by Macy Jamison
photography by Elizabeth Messina

       Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies,” claims humorist John Q. Tillius, and an oft-quoted unknown author echoes, “There are Four Basic Food Groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.”
      Few foods elicit as much passion as chocolate. Chocolate is love, sensuousness and sweetness and a great gift for love celebrations such as your wedding. Chocolate can be incorporated as part of your table decor with the menu card or favor.  You can have truffles passed on trays when coffee is served or by giving chocolate to your guests as a parting gift. For the chocolate lovers, consider having a chocolate lounge where guests can enjoy champagne and chocolate throughout your wedding. Sharing gourmet chocolate with the one you love and all that come to celebrate your wedding is to say the least.....very sweet.
      Our love affair with chocolate goes back about 2,000 years when the cacao tree was discovered in the tropical rainforests of South America. The Mayans learned to harvest, ferment and roast the seed into a paste and mix it with water, chile peppers and cornmeal to make a spicy, bitter drink called cocoa. Cocoa was not just a favored delicacy; it played an important role in their spiritual and social lives. Cacao seeds were offered to the gods, and even served as money when the Mayan traded with the Aztecs.  The Aztec emperor Montezuma (c. 1480-1520) said of cacao, “This divine drink builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.”
      After the conquest of Mexico in 1521, the Spanish conquistadors took cacao back to their homelands, and refined the brew’s texture with a technique called conching—consisting of mixing and heating—that gave the product its smoothness and removed its bitterness. Chocolate was invented. The Spaniards kept this delicacy a secret, and it was a hundred years before the rest of Europe discovered it. For the next 300 years, chocolate—the “food of the Gods,” as Carolus Linneaus called it in the 1700s—remained an elite beverage for Europe’s upper classes.  In time new inventions like the steam engine and the cocoa press made it possible to produce large amounts of chocolate inexpensively.
Cacao growing has not changed much since the Mayans discovered it.  Cacao is still harvested, fermented, dried and roasted by hand.  And, everywhere in the world, chocolate-makers or chocolatiers, continue to use their culinary expertise to create confections that are a feast for the palate.

