My husband Bob and I made our second winter trip in a row to Paris over the holidays. This trip inevitably turned into a feeding frenzy of French food. Our first stop was Pierre Herme’s store at St. Germain des Pres. I was kicking myself for having missed it during our last trip, so we were eager to make our first visit. Also, this past year, I had obtained a copy of his book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, specifically because I had heard there was a recipe for macarons in there (more on that later). Anyway, there was a bit of a line, which gave me an opportunity to photograph and salivate over the the artfully presented desserts.

The longer log cakes pictured above are the modern French-style buche de noel. This style is more popular in Paris than the rolled jaconde with buttercream that I made over Christmas (the rolled version is apparently a more old-fashioned version) and requires a special trough-shaped mold which I was very tempted to buy.

The beautiful shot glass filled with fruits and creams and decorated with a violet was called an “emotion exotic” and was composed of pistachio creme brulee, pineapple seasoned with lime and coriander, coconut, and tapioca. mmm…

In the background of the picture above, you can see some of Pierre Herme’s macarons, the cookies adored by Parisians. The store had some rather exotic macaron flavors as balsamic vinegar and truffle.

We had to save some room for Sadaharu Aoki, pictured below. It was a favorite from our last visit, and just a few blocks away from Pierre’s boutique.

The “bambou” green tea cake was as delicious as ever, and we sampled a few different flavors, as well, including black forest and raspberry (no, not all on the same day).

We also went to Dalloyau for this amazing fruit pastry. Just look at all those layers! It looks like the cross-section of some geological formation. I don’t know exactly what was in it, but it was tart and delectable.

And last, but not least, was Laduree…To give you an idea of the popularity of Laduree’s macarons in Paris, we were able to get into Versailles and the Louvre faster than we were able to place an order for macarons. The line went out the door. Of course, we probably went there during a peak time of day at a peak time of year. The store clerks would not allow me to photograph inside, but I managed to get a few pics from the store window. There were some new flavor offerings, such as “rouge diva” (with chocolate, red fruits and spices) and gingerbread, and praline, in addition to the classics such as caramel with sea salt, pistachio, mocha, and so on.

Pictured below are the pastries called “les religieuses” (pink) and “les Saint Honore” made from profiterole-esque choux pastry. We didn’t get to sample those, as our stomachs could only handle so much sugar, so we happily feasted with our eyes.

This trip has inspired me to try making macarons, and Bob fortuitously came across a cookbook in Paris entirely about macarons! It is also entirely in French and suddenly I was thankful I had taken so many years of French in high school into college - to be able to read a darn French cookbook.

This weekend, my husband and I attended the 10th Annual Chocolate Show in New York City. Over sixty chocolate vendors offered samples of their selections, as well as items for sale. I had every good intention of being very discriminating and consuming only the most appealing chocolates. But those plans went awry quickly the minute we stepped into the highly caffeinated and charged atmosphere and what ensued was a veritable feeding frenzy of chocolate.

Perhaps the most frenzied and visited booth was that of Mary’s, hailing from Tokyo. Their green tea, black sesame and caramel coffee truffle samples flew off their bento box displays the minute they were replenished. To the side, you could observe the artisans carefully hand piping exquisite designs onto individual chocolate squares. Mary’s offers unusual Eastern inspired flavors such as wasabi, sake, and purple sweet potato chocolates.

John and Kira’s was recently featured on the Martha Stewart show for their adorable “pumpkins” of whisky clove ganache-filled figs coated in orange-colored white chocolate. When I saw the pumpkins on TV, I thought the concept was quite cute and unique in itself, but the taste actually surpassed my expectations. Though I only sampled a slice, the ganache was velvety smooth and the taste was not too figgy, but sophisticated.

My husband had purchased chocolates for me from Romanico’s in Miami before, so we really looked forward to visiting their booth. Delicious as ever, they offer flavors such as guava and cream cheese, creamy coconut, and white pistachio.

Although I didn’t sample their chocolates (it was towards the end of the show and I really couldn’t take another bite), Cosmic Chocolate had a very hip and visually appealing display with cocktail inspired flavor pairings of limoncello ginger, champagne peach, and cointreau caramel.

After all the chocolate consumption, we were relieved to be able to watch some culinary demonstrations from some top chocolate/pastry chefs. We observed two demos, Chef Alessandra Altieri from Payard demonstrated a caramelized hazelnut tart with chocolate chantilly cream. The audience received copies of the recipes, as well as mini-samples of the final version! The shell and caramelized nuts were a crunchy contrast to the cream and the combination just sang in my mouth.

Later on, we watched a demo by renowned Mr. Chocolate, Chef Jacques Torres. He charmed the crowds with an inaccessible but entertaining demo of a seasonal life-size chocolate turkey in a white chocolate crate with white chocolate hay and marshmallow eggs. Pictured below is Jacques piping the marshmallow into egg molds, as well as the final product.

