Pierre Marcolini can be described in one impressive phrase: Belgium’s foremost practitioner of the art of haute chocolaterie. Belgium is home base but Pierre has stores around the world. His work is surely art. That second picture you see is, yes, his Chocolate Napoleon. Not quite the napoleon you buy at your local pastry shop.
There are 170 recipes in Chocolat. There are recipes here for mere mortals and lots of recipes for culinary gods. That napoleon may look intimidating, but it’s actually doable. There’s a lovely brownie that is adorned with caramel and nuts, transforming the “normal” recipe to something beautiful and extravagant.
You may have had the ultimate meringue dessert from France: Floating Islands. Normally they float in a bowl of crème anglaise but here the bowl is filled with chocolate soup. If you are a fan of fruit, then you can enjoy candied tomatoes adorned with chocolate leaves.
Each recipe is presented with an intense photograph by Marie Pierre Morel. You need those photos, certainly, to pass beyond the words of the recipe to literally see the complicated vision for each dish. The photos make this a coffee table book, but one you’ll be toting it back and forth to your kitchen.
Almost the first half of Chocolat is devoted to very basic ideas. The chapter Bean to Bar at Home guides you to making basic components: roasting your own beans, cocoa nibs, nib clusters, cocoa infusion, chocolate pastry cream, milk chocolate hot chocolate, milk chocolate hazelnut tuiles, … And on and on. If you have every had the pleasure of being in one of Pierre’s stores, then you will not be surprised at these ideas. If Pierre is new to you, be prepared for a rocketing chocolate journey.
After the basics, the second half of the book is devoted to chapters for chocolate from ten countries around the world: from Ecuador and Brazil to Cameroon and Vietnam. In these chapters you find the ideas for full-fledged desserts, many of them recipes that you mere culinary mortal can attempt:
Chocolate Crème Brulee
Madeleines
Passion Fruit Chocolate Truffles
Spicy Chocolate and Orange Loaf
Chocolate Bavarian Cream with Caramelized Cherries
Candied Carrots with Chocolate
Candied Celery and Chocolate Sorbet
Coffee-Chocolate Truffles
Strawberry Brownies
Chocolate Chantilly Cream
This is surely the ultimate chocolate book, one targeted to haute chocolate fanatics. If you are in that tier of people who are deeply religious about chocolate, here is a book to worship, to read, and to follow. There are some rather easy recipes to stroll through. There are many that will have you climbing quite carefully as you venture into new chocolate terrain.
You’ve never encountered a book like Chocolat. You will be awed, impressed, and I hope inspired by Pierre Marcolini’s chocolate genius.