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I figure we all could use some chocolate this morning.  And really, what better dose of poetry than a French chocolatier’s description of his own chocolate?  Here is Franck Kestener’s Rubis.

The description in French:

Sauvages accords de framboise et baies de genévrier : cette ganache onctueuse invite à une tendre promenade dans les sous-bois…

Which I translate as:

The savage harmonies of raspberry and juniper berries:  this unctuous ganache invites you on a tender walk in the woods…

Don’t you love it?  I think I need a chocolate calendar of the day (complete with description and a sample).

Franck Kestener is a chocolatier from Alsace who was named Meilleur Ouvrier de France at the age of 27.  A MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) is really the height of chocolate-making, not only in France but on a global level.   Chocolatiers and pâtissiers (as well as those entering in any of the other categories; food professions get the most attention, but these include all manual professions, such as roofing, shoe-making…) train for years and years, mercilessly, to attain it.  Imagine an Olympic athlete with a full-time job in addition to the training schedule and you’ll have an idea of how much effort is put into passing these trials.

(While being named MOF is a gold medal that no one can argue with, only French citizens can enter the MOF trials, one of those complicated quandaries for chocolatiers outside of France trying to prove their own worth.)

Franck Kestener recently opened a boutique in Paris, near the Luxembourg gardens, although his laboratoire is still in Alsace.

If this embed code works, you should find the show here, playing Wedn April 4, 3-4 p.m, and archived afterward. There are some exciting guests: Dr. Kristy Leissle, who did her PhD in chocolate and is on a quest for the world’s best (I can help there! ; psychotherapist Esther Kane; dietitian Mary Barbour; and Sulpice Chocolate chocolatier Anne Schaeffer.

Oops.  That is Wedn April 4 (FOURTH) when I will be on the Halli Casser-Jayne Show.  You know how I found this out?  The producers of the show checking out the blog.  They must be muttering, “Herding cats, people, herding cats.”  BUT I am not worried, I’m still going to hold my own against the nutritionist.

Still 3-4 p.m.