinette uttered the famous “qu'ils mangent de la brioche”, it was indeed an insult to injury to the already starving populace.  She could only keep her head for another four years after that. 

     Nowadays, in Paris alone there are about 35,000 bakeries, which produce about 3.5 million tons of bread per year.  When it comes to baguettes alone, it is estimated that 10 million are sold each day.  In France, it is illegal to put preservatives into the bread.  Hence one must buy it every day.  I remember the practice was the same in Buenos Aires (where I was born).  One would go to the almacén within one’s own neighborhood to get the bread for the day.

     This is unfortunately not the case with bread in the United States, where generally, the bread is very bad.  One can find excellent bread in any bakery in Europe, or even in the supermarket.  But in the U.S., unless one goes the extra mile to find it, all there is available is what I call “plastic bread”.  It is chewy like gum and has no crispness at all.  An insult to the art of baking bread really.

     Luckily, and thanks to the local farm-to-table movement, there are a few places where one can go for just the right amount of goodness when it comes to bread.  I am speaking, of course, of The Olde Hearth Bread Co., a local bakery with a stall at the most excellent East End Market.  They also sell their products over the weekends at the Windermere and Maitland Farmers Markets.  They supply the top local area restaurants and premiere hotels… and I have their breads all over my freezer at home too.  For me it is de rigueur, every 2 to 3 months, to place a large order and stock up on their wonderful bounty.

     Here’s what I got this last time I went, starting at the top right hand corner and then clockwise:

     -          Croissants.  Their plain croissants are the best ones I’ve been able to find in Orlando.

-          Fougasse a l’oignon.  Small breads with onion, ideal for substantial sandwiches to go on a picnic for instance.

-          Ficelles. Two small baguettes to laden with butter and preserves for breakfast in the morning.  For more details on the French breakfast, go here.

-          Chocolate boule.  Yes.  This is a pain the campagne made with chocolate and either dried mango or dried cherries.  I prefer the mango.  Toasted with a slab of cold, salted butter and a cappuccino, it is my weekend treat.

-          Pain de mie raisins.  Smells like the holiday season already.  Great toasted with some butter but even better for French toast.

Not pictured, but also worth trying, are the specialized baguettes aux figues and noisette (ideal for a great cheese plate), as well as the brioche challah loaf, which makes an ideal dipping bread.

     I’ve always longed to visit famous bakeries in Paris, but for now, I am happy I have The Olde Hearth Bread Co. for my monthly supply of bread.

February is D&B chocolates month

     To say that I am a lover of chocolate does not even begin to describe how I feel about it.  To me, chocolate is all about elegance, debauchery, exquisiteness and uniqueness.  It is something worth anything and everything, one of the pleasures of life that make it worth living.

     I have always been in pursuit of the best possible chocolate I could lay my hands on.  Places like La Maison du Chocolat or Neuhaus, the ultimate Italian chocolates like Amedei and Pernigotti, etc.  It was not too long ago that I came upon a series of amateur detective stories named the Lady Arianna Regency Mysteries.  Written by Andrea Penrose and set in England’s Regency period, they supply the best of both worlds for an avid reader of mysteries like me, and each chapter starts with a bit of chocolate trivia and a recipe.

     The first installment, entitled Sweet Revenge, introduces us to the main characters – Lady Arianna and the Earl of Saybrook, who will become more than just partners in crime.  Arianna finds herself entangled in the possible poisoning of Prinny (a.k.a. the Prince Regent), and Saybrook is employed by England’s government to uncover the culprit.  The story also introduces one of the oldest, and most distinguished chocolate houses in the world – Debauve & Gallais.

     Ms. Sulpice Debauve started his business as a chemist in the France of Marie Antoinette.  He was the pharmacist to the Royal Household.  As chocolate made its appearance in Europe at the time, he devised a way to hide medicines into “pistoles”, basically chocolate coins embossed with the house’s logo, so that the Queen did not have to taste the unpleasantness of her medication.  Marie Antoinette liked the chocolate confections so much that she commissioned them regularly, and thus Debauve & Gallais was born.  By 1804 they had expanded to over sixty shops throughout France.

Debauve & Gallais store at Rue de Sèvres

     After learning all of this, I naturally had to see what all the fuss was about.  I have tasted some pretty good chocolate in my lifetime, so the reason as to why this particular chocolate house would make chocolates worth up to $600 for a few dozen piqued my curiosity to no end.

Shop-window with "Le Livre", on the top right-hand corner.
A huge box of about 3' X 2' which will set you back 300€

Some of the selection available at the store at Rue de Sèvres, which is not sold in the U.S.
The aromas and subtlety of the flavors are unique.  Huge sizes too!

     I gladly found that there is a shop inside Barney’s in New York City that will deliver next day.  So being Valentine’s week and all, I ordered a modest two dozen for just over a hundred dollars.  The chocolate melts in the mouth unlike any other I’ve ever tasted.  In all reality, it feels as if one is sucking on a lump of butter but with the taste of chocolate, which, coming to think of it, is how chocolate should taste every time.  The dark chocolates are dark and opaque, the milk ones, creamy and unctuous.  The pistols of Marie Antoinette show the prominent house logo, and one can understand how the chic Queen would have had no problem in taking her medicines disguised in this way.  Mss. D&G made them in different cocoa concentrations for the Queen to savor.

The modest box I was able to acquire in U.S.

     Debauve & Gallais are chocolates for that rare special occasion.  You cannot just buy them for the sake of having some chocolate.  After all, they were especially made for royalty and they should be given their status.  With a nice liqueur they will round up your evening nicely, and will make your honey feel ultra special if given as a gift, all the more for Valentine’s Day.