Debauve et Gallais

Another chocolatier to royalty is DEBAUVE et GALLAIS. Their New York and Paris shops are the prettiest. On Friday they were the last stop on the Sweetwalks tour. Emperor Napoleon was a fan of their caramelised almonds coated with dark chocolate. All of D et G's chocolates are dark.

Their ribbons, their boxes, their signature colors, grey, gold and deep blue are all so elegant.

This particular chocolate, Les Incroyables (the incredibles) is famous for being the favorite of painter Van Gogh. Their price is pretty incredible too. The story goes Van Gogh bartered a painting for these chocolates. It hangs in the Paris shop.

In New York the chocolates are identified and displayed sitting on little pedestals.

Here - the New York window. The hand holds the "Pistole". A special chocolate disk designed by pharmacist Sulpice Debauve to help Marie-Antoinette take her medicine. You can taste these disks. They come in dark chocolate and different percentages of cocoa minus the medicament bien sur.

This box is called Le Royale in the Paris window.

They have macarons in Paris!

You can find DEBAUVE et GALLAIS online
In New York at:
20 East 69th St. New York, NY 10021
In Paris at:
30, rue des Saints-Peres, 75007
33, rue Vivienne, 75002

Charbonnel et Walker...

Charbonnel Hot Chocolate, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

Charbonnel et Walker was the 1st stop on last Friday's SweetWalks chockie tour and it was instant love.

I'd never been there before and it's sooooo PRETTY and Victorian!

These pretty boxes contain their Pink Champagne Truffles full of essence of wild strawberries, cream and Marc de Champagne enrobed in milk chocolate.

So decadent...

The Charbonnel truffles that lurk within these gorgeous boxes...

Charbonnel et Walker have been supplying fine English chocolates in their delightful boxes since 1875. Edward VII (the Prince of Wales) encouraged a partnership between Mrs Walker and Mme. Charbonnel from the Maison Boissier chocolate house in Paris. Charbonnel still holds the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of chocolate to her Majesty The Queen bringing the royal connection up to the present time.

Some of the Queen Mum's favorites, along with the chocolate covered fondant of violet and rose petal essence shown yesterday...

I love this illustrated tip sheet. Most high end chocolate boutiques have an illustrated road map to their chocolates, but this one is worthy of framing in my opinion...

The 8th floor entrance to Cafe Charbonnel NY at Saks Fifth Avenue.

I guess I'm just a sucker for pretty.

Did I mention their Drinking Chocolate is to die for?

A Chocolate Tour of New York...

Attending a chocolate night class at La Maison du Chocolate was tough enough.

But then I went on a www.Sweetwalks.com midtown chocolate tour!

The 1st chocolate boutique was British Charbonnel & Walker in Saks Fifth Avenue.

As part of class studies we had to sample 2 chocolates at each stop on the tour. I'll post more on Charbonnel tomorrow..
They were ready for us at La Maison du Chocolate at 30 Rockefeller Center, with a warming cup of hot chocolate and their Boheme (milk chocolate mousse ganache) and Andalousie (lemon ganache) . At each stop we got an instructional intro to the brand's history and chocolate making process. La Maison still offers the original box of 22 chocolates Robert Linxe first created for his shop in 1977.

Next stop was RICHART of Lyon on 7 East 55th street. Beautifully decorated chocolates as well as complex flavors are Richart's signature. They feature different artists work in their shop as well.

Richart like most chocolatiers today, offers a boxed collection of single-origin percentage cocoa, so you can educate your palete. All in the name of research of course :)

Next stop Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier on 485 Park Avenue. Again a vast variety of single-origin chocolates. Choosing the 2 chocolates to taste at each stop was no piece of cake!

Last but definitely not least on the chocolate walking tour was Debauve & Gallais, perhaps one of the prettiest boutiques both in New York and in Paris. They are at 20 East 69th street. More to come on D & B...

Here are the 2 chocolates I picked to taste at Debauve & Gallais.

All of these chocolate shops have online shops as well, but taking the New York tour was informative and fun.

Thank goodness we got a little walking in there with all the chocolate tasting!

Making Ganache at La Maison du Chocolat...

La Maison du Chocolat Macarons, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

La Maison du Chocolat has "new" macarons!

They're filled with infused chocolate ganache and available after March 19th.

