On Wednesday, I chatted with Michael Antonorsi, creator of Chuao Chocolatier, on the weekly show “San Diego Gourmet” (SignOnSanDiego.com). This Venezuela-born chocolatier/entrepreneur was charming and knowledgeable and totally captivated my co-hosts Robert Whitley and Caron Golden and me with stories about how he dreams up new flavors for truffles and bonbons.
(To hear more about the truffle flavor that he calls “Leg of Lamb without the Lamb,” go on-line and listen to Wednesday’s show in the archives. Preview: the flavor was a flop!)
But it wasn’t Antonorsi’s tales of exotic flavors and high-end cacao beans that really grabbed us. Rather it was his reminiscences of childhood lunches in Venezuela…lunches of Dark Chocolate Panini!
While the three of us sat there salivating, Antonorsi explained how they would slice open a fresh baguette, place a dark chocolate bar inside, and slap it on a hot panini machine until it oozed and bubbled. We’ve all had chocolate chip muffins, scones and pain au chocolates before. But somehow this creation sounded so unusual and outrageous.
Today I made one for lunch. I don’t have a fancy panini machine so I did the deed on a beat-up, old grilled cheese maker.
I used a bar of Valrhona Cao Grande Organic 70 percent dark chocolate and a fresh baguette that I slathered it with butter before putting in the machine.
It was delicious. And, totally different from muffins, scones and croissants which all have a lot of sugar in the mix. This crusty, buttery panino oozed pure chocolate flavor, dark, bitter and supremely satisfying.
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