|
|
 |
Chocolate: Now it's the grown-ups' turn
[Times photo: Fred Victorin]
Delicacies from Diadre Fine Chocolates in Dunedin feature delicious dark chocolate amassed into truffles and all sorts of novelties. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Restaurant Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 27, 2000
Creations by Christophe Legal Lasalle at Pane Rustica include the Volcano, a cone of milk chocolate with dark chocolate lava.
|
The bunnies are long gone or are on their last legs or ears. It's time to get back to adult chocolate, deep dark and of the bittersweet kind.
Since the last time the Nibbler explored the world of chocolate I've found two more great sources for those who care enough to eat the very best. One is a small European style shop in Dunedin run by a family of American chocolate lovers; the other is a French patissier recently landed in Tampa. Both insist on the finest imported chocolate for couverture, which is at least 70 percent cocoa mass to give the pure intense flavor I like.
Diadre Fine Chocolates by Design (501 Main St., Dunedin; (727) 733-0812) stocks chocolate from all over Europe and Russia and fashions it into candies and novelties from roses to wine bottles for weddings and special events. (Bunnies there reached three feet tall this season and last year they made a model of Tampa International Airport -- with planes). But it is their truffles that show classic skill and give the Nibbler the biggest thrill. While some are filled creams and ganache, my favorites are the purest.
Consider a nut truffle. Renee and John Basagaic and daughter Diadre Collins make their macadamia and almond truffles with nothing but fresh nuts poured into a mold and topped with French and Belgian chocolate. The finished candy looks like a dark brown egg that's cracked, revealing a treasure of nuts inside. The ultimate truffles, to the Nibbler's taste, are solid couverture, without even a nut in the center. A gem of the darkest chocolate that should take five or 10 minutes to eat. At $31.95 a pound, or about $1.60 a piece, sensory overload is cheap.
Chocaholics who pretend to a more restrained appetite will find the creations of Christophe Legal Lasalle just as satiating, for he uses fine chocolate in smaller portions with exquisite mousses and pastries.
Lasalle works out of the kitchen of Pane Rustica (2821 S MacDill Ave., Tampa; (813) 902-8828). That's the slick new bread bakery that lures a big South Tampa crowd hungry for crusty, European peasant breads and simple sandwiches and soups.
The humble staff of life is impressive enough, but Lasalle chuckles "that's a trap." Indeed the Nibbler's conscience disappears when I see the trays of luscious sweets drizzled and sprinkled with pure chocolate.
His work is not solid chocolate, but the chocolate he uses is fine stuff carefully chosen. Lasalle prefers the more subtle flavor of cocoa from Venezuelan beans for delicate pastries such as the apricot mousse, but he likes the power of Madagascar chocolate for confections such as the Volcano, a cone of milk chocolate with dark chocolate lava. The chocolate desserts and other pastries range from $2.50 to $4.25.
Eventually there will be French ice cream, truffles and other candies. For now it's bread and chocolate.
Poor us.
Sweet charity
For Tampa Bay wine lovers, spring has finally bung.
More accurately the bung has been pulled out of the barrels to let new vintages flow at three grand tastings around Tampa Bay this weekend and next. Plus other big doings with fine food plain and simple are also coming up fast, so keep your eye on Food File inside Taste every Thursday and make your plans now:
Florida Winefest & Auction. Sarasota's four-day affair of tastings, seminars and black-tie banquets is in its 10th vintage. Most of the posh events are sold out, but there may be a few tickets left for winemaker dinners tonight). There's definitely room for ordinary cork-pullers for the low-key sip-and-shop tasting on St. Armands Circle from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Dozens of wineries will pour samples for $10 per person; proceeds benefit disadvantaged children in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Call (941) 952-1109 for tickets and information on other events.
Bern's Winefest. Tampa's own spring tasting blossoms into a full winefest in its third year, with more than 200 U.S. and foreign wines, tasting seminars, food from Bern's and SideBern's and air-conditioned (they promise) tents from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Winery owners and winemakers will be on hand to pour their wines and help conduct seminars on Washington wines, foie gras, Bordeaux, fine chocolate and California reds. Tickets are $35; for information and reservations, call (813) 250-9463; a portion of the proceeds will benefit Divine Providence Food Bank of Tampa.
Abilities Wine Tasting & Auction. Tampa Bay's oldest and largest wine tasting fills up Tropicana Field, the home of the Devil Rays, again this year. The tasting, which drew 3,000 last year, will be May 6 and will feature hundreds of wines from more than 150 wineries, food from 30 of the area's top restaurants and an auction of wines, vacations and sports memorabilia. The tasting benefits Abilities, which trains people with disabilities for mainstream jobs and lives; it include two events, a VIP tasting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. for $100 per person by reservation, followed by the grand tasting from 7 to 9:30 p.m, for which tickets are $50 in advance and $60 at the door. Call (727) 538-7370, ext 345. Folks of charitable heart and open wallet who are more hungry than thirsty may want to indulge in two other charitable events where food is the big star.
Super Paella. The Gonzmart family's Columbia restaurants have cooked paella for more than 100 years, but the one coming up May 7 is special. Using a custom pan, 10 feet across Columbia's chefs and crew will cook up paella for 3,000 at Centennial Park at 18th Street and Ninth Avenue in Tampa with aromas that will carry across Ybor City. Anyone who's fixed paella at home appreciates folks who contribute to the high cost of ingredients; for Super Paella, the Columbia and local vendors chip in 450 pounds of rice, 300 pounds calamari, 15 pounds shrimp, 100 pounds scallops, 100 pounds grouper, 30 pounds mussels and more. Cost is $8 in advance, $10 on the day of the event; proceeds benefit the American Red Cross. Call (813) 251-0921 for tickets. n SOS Taste of the Nation Tampa Bay. Chef Susan Goss, owner of Zinfandel, a Chicago restaurant acclaimed for its rotating menu of regional American cuisines, will be the guest chef directing more than a dozen of Tampa Bay's top chefs as they cook up their biggest annual charity spread. The SOS (Share Our Strength) dinner benefits the national SOS hunger campaign, the Divine Providence Food bank and the Beth-el Mission Women's Salsa Project.
It begins with a 6 p.m. reception and 7 p.m. dinner and auction May 25 in the Grand Ballroom at the Tampa Marriott Waterside in downtown Tampa. Tickets are $150. Call (813) 254-1190 for information.
Back to Taste
© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
|
|
Browse these collections for hundreds of recipes and timely tips that will make you a star in your own kitchen. |
|