Ganache is that divinely, "infused" chocolate filling in most French bonbons.

I was lucky to attend a night class at La Maison on chocolate and the making of ganache.
All in the name of research of course. La Maison calls the class the "TAMANACO".
We watched a demo of the making of ganache.
First boiled light cream is poured into the shredded chocolate.

This is when the infused flavorings are delicately added:

menthe du Maroc, citron d’Andalousie, vanille, framboise.

As part of class studies, we tasted this wonderful lemon-infused ganache.

I wrote indepth about this delicious experience over on ChocolateZOOM.

YUM!

Lindt Goldhase...

Lindt Goldhase with Macarons, watercolor, 9" x 11 1/2"

No weather report today.

There's a new love in my life!

Bye-bye Fauchon...

Hello Lindt Goldhase (Lindt Gold Bunny)!

I marched right off to the New York Lindt shop on 692 Fifth Avenue to see what was what...

I wanted to take pictures of my new love inside...

But I was told permission would have to come from Corporate headquarters :(

Now this is one place I would love to visit -

I want to sit in these giant Lindt Goldhase chairs at the Kadawe Department store in Berlin!
WOW !

I'm not the only one mad for Lindt Goldhase...

Harrods of London ordered one in 24-caret gold encrusted with diamonds!


I could really go for this car...

You may be wondering...What's up with this girl now?!

True this bunny is Swiss, not even French!
And not even from the French-speaking part of Switzerland either!?
And the milk chocolate bunny is particularly gorgeous too!
Hey! not even 65% dark chocolate!
And this bunny is no SPRING chicken either!
Goldhase has been around since the early 1950s...
Well the design is simply masterful!
And a sheer joy to paint.
So there will be more Lindt Goldhase to come along with those daffodils.

He makes me feel so Springy :)

Signs of Spring...

12°F (Feels like: 3°F)

Humph... and they said yesterday was the coldest day of the year. Gypsy Purple said...Wow, the daffodil sketches are lovely, the colours just warms you. It would be lovely to see more.

I went looking for signs of SPRING on Monday. I found this 50's tea cup at ABC Carpet, my favorite browsing store. I went back and bought it yesterday for still life usage and it is "Springy".

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a gift shop at Rockefeller Center. And of course their windows were full of "Springy" prints - even for the guys.

Look at these pressed glass chickens sitting in FISHS EDDY's window on 889 Broadway! Can you get more "Springy" than that?
Yes, Teuscher Chocolates at Rockefeller Center is definitely way more "Springy"!
Also at Rockefeller Center, a sign that Spring is not just around the corner😊

Daffodil Sketchbook...

We're having the COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR in New York 17°F feels like 4°F ! But I'm still thinking daffodils.

I found this 2001 hand-made sketchbook while cleaning out my closet last summer.
I'd set my mind to figuring out daffodils.
I'm still working on them.
And at last you can find daffodils in the florists shops.

So it MUST be a SIGN OF SPRING not far off.

Somehow a page of Tulip petals got into my daffodil sketchbook...

There will be plenty more of these to come.

I'm intent on ignoring this cold snap :(

Les Fleurs.

Chocolate Bunny, watercolor,

We've had a tiny sniff of SPRING last week for 2 WHOLE days in New York City...sigh Shop doors were wide open. People were walking around WITHOUT their jackets.

While everyone else was stripping for Spring, I was indoors painting daffodils and chocolate bunnies.

Oh and Faberge eggs for THE RUSSIAN TEA ROOM!

They have a beautiful collection by the way.

Remember when I wrote about eating Thanksgiving dinner at RTR last November. Well, they "discovered" my story. So while I obsessed on Fauchon last week at Paris Breakfasts, I was secretly rushing to finish menu art for them: Easter, Valentine's Day and Tea Salon menus.

The cold weather has come back and made us put our hats, coats, mufflers and gloves back on, but I'm sticking with my bunnies and daffodils! I found these bunnies at Les Fleurs, 3 Passage de la bonne Graine 75011. I'm going back to Paris end of March

Thank you PBers for buying my watercolors :)
I want to see all the Easter/chocolate shenannigans and I'm going to visit Les Fleurs too.

Evidently chocolate fish are very BIG for French Pacques / Easter and I want to know why..? It's all strictly for research mind you.