Medrich - Cocolat: extraordinary chocolate desserts

Her enthusiasm and extraordinary dedication to chocolate desserts as well as her personal approach to recipes and techniques make this book a must for chocolate lovers.

JACQUES PEPIN (from 1990 edition)

O ne of Americas leading chocolatiers and the founder of the famous Cocolat shops shares the secrets behind her decadent, Europeanstyle desserts in this beautifully illustrated, easy-to-follow guide. Alice Medrich founded the first in a chain of chocolate shops in 1976, introducing legions of Americans to the joys of chocolate truffles. Cocolat is to chocolate what Tiffany is to diamonds, declared Gourmet magazine. With the guidance of this lavish book, home cooks and budding pastry chefs can make their own renditions of the shops sophisticated confections. Each fabulous recipe features detailed instructions that even first-time bakers can follow to create treats that arealmosttoo beautiful to eat.

Alice Medrich shares her exclusive techniques for making visually stunning, professional-quality desserts, from a Christmas mousse and a childs birthday cake of miniature cupcakes to dainty macaroons and soft-centered chocolate truffles. Easy-to-follow directions, illustrated in full color, explain how to sculpt chocolate roses, ruffles, fans, shavings, and other fin shing touches. This newly revised edition features a new Introduction by the author, a new Chocolate Chart with advice on ingredients, and updated Resources and Equipment sections. The ultimate chocolate dessert book, Cocolat promises to be the crowning jewel of any cookbook collection.

Original Photographs by Patricia Brabant

Original Photo Styling by Sara Slavin

Original Design by Jacqueline Jones

Original Illustrations by Donnie Cameron

Copyright

Copyright 1990, 2017 by Alice Medrich

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2017, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Warner Books, Inc., New York, in 1990. For the present volume, the author has prepared a new Introduction to the Dover Edition, Notes About Ingredients, A Few Words About Photography and Styling, and The Chocolate Chart. Some kitchenware and baking tools mentioned in the original printing have been replaced by newer models in retail stores or online. When possible, such as in the Equipment and Resources sections, this edition has been revised.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Medrich, Alice, author.

Title: Cocolat : extraordinary chocolate desserts / Alice Medrich.

Description: Dover edition. | Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, Inc., [2017] | Originally published: New York, NY : Warner Books, 1990.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016050636 | ISBN 9780486813295 | ISBN 0486813290

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking (Chocolate) | Desserts. | Cocolat (Shop)

Classification: LCC TX767.C5 M43 2016 | DDC 641.6/374dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016050636

Manufactured in China by RR Donnelley
81329001 2017
www.doverpublications.com

For my parents
Bea and Herman Abrams

Why write a new introduction to a vintage book? So much has occurred since Cocolat was published in 1990 it seems a good moment to capture the essence of the story, which began, for me, in 1976, and continues to this day. Our world of food and ingredients has been utterly transformedand continues to changeinformed by new tastes and sensibilities, politics, and a greater appreciation of food in the context of culture and society. Food is a vital form of entertainment and an outlet for creativity and personal growth toomore cookbooks are published each year exploring myriad dietary philosophies, by an ever more diverse group of writers and chefs. Its gratifying (and remarkable to me) that Cocolat has remained a working cookbook and classic regardless of the grand changes in our time, not to mention specific changes in chocolate over the last quarter of a century.

In 1976 I opened a chocolate dessert shop called Cocolat in Berkeley, California. I was barely 27 years old, a mostly self-taught pastry chef with a bachelors degree in history. It was not yet common for college educated young people (let alone women) to pursue careers in food. Julia Child had been cooking on TV for over a decade, but it was still unusual for women to work as chefs. It was early in the American (some say California) food revolution born in the 1960s which delivered us from tasteless squishy white bread, ground coffee in cans, cheeses dyed orange, iceberg lettuce, and bakery cakes made from mixes. Here in Berkeley we were already hooked on freshly roasted coffee beans, splendid and increasingly local cheeses, CaKfornia wines, and progressive restaurants beginning to explore what would become a new style of simple but exquisitely elevated local cooking. Soon we would discover or create a new world of artisan breads, craft beer, extra virgin olive oil, heirloom produce, and eventually small batch bean to bar chocolate. But 1976 was still early timesthe (unfortunate) word foodie was not yet in use and we did not use the word artisan. Concern for organic and sustainable agriculture, humanely raised meat, and awareness of food politics was nascent for most of us. It was the beginning of the beginning.

In the world of sweets, chocolate was still fudge, not ganache. Americans had not tasted chocolate truffles or flourless chocolate cakes, and many didnt know what chocolate mousse was! Milk chocolate was the chocolate of choice and dark chocolate was not as dark as it is today. Even in Berkeley, folks relied on fluffy, old fashioned looking American bakery cakes with sugary frosting. By comparison, Cocolat desserts were glamorous, elegant, decadent, and intensely chocolate. They were artisan desserts (as we say now), handmade from scratch (as we said then), made with fine ingredients including excellent chocolate, butter instead of shortening, fresh fruit, freshly ground nuts, sipping-quality liqueurs and spirits, and real dark chocolate instead of cocoa powderall unusual for bakeries of the time.

Cocolat was exotic and expensive and a bit French, but instantly and ardently embraced first in the Bay Area, then by the country. Locals came often for a slice of cake or a single chocolate truffleforever fixing our reputation for popularizing chocolate truffles in the United Statesand splurged regularly for a party dessert. They showed their sophistication by bringing out-of-town friends, visiting faculty, and foreign guests to Cocolat, just as they might take them to Chez Panisse (a block away). Julia Child and James Beard visited. It wasnt long before the renowned New York delicatessen, Zabars, called asking to buy our truffles!

By the time I sold Cocolat in 1990, my first book, Cocolat, had been published andto my astonishment received the James Beard Cookbook of the Year award and the Julia Child Award for the best cookbook by a first-time author. The latter was presented to me by Julia herself. I didnt quite know what I had done that was so uniquebut I remember the giddy thrill of that evening.