A friend I cooked with last year at the Cannes Film Festival was in France for the vendage (grape picking) in Burgundy and swung up to Paris for a few days. She thoughtfully handed me a beautiful little box and my eyes lit up as I'd know that box anywhere. Same as if you handed me a little blue box with a white ribbon. It could have a rock in it but if it's in that little blue box... anyways, my little brown box thankfully did not have a rock but a sampling of Jean-Paul Hévin's chocolate-covered cheese collection!
I know, I'm a little slow on the draw as these came out as part of his millennium collection but better late...as they say. I'd never tasted such delights and was so excited to savor new combinations of flavors and textures, in this case chocolate and cheese and some herbs or nuts. His chocolats apéritifs au fromage (chocolate-cheese aperitifs) include, from the top clockwise:
Pont l'Evêque parsemée de thym ~ Pont l'Evêque (cow's milk cheese from Normandy) sprinkled (literally: strewn) with thyme
Chèvre parsemée de noisette ~ Goat's milk cheese sprinkled with hazelnuts
Roquefort parsemée de noix ~ Blue Cheese sprinkled with walnuts
Epoisse parsemée de cumin ~ Epoisse (cow's milk cheese from Burgundy) sprinkled with cumin.
In the interest of full disclosure and fair journalism, I judiciously sampled all of them and it's a toss up between the Roquefort and the Epoisse. My favorite cheese is Epoisse but it's hard to beat the tangy, luscious Roquefort. You'll have to order some and decide for yourself!
Now if a few morsels by mail simply won't suffice, and I can't imagine how it could, you can always fly here and completely immerse yourself in this unctuous Parisian world via 2 Bay Area chocolate afficianados!
Author David Lebovitz, former pastry chef at Chez Panisse and a fellow Bay Area expat in Paris, offers his take on the best chocolatier in Paris as well as some other notables. When he's not writing books or exploring hidden corners of Paris, David gives amazing chocolate tours and is a guest pastry chef at On Rue Tatin.
Berkeley's own Leonard Pitt, founder of the aptly named Berkeley Chocolate Club, has written a book on the history of Paris, Promenades dans le Paris Disparu. When he is on this side of the pond, he gives chocolate tours (as well as historical tours) in Paris. I'm taking his chocolate tour tomorrow. I'll report back...as soon as I recover from my sugar coma.
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Jean-Paul Hévin
www.jphevin.com
231, rue Saint-Honoré
75001 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 55 35 35 96
Fax : +33 (0)1 55 35 35 97
23 bis, avenue de la Motte-Picquet
75007 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 45 51 77 48
Fax : +33 (0)1 45 55 87 33
16, avenue de la Motte-Picquet
75007 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 45 51 99 49
Fax : +33 (0)1 45 51 28 19
3, rue Vavin
75006 Paris
Tel : +33 (0)1 43 54 09 85
Fax : +33 (0)1 40 46 97 51
