
#chocolate #chocolatier #scharffenberger
Whoever heard of a cookbook you couldn't put down? The Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg is delightful, readable, fascinating because of the background information on the two men who founded the company – one a successful vintner and the other a doctor battling leukemia – as well as fascinating information on cacao itself, the need for biting midges and shade, the lives of the growers they have encountered in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Panama.
In three blog posts, here are some of my favorite takeaways that come from sections they term "legends and lore" which are interspersed among recipes I just have to have.