A Blonder Shade of Chocolate

by Natasha Wolff | July 10, 2013 12:00 am

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 11, and I have a name to submit to the list of nominees: Frederic Bau.

Bau is a pastry chef and director of the Ecole du Grand Chocolat, the Valrhona Chocolate[1] School (why oh why didn’t I go there for undegrad?). He’s stumbled upon a discovery that, if distributed widely and, say, air-dropped in conflict zones, could send people of all creeds, religions and ages into such a state of extreme well-being that peace would undoubtedly ensue.

One day in the kitchen at the École, Bau put some white chocolate to melt on the stove in a bain marie (a French double-boiler). He got distracted and only after 10 hours—600 minutes!—elapsed did he remember to check the pan. The first thing he noticed was the aroma: like “roasted Breton shortbread.” When he tasted the result, he realized he’d struck chocolate gold.

The result is Dulcey[2], which has recently gone on sale in the U.S. The tasters at DuJour used these words to describe it: “caramelly,” “butterscotch,” “amazing.” “buttery,” “creamy,” “rich,” and “amazing.” Stockholm, are you listening?

Dulcey is 32 percent cacao. The feves, or disks, are sold at select Whole Foods[3] stores in the Northeast, and feves and bars are available at valrhona-chocolate.com[4].

Source URL: https://dujour.com/life/first-blond-chocolate-valrhona/