“We need more chocolate,” Suzen said.
I’ve waited twenty-six years waiting for her to say that. It’s so comforting to know that finally I have had some influence on her. I do recall the morning after we were engaged, when she went downstairs and emptied my refrigerator of butter, cream and three pounds of white chocolate. But that was an action long, long ago, intended to improve my health. It was so distant in time that my vague memories are only very bitter. Not very, very bitter.
Suzen and her Executive Chef Joyce O’Neill were working on the new menus for fall and winter. Each fall and each spring, new menus appear for our clients at Cooking by the Book. Some firms visit us regularly so we are constantly spurred on to new ideas.
Joyce spearheads the menu effort, looking through the latest in books and magazines, what’s on the web, and going back to old book friends, too. We feature many types of events and so we need an array of menu ideas. It’s truly an effort of love and we are always surprised at the menu combinations that our clients select. There are always one or two entrees, for example, that everyone just has to have.
Poor Joyce! All that effort and some of her selections are picked by no one. Never fear, in the coming months we’ll be making each one for ourselves and published all these great recipes with pictures here on the blog.
Ah, that chocolate deficit? Truly, there is a God. We got a review copy of Cake Boy today by Eric Lanlard. An accomplished chef, born in France and with years running the London patisserie business for Albert and Michel Roux, Eric offers the wonderful Cake Boy shop in London. His book is beautifully filled with many, many photographs: some for finished products and some showing the sequence of steps for, say, creating a perfectly artistic candied fruit topping on fruit cake [actually, his brilliant Chocolate and Orange Christmas Cake].
The recipes? Distinctive, not overpoweringly complex, and — based on the pictures — elegant. Clearly, all low calorie. Well, some low calorie.
Suzen and Joyce found a Flour-Free Chocolate Sponge Cake that fills that chocolate void. What does it taste like? I’m sure it’s great, but just to be sure, we’ll be testing it this weekend.
Look for a report, the recipe, and a picture on this coming Monday. Look, too, for the new Cooking by the Book website. We’re in beta testing and we know you will be thrilled.
And, in the meantime, look for a copy of Cake Boy! It’s a holiday weekend here in the United States. Time to party, and there are many perfectly sinful ways to celebrate in Cake Boy.
Why, some of them are even chocolate.