Chocolate salon in Pasadena

"Twenty dollars for that?" huffed a visitor as she left the first Los Angeles International Chocolate Salon, held Sunday in a little building east of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Well, $20 did seem a little steep for an event with 23 booths, where just over a dozen were giving out tastes of chocolate. (On the other hand, three booths provided samples of wines they figured go well with chocolate, and that might improve one's mood.) And it's a little hard to sell an event as top-drawer to people who've just had to wander through a quarter of a mile of ragged construction sites to reach the building. But there were things to appreciate.

The idea was that this event, sister to a salon held in San Francisco, would introduce you to high-quality chocolates you might not know. In truth, not all the names were quite new -- if you're into chocolate at all, you're very familiar with Guittard. But that company did offer a few new wrinkles. Who knew the San Francisco old-timer was making its own single-origin chocolates, from Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Madagascar? It's also going for the extreme chocolate market with a 91% bar that was too bitter even for a lot of chocoholics.

It was also selling chocolate wafers (pistoles) for baking. A lot of the attendees were home bakers and candy makers, to judge from the brisk business being done by a booth selling antique chocolate molds.

L'Artisan du Chocolat and Mignon Chocolate were the top classical chocolatiers at the event. L'Artisan has a more polished French style -- everything really looks exquisite -- but both were clearly using top-quality ingredients. (Mignon has the more interesting history, having started out 93 years ago in the Ukraine and relocating to Tehran after the owner survived four years in a Siberian labor camp. Its new home is Glendale.)

For unusual, Venezuelan chocolates, you could go to Chuao Chocolatier, a Carlsbad-based company that considers a chile-spiked chocolate bar to be its signature product. Well, it didn't do that much for this cowpoke, but I really liked Chinita Nibs, a bar to which caramelized cacao nibs and nutmeg gave a very appealing crunch and perfume.

The most unusual were at Decadent Tastes, a Monterey outfit which splits its efforts between wine fillings and Asian fusion fillings based on candied ginger. I found the ginger refreshing in the same way as mint chocolates, and the ginger-lemon grass version was the chocolate I'll remember longest from this event.

The jolliest-looking display belonged to the Chocolate Covered Company, which specializes in dipped fruits for corporate gifts. It was the only one to have a seasonal tree and snow motif.

E. Guittard Chocolate Company, (800) 468-2462; L'Artisan du Chocolat, (310) 880-9396; Mignon Chocolate, (877) 9-MIGNON; Chuao Chocolatier, (888) 635-1444; Decadent Tastes, (831) 643-0908; Chocolate Covered Company, (877) DIPPED-2

-- Charles Perry

Photo by Charles Perry

Comments

[Kevin]

FYI, this year the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon is on October 5th (2008, LAChocolateSalon.com)

[Bryce]

Regarding chocolate, Cooking Light magazine's December issue contains a thorough piece on the subject. Items mentioned include chocolate's health benefits, different types, recipes and a mention of the FDA considering a petition to change the definition of chocolate to allow cheaper vegetable fats to be used in place of the cocoa butter in chocolate production.
What is the most unusual recipe containing chocolate that you tried and liked?