Savory chocolates out to beat the too-sweet
February 3, 2009
Stage Left Restaurant in New Brunswick is introducing Restaurant Guys Chocolate.
If your traditional Valentine's Day strategy is to buy a box of the sugariest, most gooey chocolate confections you can find, there's a good chance this year what is craved by your sweetheart might be less sweet and more tart.
Nationwide, there's an uptick in candies and desserts featuring savory elements such as salt and spices. Herbs such as basil and rosemary, chipotle and cayenne peppers, even smoked bacon are showing up in fine chocolates. And it has been much reported that Fran's Salted Caramels are a favorite of President Barack Obama's.
In Central Jersey, the owners of two New Brunswick restaurants — Stage Left and Catherine Lombardi — Mark Pascal and Francis Schott, are on the cutting edge with their introduction this month of Restaurant Guys Chocolate. Together with friends Mike and Jennifer Schnur, they planned for a year to develop chocolates with a savory balance.
Among the line's initial selections are the spicy "Diablo," which combines chocolate with rich Saigon cinnamon and other spices that upon tasting it, "only at the end do you see how our mix of chilis brings just the right level of lasting heat," according to the "Restaurant Guys."
The chocolates, described as "intense, dark, large, brooding and multilayered," can be ordered online and also are offered after dinner at Stage Left.
"They are complex," Pascal says. "Flavors should be layered and deep like a great wine or a well-made cocktail. They should also surprise you."
Schott says he believes sophisticated palates are more than ready for the surprise and that the boom in chocolate-covered pretzels in recent years should foretell success for his chocolates flavored with Austrian roasted pumpkin seed oil and Maldon salt.
"The Maldon Sea Salt on the bottom of these chocolates makes for a striking crunchy textural counterpoint, and the salinity reminds me of chocolate-covered pretzels. The juxtaposition of savory and sweet is jarring and makes the nuttiness of the oil absolutely pop," Schott says. "They shock you a little bit. I'm in love with them."
High-end chocolatiers such as John Cunnell, owner of Birnn Chocolates in Highland Park, have carried salted caramels and chocolates for some time, but now, he says, his shop has introduced "something really different" in its chocolates with ginger and wasabi.
These savory additions are somehow fitting, given the role of those ingredients in Asian cooking, a cuisine that always has expertly blended the sweet and the savory.
Also approaching the sweet/savory mix from the opposite end of commercial foods is Dale and Thomas Popcorn, whose addition of chocolate to the salty kernels has taken off in recent years.
"We have new products for Valentine's Day," says Alan K. Haley, general manager of Dale and Thomas at the Bridgewater Commons Mall. "Our most popular is chocolate chunk and caramel."
The Dale and Thomas line includes popcorn drizzled with dark fudge or white chocolate, or dipped in milk chocolate for its "Popsters" mini-popcorn balls. From the outside, its PopTruffles look like the classic chocolate shop's decadent treat, but Dale and Thomas' gift box offers two dozen truffles, each enclosing a piece of caramel popcorn.
Restaurant Guys plan is to market only five different flavors at a time; in addition to those noted above, the line currently includes elderflower, Stage Left coffee and black tea/ oil of bergamot.
The chocolatiers warn that Restaurant Guys Chocolates are highly perishable and should be consumed within a week. There's little chance of that not happening.
Lois Heyman: 908-512-2731; lheyman@MyCentralJersey.com. Visit The Food Chain blog at http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/foodchain.