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CHOCOLATE

A BITTERSWEET SAGA OF DARK AND LIGHT

As rich and satisfying as a chocolate cheesecake.

Once a self-confessed “chocolate ignoramus,” James Beard Award–winner Rosenblum (A Goose in Toulouse, 2000, etc.) deftly delves into the secrets of the cacao bean.

Chocolate is Michel Chaudun’s passion, his life’s work. A French fondeur with a corner store in Paris, he makes a mean mini-pavé, or a couverture-coated cube of ganache, using only the finest of ingredients and top-secret methodologies. “I think above all it is a drug,” he says of chocolate, “nicely seductive, which marks the sweet hours of our existence.” What’s not to love? Not only is chocolate healthy (despite its bad rap), with loads of antioxidants, but it contains phenylethylamine, the same excitement-inducing molecule released by the body when you’re in love. It’s so irresistible, in fact, that a recent want ad for a chocolate taster at London’s Fortnum & Mason yielded a whopping 3,000 applicants within days. Chaudun, who believes there’s only one right way to make chocolate, chastises industry behemoths like Mars and Nestlé for cutting corners in their quest for profits, resulting in a vastly inferior product. (But “purists be damned,” Rosenblum says. “Millions still revere a Hershey bar.”) At the other end of the equation, as the author shows us in this thoughtful, thorough study, are cacao-plantation workers on Africa’s Ivory Coast, plagued by civil war, corruption, and poverty, the vast majority of them having never even tasted chocolate. Rosenblum also examines the comical phenomenon of Nutella, Italy’s chocolaty goo. When he asked a friend what the attraction was, she gave “one of those ‘duh’ looks. ‘It's chocolate. Spreadable chocolate.’ ” The author makes a compelling case for chocolate’s near-aphrodisiacal qualities in a wonderful, wide-ranging, expertly written book that practically dares readers to jet off to the City of Light for a tour of its sweetshops.

As rich and satisfying as a chocolate cheesecake.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-86547-635-7

Page Count: 272

Publisher: North Point/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2004

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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