Paris Delices City Guide

When I stopped to linger in front of a famous chocolatier’s window, the Paris drizzle was dampening my wool coat and frizzing my hair. The day was melancholic, grey, and though I could not see one ray of light on the horizon, the glint of a coffee bean perfectly placed on the top of a chocolate square caught my eye. While I slowly scanned the rows of exquisite mouth watering delights the door opened and the aroma of bittersweet chocolate skipped out onto the street. I inhaled, the aroma was inebriating. I took one last look at the exquisite display, opened the door and blissfully waltzed inside.

Chocolate’s Origins (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The chocolate residue found in an ancient Maya pot suggests that Mayans were drinking chocolate 2,600 years ago, which is the earliest record of cacao use. The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a bitter and spicy drink called xocoatl, often seasoned with vanilla, chilli pepper, and achiote, (which we know today as annatto). Xocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine content. Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cocoa beans were often used as currency.

Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but it was Hernán Cortés who popularized it in Europe. The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Seville in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar and milk to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chilli pepper, replacing it with another Mexican indigenous spice, vanilla. Improvements to the taste meant that by the 17th century it was a luxury item among the European nobility.

At the end of the 18th century, the first form of solid chocolate was invented in Turin by Doret. This chocolate was sold in large quantities from 1826 by Pierre Paul Caffarel. In 1819, F. L. Cailler opened the first Swiss chocolate factory. In 1828, Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with alkali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that the Englishman Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847, followed in 1849 by the Cadbury brothers.

Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle maker, joined his father-in-law’s chocolate business. In 1867, he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbor, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé. Rodolphe Lindt invented the process called conching, which involves heating and grinding the chocolate solids very finely to ensure that the liquid is evenly blended.

The Masters

Christian Constant
Master chocolatier, Christian Constant travels the world in search of the best ingredients for his creations. Made from the finest cocoa liquor and cocoa butter, Constant’s chocolates are often carefully paired and blended with the sweet perfume of Tahiti vanilla, Ylang-ylang from the Comorian Islands, Ceylon cinnamon, Yemen jasmine, and China ginger.
Constant’s Malabar Cardamom is his signature product, as well as his succulent hot chocolate.

Jacques Genin
For his new book, Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux), AP special correspondent Mort Rosenblum trekked to nearly a dozen countries to trace the substance from source to store. He transcribes that if he were stuck on a desert island and had to choose a chocolatier, it would probably be Jacques Genin. Working out of a very small workshop hidden away in the 15th arrondissement Jacques Genin is an evasive chocolatier who has yet to open a boutique. So you may be asking yourself how might I get my fingers around one of these perfect squares of divine cacao. Well, if you are a client at some of Paris’s most exclusive hotel addresses you will have the delight in tasting one of his irresistible pleasures if not you may purchase his confections at the sophisticated patisserie Pain de Sucre.

Michel Chaudun
Former employee of the Maison du Chocolat, Michel Chaudun is a master of sculpting chocolate into realistic forms and figures. An adamant purist, Chaudun believes in the preservation of the art and tradition of chocolate using only the finest of ingredients and top-secret methodologies. Not to miss, his mini-paves, and couverture-coated cubes of ganache.

Jean Paul Hevin
Unassuming, tidy, contemporary counters, dark, warm woodwork, designer display cabinets and furnishings. Inside Jean-Paul Hévin’s stores, you will find a taste reflecting modernity and perfection, combined with an atmosphere of elegance and comfort. Hevin’s signature cheese flavored chocolates are a culinary sensation pairing such flavors as Roquefort or Epoisse with the finest chocolate.

Patrick Roger
If you can describe chocolate as fashionable, then Patrick Roger is a man who has redefined an age old art. Earning the distinguished title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2000 Roger opened a subdue shop on boulevard Saint Germain in 2005. He draws attention to equal commerce and the importance of maintaining the values of the trade.

If you go:

Michel Chaudun. 149, rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris; + 33 (0)1 47 53 74 40; Métro: Invalides, La Tour Maubourg

Christian Constant. 37, rue d’Assas, 75006 Paris; +33 (0)1 53 63 15 15; Métro: Rennes, St.-Placide

Pierre Hermé. 72, rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris; +33 (0)1 43 54 47 77; Métro: St.-Sulpice

Jean-Paul Hévin. 231, rue Saint Honoré, 75001 Paris; +33 (0)1 55 35 35 96. Métro: Concorde, Opera, Tuileries.

Patrick Roger. 108, boulevard Saint Germain, 75006 Paris; +33 (0)1 43 29 38 42. Métro: Saint Germain des Prés

Pain de Sucre. 14, rue Rambuteau, 75003 Paris; +33 (0)1 45 74 68 92

La Maison du Chocolat. 225, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, 75008 Paris

References:
David Lebovitz
Travel and Leisure, Fast Talk with Mort Rosenblum