Product Description

An expert and irresistible book for everyone who loves chocolate.

Few people know as much about chocolate as Chloé Doutre-Roussel. In this unique book she shares her knowledge and her passion with chocolate lovers who will:

- Learn to differentiate between good and bad chocolate
- Discover wonderful new brands to savor and enjoy
- Find out how to select brands to reflect mood and time of day
- Learn to taste chocolate like a connoisseur

Filled with information on the history, culture, lore, and culinary aspects of the world's finest chocolate, including recipes, this charming book is the most decadent dessert any chocolate lover can have-without the calories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #851338 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The chocolate buyer for the London department store Fortnum & Mason has taken it upon herself to educate the world about life beyond Snickers bars; the difference between "candy" and true ("artisanal") chocolate, and then between chocolate and chocolates (bonbons); and how to learn to love the good stuff, en route to becoming a chocolate connoisseur oneself, as skilled as any wine or cheese taster. Her approach is that of an unabashed and evangelical snob, a bracing combination of Mary Poppins and Miss Manners. Along the way, Doutre-Roussel skewers some sacred cows—Belgian chocolates, Godiva—and lists with approval a dozen brands most people have never heard of, with, fortunately, mail-order and online sources to find them and instructions on how to savor them when found. This is a beautiful little book, chockfull of charming pictures, maps, charts and graphs, sidebars and boxes of advice, lore and even a few recipes. Paired with a few choco-gourmet samples, it would make a scrumptious Valentine's gift for nearly anyone. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
'sensuous and entertaining' - The Independent on Sunday

About the Author
Chloé Doutre-Roussel is one of the world's top chocolatiers. On sale December 5, 2006 The chocolate buyer for Fortnum & Mason in London, she is launching her own line of quality, gourmet chocolates called Chloé Chocolate.

Customer Reviews

Three stars for me, but five for you?
As a life-long chocophile, I have immersed myself (not literally, as someone in this book has!) in the enjoyment of chocolate. Naturally, I am interested in almost everything that has to do with the subject. Chloe Doutre-Roussel's book is a great place to start if you don't know about the different plantations, chocolate history, and her.
I found the book self-serving and a bit disingenuous. She does love talking about Chloe, and, she gives the impression she can eat a pound of chocolate daily and stay quite thin. Only at the end of the book does she tell you that she's exercising a minimum of two hours a day (swims an hour, does power yoga, and walks briskly).
I am not putting her down for her regimen, as that would be hypocritical. I enjoy chocolate and everything else I want to eat guiltlessly because I also love yoga and walking.
Chloe neglects to mention, let alone discuss, the history of slavery in the annals of chocolate lore; nor, does she even alight upon the current situations on the Ivory Coast, where child labor and terrible working conditions still exisit. I found this a huge omission.
Yes, fair trade chocolate may not rival Domori's line, but what about the good karma that comes from knowing no one was hurt producing it for your enjoyment? As she is someone with a great deal of power in the chocolate industry I was sad to see that she gave short shrift to this enormous aspect of the business.
She also omitted chocosphere.com as one of the great resources we have for buying our little delights in the US.
On the other hand, there were a number of things I really enjoyed about this book: *the health benefits of chocolate (not new, but concise)
*how to host a chocolate tasting (though I would include a bit in the beginning where everyone gets to speak about their own chocolate history)
*the art of tasting chocolate (this is also a bit of micro-management, but, then, I can enjoy a glass of wine without parsing out its merits)
*educating you about trends in the industry, the difference between beans, the finest producers
*and, most of all, raising the general awareness of excellent chocolate.
This is a good book for the novice who's developing a passion for more esoteric chocolates, and wants a basic course that's quick and easy to absorb.

Want to learn about chocolate? Then avoid this book!
The Chocolate Connoisseur takes the cake as the worst book I have ever read.

I am a cocoa trader and chocolate manufacturer, with a background in agricultural science. As such, I know a lot about cocoa trees, cocoa beans, and all things chocolate.

I am appalled by the amount, and magnitude, of misinformation in The Chocolate Connoisseur.

For starters, the author lies about her qualifications: contrary to what she writes in her book, Chloe Doutre-Roussel has never worked as an agronomist for the UN. In fact, she has never worked as a professional agronomist at all.

So what if the author lies about being an experienced agronomist? The problem is that she provides very dubious agronomic advice throughout her book. (Doutre-Roussel has an irrational infatuation with fragile, inbred cocoa trees. If her advice - to replace robust cocoa trees with inbred ones - was acted upon, she could one day become famous as the person who destroyed the chocolate industry).

Moving on from agronomy: The Chocolate Connoisseur contains dozens of factual errors about cocoa harvesting, processing, and manufacturing.

Also, The Chocolate Connoisseur's bibliography and referencing is a joke. (The bibliography contains just seven items - or eight, if you count the book by Jancis Robinson that is listed twice. And not a single one of the "scientific studies" Doutre-Roussel alludes to throughout the book is referenced).

To add insult to injury, the book is riddled with spelling mistakes (I counted eleven).

Doutre-Roussel is renowned for her "unbelievable" tasting abilities. Her abilities are, literally, unbelievable. For instance, she thinks that she can smell sucrose (which is actually an odorless substance). She also believes in the so-called "tongue map" (which taste experts have long dismissed as a myth).

In her acknowledgements, the author declares that chocolate is her best friend. Why am I not surprised that Chloe Doutre-Roussel's best friend is an inanimate object?

Great
I adore this book. At the core of The Chocolate Connoisseur is a true passion for the subject and a completely selfless wish to share it. It tells the history of chocolate as well as the science behind it in a way that is compelling and interesting. But its strongest point is Chloe's encouragement to form your own opinion and deepen to your appreciation and pleasure - great life lessons indeed. That's what food writing is all about.