		WOODHOUSE CHOCOLATE, NAPA  VALLEY     John and Tracy Anderson created Woodhouse Chocolate in Napa Valley, California, after seeing the movie “Chocolate.” They began a three-year search for the perfect chocolate recipes, working in their home kitchen, visiting the best chocolatiers across Europe to determine what their own focus would be.     One of the Woodhouse novelty items is their fashionable Gucci-style chocolate shoe, (approx. 3”x5”) that can be made in any color combination or style and are often used as wedding cake toppers.  One of the most popular requests is the pearlescent Gucci which resembles fine lace. Woodhouse Chocolate 1367 Main Street, Saint Helena, California (800) 966-3468 or (707) 963-8413 www.woodhousechocolate.com
TEUSCHER CHOCOLATE OF BEVERLY HILLS      Over 75 years ago in a small town in the Swiss Alps, Dolf Teuscher, a master chocolate maker, conducted a world-wide search to locate the finest cocoa, marzipan, fruits, nuts and other ingredients to use in his confections.  Teuscher kitchens located in Zürich skillfully make over 100 varieties of chocolates available  throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.     Teuscher’s Champagne Truffles are their best-seller.  After he had a dream in which there was a bottle of Dom Perignon, Dolf Teuscher developed the recipe:  a champagne cork-shaped dark chocolate base, dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in confectioner’s sugar with a cream of Dom Perignon at the center. Teuscher Chocolates of Beverly Hills 9548 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (888) 443-8992 www.teuscher-bh.com
	VOSGES HAUTE CHOCOLATE – CHICAGO, NY, LAS VEGAS       Vosges’ owner and chocolatier, Katrinka Markoff, learned her trade at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris and working in Paris with pastry chef Christophe Felder, of the Hotel Crillon, in Spain with Ferran Adrià of El Bulli in Girona, and in Thailand at the Oriental Cooking School in Bangkok.         Those experiences have shaped Katrinka’s “East Meets West” style in which an infusion of rares spices and flowers are combined with premium chocolates. Vosges Haute Chocolate 951 West Armitage, Chicago, IL 60614 (773) 296-9866 www.vosgeschocolate.com	JESSICA FOSTER CONFECTIONS, SANTA BARBARA    For Jessica Foster, making truffles is an expressive epicurean art. Wandering through the Farmers Markets in Central California, in search of fresh herbs and ripe fruit to create sumptuous new flavors like dark chocolate chile and milk chocolate star anise-thyme, sculpting each individual truffle lovingly by hand.    Jessica makes 23 varieties of hand-dipped “rustic-looking truffles, no molds used.”  She also makes non-dairy truffles by special order, using coconut milk and the same flavors as her truffles menu. Jessica Foster Confections P. O. Box 21332, Santa Barbara, California (805) 637-6985 www.jessicafosterconfections.com
CHOCOLATINE FRENCH PASTRIES TEA ROOM    “I only use ingredients that you can pronounce,” says Sabrina who just opened Chocolatine French Pastries Tea Room in Thousand Oaks.  Born and raised in France, Sabrina has been making chocolate logs since she was fifteen years old.  When she moved to the United States some twenty years ago, Sabrina sold her pastries to Geoffrey’s Restaurant in Malibu, Peter’s Catering and many others.    In her own French patisserie, Sabrina offers—along with quiches and salads, cappuccino and hot chocolate—homemade cookies, pastries made with Belgium chocolate, and a wide variety of cakes for any special occasion. Chocolatine French Pastries Tea Room 2955 East Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91362 (805) 557-0561 www.chocolatine.net
	TRUFFLE GARDEN, SAN LUIS OBISPO     Patty Mena had no culinary-arts education but she worked in a candy store and learned to make truffles at work, then she made them at home for fun. When she went in search of a career, she realized that she had one—truffle maker.  She opened Truffle Garden in San Luis Obispo, and the rest is a huge success story.    Patty’s truffle gallery includes many flavors. Truffle Garden also creates wedding favors in three sizes that can be personalized for the bride and groom. Truffle Garden P. O. Box 14715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406 (805) 788-4688 www.trufflegarden.com
TRUFFLEHOUNDS FINE CHOCOLATES, VENTURA     Claudia Gilman and Fred Yasukochi were food scientists working for large food corporations. In 1996, the wife-and-husband team went on their own and founded Trufflehounds, a chocolate lover’s dream in Ventura.     Their truffles are individually-created masterpieces made with either milk or bittersweet chocolate and fresh ingredients in nine delicious flavors: amaretto, Bordeaux, chocolate, lemon, mocha, orange, mint, raspberry or rum. Their gourmet chocolates use caramel, almond clusters, pecans, marzipan, toffee, peanut and coconuts. Trufflehounds Fine Chocolates 607 East Main St., #E, Ventura, CA 93001 (805) 648-5870 www.trufflehoundsfinechocolates.com
	VALALERIE CONFECTIONS     Taste, design and organic ingredients are the key words in the philosophy of Valerie Confections.  Their toffees are one of the finest personal indulgence with which you could reward yourself or someone you love.  Not only are they mouth-watering in flavor but they are splendid in design.      Among the many offerings of Valerie Confections are Almond, Orange, Mint, Gianduja, Ginger, Hazelnut and Almond-Fleur de Sel Toffees, and of course basic Classic Toffees.  They are available in bittersweet or milk chocolate, except for Orange Toffee and Ginger Toffee which are made only with bittersweet chocolate. Valerie Confections Sold throughout the country or directly on the Internet (888) 706-1408 www.valerieconfections.com
LA MAISON DU CHOCOLATE, PARIS, NEW YORK, TOKYO     After apprenticing in France and in Switzerland, Robert Linxe opened the first Maison du Chocolat in the elegant rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1977.  So unique were his subtle blends of cocoas from different origins and their association with natural flavors such as end-of-season raspberry and untreated lemon that he was soon dubbed “The Wizard of the Ganache” by philosopher Jean-Paul Aron, a fine connoisseur.     Since then, La Maison du Chocolat operates three boutiques in Paris, one in New York and one in Tokyo, and their confections are popular at Neiman Marcus stores in Los Angeles, Houston, and San Francisco.  Their distinctive and elegant brown packaging has become famous worldwide, and they deliver anywhere in the world in temperature-controlled containers that guarantee freshness.

      Yet, for all their expansion, they make their confections just as they did in the very beginning—by hand.  None of La Maison du Chocolat’s confections contain more than 65% cocoa, and the only vegetable oil used is cocoa butter.  Their scouts roam the world in search of the best cocoas.  Still at the helm, Robert Linxe favors cocoa seeds from Brazil and the Ivory Coast, but he experiments with cocoa from South America, Trinidad, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Sumatra. La Maison du Chocolat’s offerings include Fine Champagne Truffles, with a smooth creamy ganache infused with cognac and covered with a layer of dark chocolate and cocoa powder, and several creations with names like Tobago, Trinidad, Mendiants, Habanera, Tamanaco and Pavé du Faubourg—all original blends of chocolate couverture and fine spices.  Any assortment can be used as wedding favors that will never be forgotten.

La Maison du Chocolat
1018 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10021
(800) 988-LMDC or (212) 744-7117
www.lamaisonduchocolat.com