La Nuit du Gâteau: Night of Cakes at La Maison du Chocolat

Photos courtesy of La Maison du Chocolat

La Maison du Chocolat is celebrating its 20th anniversary of the first store opening in New York on Wednesday, November 3rd. At the La Nuit du Gâteau, or Night of Cake, all three of the New York stores will be premiering several of their pastries for a free public tasting.
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The tasting will be from 7pm to midnight at the flagship Madison Avenue boutique (Madison & 79th) and 7pm to 9pm at the Rockfeller (30 Rock) and Wall Street (Wall & Pearl). The event is open to all visitors and the highlights will be the chocolate tarts, macarons and ice-cream, along with exclusive treats for the event. The above pictured sTARTlette is a "crunchy sablé enrobed with ganache infused with ginger, passion fruit nectar and Sancho pepper" with what looks like a bit of gold leaf.


The Chocolate Tart is also making an appearance. A combination of dark chocolate ganache and natural vanilla, I can tell you from personal experience that it is absolutely delectable.


One of the big pastry premiers will be the classic eclairs, which will be available regularly in the New York stores. Though this is primarily a chocolate shop, the caramel eclairs made on sight have an amazingly delicate caramel cream that will make you smile without weighing you down. Also available are chocolate fillings and possibly coffee for La Nuit du Gâteau.



Don't miss the Salvador cake made of chocolate and raspberries or the omnipresent macarons filled with the signature ganache and in a wide variety of flavors.

I previously raved about my last experience at a La Maison du Chocolat tasting. I've also previewed some of the aforementioned pastries a few weeks ago. I'll certainly be making it back to their public tasting. This will be a great event if you already love their products, but also a good introduction if you've never had first-class chocolate before. If their Paris celebration back in July is any indication, expect long lines and big crowds.

La Maison du Chocolat
lamaisonduchocolate.com
1018 Madison Ave
Manhattan, NY 10075
(212) 744-7117

30 Rockefeller Center,
Manhattan, NY 10020
(212) 265-9404

63 Wall St
Manhattan, NY 10005
(212) 952-1123
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Miracle Fruit Flavor Tripping Party

Last week I helped throw a flavor tripping party for Gastronomy Society. We purchased Miracle Fruit Tablets online since we were expecting a big group and the fresh fruit would have been cumbersome and expensive. With a list of tasting recommendations, I went shopping for sours, bitter, and spicy foods. This was my first experience with miracle fruit and I wanted to get a variety of flavors.

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I first read about the wonders of miracle fruit in a New York Times article last year. It occurred to me that the best way to experience the sensory-altering Synsepalum dulcificum would be in a party setting. It's not like I'm going to finish lemons and jars of pickles on my own. A shopping list of sour foods isn't all that practical in large amounts. In fact, going through checkout at the grocery was an odd experience itself. I got a weird look from the cashier when I paid for lemons, limes, grapefruits, olives, pickles, salt and vinegar chips, wasabi peas, sour patch kids, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar.

Miracle fruit gets its unique properties from a glycoprotein called miraculin; yes that's seriously what it's called. Though the actual mechanism does not seem to be fully understood, miraculin binds with flavor receptors on the tongue so that these receptors respond to tart acids as well as sweetness. The effect is that formerly sour foods become sweet and formerly sweet foods can become overly cloying. Miracle fruit had grown in West Africa for some time, and had even been floated as a sugar substitute for diabetic and dieters in the 1970s. Unfortunately, a last minute change by the FDA shelved the widespread introduction in the US.

The tablet I had tasted vaguely like raisins. I couldn't tell if that was the flavor the fruit was supposed to have or if it was an additive. The trick is to let the pill dissolve on your tongue. I had quite a few people coming back to me to ask for more tablets because they chewed and swallowed the first one. With my tongue sufficiently activated with miraculin, I picked up a plate of enough acidic foods to wear away the enamel on my teeth.

I started with the pickle. Not much of an effect. I intentionally avoided sweet pickles and bought dill slices in hopes that the fruit would do its work. Sour Patch Kids lose much of their appeal when they are just Sweet Patch Kids. Wasabi peas were easy to just pop into your mouth and forget about. The pill probably tapered off some of the harshness of the wasabi, but it still tasted about the same. Salt and vinegar chips were oddly sweet. Not sure they were quite as satisfying without the sourness. I didn't bother with the cheap balsamic. People told me it tasted like bad wine. I have a bottle of seven-year aged balsamic from Italy that's sweet enough by itself to drink from a glass. I didn't need a miracle for that to be delicious (especially on strawberries and vanilla ice cream)

The best foods to eat with the miracle fruit effects were the citruses. Lemons, limes, grapefruits, I could just bite into the slices like oranges. The bitterness of grapefruit wore away, the main reason I avoided pamplemousse before. The lemon and lime, stripped of their acidity, expressed their unique flavors more readily. It was an opportunity to appreciate the lemon and lime for more than the juice, in the same way the zest gives you those essential oils without the mouth puckering. Too often lemon-lime flavors are conflated in artificial flavorings. They're really not the same. Stripping away the juice gives them them the chance to express their inner fruitiness.

