Chocolate Making in Montreal

In January I attended a chocolate making course at Institut Barry Callebaut outside of Montreal. While there I made some great contacts: a chocolatier with a shop at the Marche Atwater.  She introduced me to the Amadei Chocolate line out of Tuscany, Italy.  The cocoa beans come from Venezuela.  I found a Canadian distributor and purchased about 6 kilos to experiment with.
 
I ate twice at Il Sole, an Italian restaurant on St. Laurent Street, in Montreal.  What a lucky find!  Owned by Graziella and Pierre, a French and Italian couple, the food is extraodinary! Sweet sauteed scallops on a bed of tiny green lentils and spinach leaves glazed with orange cardamon oil, followed by little pillows of pumpkin filled ravioli with diced pancetta and a light but delectable sauce. The wine list is all Italian and the olive oils are worthy of degustation. If you try the reasonably priced menu degustation, you can sit back and be enchanted by five sumptuous offerings with perfect wine pairings.
 
Our group at the seminar consisted of chocolate makers, pastry chefs, restaurant owners, food service professionals and a few novices. We were given a plant tour which was very informational, especially being introduced to the “conching machine”.  This part of the cocoa process was developed in the late 1800's and it has a very positive and important role in developing the flavor of the chocolate.
 
The last two days of the course centered on the three different methods of tempering chocolate, the production of twelve different fillings for the chocolates, molding and hand dipping. It was very intensive, but rewarding.
 
My clients will soon see the results in their dessert offerings, such as a “Delice of single origin Venezuelan chocolate”, or perhaps the tantalizing “Indian five spice chocolate ganache, hand molded and enrobed in 70% chocolate couverture”!

P.O. Box 577
Pellston, Michigan 49769-0577

(231) 539-7100