Think again my chocolate-loving friends! The taste of pine is surprisingly varied and often shockingly delicious. It's like eating Christmas. I should know...I am a closet pine needle addict...It's true! Every time I pass a pine tree, I absolutely MUST pluck a needle from it's branches and savor its flavor. With every chew I am surprised by the tastes that tingle my tongue. I've tried a few recently that taste JUST like tangerines, with a subtle pine flavor in the back of the throat. So imagine eating that orange straight from your stocking Christmas morning as you sit beneath the pine tree. DELICIOUS. A tangy, sprightly, emotive flavor.
I have been experimenting with mmm, we'll call them "mood truffles" or "mood chocolate." Do you remember that candy in "Because of Winn Dixie" that inexplicably makes everyone who eats it sad? And even more specifically, calls up the saddest memory in the life of the one who consumes it, darkening the mind like bittersweet chocolate.
I also love perfumes, and often lust after the perfume samples on luckyscent.com. An especially innovative perfume company, Comme Des Garcons, makes a line of fragrance called, "Incense." I read reviews for Zagorsk, so named after a holy spot in Russia. It has notes of pine and snow (possible?) and melancholy. Truly, like distilled sadness to spray on a pale & slender wrist. Reading the reviews, users were waxing poetic, about being "abandoned" in a winter field, scarf stuffed against your face, and pines all around, the lonely call of a cathedral crackling on the crisp winter air. They all said something similar, "Sad." One of my favorite reviews: "It's the smell of a thought. The most evocative thought one could have: a sad thought but that plunges its root deep in time. Superb!"
As taste and smell are intrinsically connected, couldn't a "sad" chocolate be made too, like that strange confection from "Because of Winn Dixie"? Of course, most people wouldn't be interested in becoming sad from truffles (and that bothersome spike in serotonin caused by cacao may interfere with the mood anyhow) but this opens a fascinating world to innovative chocolatiers, or fondeurs. I know it does for me.
Much of this is subjective- what makes pine and a combination of other scents "melancholy" or "sad" is simply the associations people have with pine needles and snow. It helps then, to make the packaging and accompanying story a part of the poem, a part of the art. Incorporate mystic traditions, poetry, mythology, love. I want to make each chocolate collection a love poem to the world, each collection expressing a different place (Chicago scents, diversity, the city rain, and buildings cutting atmosphere in gray) or feeling, or time of life (a wedding collection of exquisite flavors, softness, rose, and then sweetness, deep strong flavors of passion, each truffle expressing another delicious moment of a couple in love). Truffles in carved wooden boxes, covered with art, truffles wrapped in newspaper clippings, boxes and packaging simulating something entirely different, chocolate seen in different lights. It is very difficult to explain here, especially as the ideas are complicated and involved, and include a number of flavors and spices that should probably be reserved for my future business.
I remember reading about a pastry chef, Jordi Roca, and being completely fascinated by his passion for scents.
Check this out:
"Pastry chef Jordi Roca is obsessed with perfume. When he isn't cooking at El Celler de Can Roca, the Michelin two-star in the Spanish Catalan town of Girona, the 26-year-old is hanging out in the fragrance aisle of his localSephora; when he returns to Celler, he reproduces the aromas of popular fragrances in his desserts. His dish of plumlike Japanese loquats with warm peach cream and apricot sorbet, with its notes of rose, vanilla and honey, uncannily replicates Lancôme Trésor (diners are handed a scent stick to compare). To mimic Calvin Klein Eternity, Jordi layers sorbet made with the orange-scented herb bergamot, basil gelée, vanilla cream and a mandarin orange granita. "Perfume has so many edible ingredients—flowers, herbs, spices," he explains, "so the food connection is natural." Not surprisingly, Jordi's preference is for fruity perfumes.
Jordi is not the only member of the family fascinated with fragrance. His older brother Joan, the chef at Celler, creates dishes based on sensory memories—his tiny clams with fennel cream and seaweed gelée remind him of time he spent on the Costa Brava as a child. Now, with their brother Josep, one of Spain's best-known sommeliers, Jordi and Joan are applying their extraordinary noses to food and wine pairings at their new restaurant,Moo, in Barcelona's Hotel Omm. "
It doesn't detail this here, but in addition to recreating sensory memories, the Rocas create desserts mimicking emotions. The pastry chefs have caught on, and the art of chocolate has a long way to go. I will share more of my ideas in later posts :)
Jordi Roca :) An artist of scents
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