The party wrapped up since our keg of Guinness couldn't be tapped. Did you know Guinness kegs require special taps? Keep that in mind if you ever order one. About an hour after most people left, the store brought us a few cases of bottled Guinness. At this point it was mostly just the Gastronomy Society board that remained. We celebrated with the dark beer, which combined with the miracle fruit, was creamy like a milkshake and much smoother to drink. This was the last event of a year of chocolate and cheese tastings, movie nights, taco trips, dumpling crawls and Indian buffets. I'm taking event suggestions for next year now, and miracle fruit party is on the top of the list.

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Tasting with La Maison du Chocolat

With boutique locations in Paris, New York, Cannes, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, La Maison du Chocolat don't mess around. Master chocolatier Robert Linxe's philosophy is that everyone should have one piece of exquisite chocolate a day. I'm not sure if he meant that everyone should have at least one piece, but certainly one of La Maison du Chocolat's ganaches would keep you satisfied for a week in this Hersey permeated world. Good chocolate, just like good cheese, wine or other victuals is an indulgence going forward. Once you take that step into the hard stuff, you can't go back the same.

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I had the opportunity to taste four chocolates from this fancy boutique through an event hosted by the Columbia Gastronomy Society. Manager Anca Niculescu walked us through the chocolate making process to inculcate an appreciation for the four morsels in front of us.


Cocoa butter, cocoa nibs, cocoa beans

We dissected the cocoa bean, which come in cacao pods. Inside each bean are tiny cocoa nibs that are ground into chocolate liquor. The liquor is then separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter.


Cracked open bean with all its cocoa goodness falling out

The manager emphasized that La Maison du Chocolat used the highest quality cacao pods, the Criollo variety, whereas typical industrial chocolate makers utilized the more common Forastero. This differentiation didn't mean much to me as someone outside of the industry, but the fact that they could claim this exclusivity meant something in itself. What stuck with me was the manager's description of the shelf-life of good chocolate. Most of her ganaches lasted about four weeks, and she added that you should be skeptical of chocolates that have unnaturally long shelf-lives. Another useful tip, if the chocolate leaves a filmy feeling in your mouth, it could be an indication that the maker used vegetable oil as a replacement for cocoa butter. Chocolate is best kept in the climate of a wine cellar. Never freeze chocolate.


Grain dentelle - milk chocolate praliné with slivers of crispy waffle

I had always been a fan of chocolate pralines and I urge anyone who spots a gold box of Goldkenn Swiss pralines to treat herself. The tasting started with this milk chocolate exhibition of textures. The chocolate started dense in the middle and opened outwards with an airy crispness to thin waffle layer at the top. The lightest chocolate came first and each piece was progressively darker.



Micaëla - Milk chocolate mousse infused with pure Kenyan Arabica coffee

This was our first infusion. A mousse, whipped ganache creating a playful levity. A hint of caramel that comes from the chocolate beans themselves and not from any added ingredient. The coffee depth. The beans are steeped in cream, brought to a rolling boil, before being mixed with the chocolate.



Andalousie - Dark chocolate ganache infused with lemon zest

Just a sniff and you'll get the citrus right away. Real fruits always taste better than their chemical counterparts. Just like there is a distinct difference between lemon juice and lemon zest, you can feel a concentration of oils in this chocolate. This was one of the denser chocolates in terms of texture. Just look at the picture of the black hole of cocoa.



Chiberta - Dark chocolate mousse infused with orange and lemon zest

Somewhat like a combination of the second and third chocolates, I expected the flavor to be similar too. Actually, I've never been particularly fond of orange chocolates, but given the experience with the lemon zest ganache, I figured the orange would be delicious. In fact, the orange was distinctively different from the lemon. More than just being sweeter, less tart, there was actually an essence of orange like the difference between a San Pellegrino Limonta and Aranciata.


With those four, I think I'm set on chocolate for a week at least. But what's the future hold? I anticipate that I'll be stopping into one of La Maison du Chocolat's three boutiques from time to time to keep up my fancy chocolate cravings. They hold two hour tasting for $70, a terrific special occasion gift.

La Maison du Chocolat
lamaisonduchocolate.com
1018 Madison Ave
Manhattan, NY 10075
(212) 744-7117

30 Rockefeller Center,
Manhattan, NY 10020
(212) 265-9404

63 Wall St
Manhattan, NY 10005
(212) 952-1123

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