The highlight of the show for me was having my photo taken with Jacques Torres himself!

The infamous chocolate fashion show was held on Thursday, November 8, but the fashion collection was still on display. Pictured below are some of this year’s creations.

more chocolate fashion…

By the end of the show, I could barely even look at photos of chocolate in my brochure, a sure sign it was time to go. Good thing the show comes to New York once a year.

Last week, my husband and I vacationed in Paris; it was the perfect opportunity to sample all the delectable pastries the city has to offer. Our hotel was dangerously within walking distance of Dalloyau, one of Paris’ top patisseries, where we grabbed some baguettes and pistachio croissants for breakfast…

Here is a closer look at the window display, and the dessert we took home that night, ‘la religieuse’. It’s a classic French pastry with an eclair-like round topped with another.

Laduree receives high praise for their ‘macarons’, so this tea salon was an obligatory stop. ‘Macarons’ are not to be confused with the chewy, coconut ‘macaroons’ that we know in the US. Perhaps my experience with the latter tainted my expectations of how these would taste, and I was admittedly skeptical of the flavor of these deceptively simple looking cakes. However, one bite of these ethereal creations blew me away. We sampled mini versions in flavors such as bitter chocolate, coffee, pistachio, salted butter caramel, rose petal, hazelnut praline. Ah…sublime…

I have to admit, though, that my favorite pastries were from those of Sadahari Aoki, a patissier who developed his superb skills in both Japan and France.

The green zen-like cake pictured above was my absolute favorite, called ‘bamboo’ (then again, I am a huge fan of match green tea). It was composed of what appeared to be alternating layers of green tea cake, chocolate cream, and matcha green tea cream - simply heavenly. Below that was a passion fruit cake, light, and refreshingly citrus-y and also delicious. The aesthetics and presentation of both were gorgeous.

Looking at the photos makes me regret not sampling all the other creations, but alas, there is only so much sugar one can consume within a week, even if you ‘partager avec’ your sweetie…

And at last but not least, I leave you with a befitting shot of kitsch from the animated window displays of Les Galeries Lafayette (looks like Marie Antoinette meets Disney, non?):

Last night, my husband Bob and I, along with two friends, attended an awesome Top Chef dinner at Tribeca Grill. If you’re not familiar with the show, Top Chef was a reality TV series from the makers of Project Runway that aired on Bravo a few months ago. It’s similar to Hell’s Kitchen, except that the premise is more civilized and the contestants actually had talent.

The menu for the night was prepared by winner Harold Dieterle (shown in photo above), and finalists Stephen Asprinio and Lee Anne Wong. As we walked up the steps to the banquet room, I heard a familiar voice greeting the guests. Sure enough, it was that of contestant Miguel Morales, who agreeably posed for pictures with us.

When we entered the room, we were served an irresistable array on canapés–from delectable chicken, scallop and pork dumplings, to oysters, to a foie gras with apples on ham, to a kampachi with cucumber soba, all of which were prepared by Chef Lee Anne. As we waited on line for Stephen’s passion fruit mojitos and guava margaritas, we met another contestant, Andrea (the natural foods chef). With all the excellent cocktails, canapés, and reality TV celebrities abuzz, the $95 price of admission already seemed to pay for itself.

After a bit of schmoozing with Andrea, Miguel, Harold and Stephen (Harold and Lee Anne were less visible initially, busily preparing in the back), we were all seated at round tables, wedding style. Miguel asked to join our table and then sat next to me! He was a lively character, true to his portrayal on TV, and discussed his experiences on the show and quasi-celebrity life after reality TV with us. During the meal, he called Dave, another finalist. He got his voicemail, but we all left him a greeting.

Restaurant owner Drew Nieporent then introduced the event as “the dinner by the Top Chefs who actually got along with each other,” and challenged the guests to guess who devised each dish, Stephen or Harold. The first dish was a shrimp cocktail with lemon verbena vinaigrette, paired with a delightful and dry white wine, a Ruggeri Prosecco. Most of us at the table guess this was Stephen’s dish (it was actually Harold’s). The next course was a tuna nicoise paired with a New Zealand wine with gooseberry undertones (Stephen’s). The third course was a poached duck a l’orange, served with a spoon serving of tangerine-ponzu, paired with a French rose, domaine Audoin Marsannay Rose. I’m not a fan of the gamey taste of duck, but I loved the mildness of the duck from the slow poaching. Stephen’s mother came up and and emphatically identified this as her son’s dish; it turned out mother knew best.

The three glasses of wine and cocktails had kicked in by now and I excused myself (and nearly stumbled) for the ladies room, which was apparently occupied by some of Stephen’s entourage–his website designer, aunt and grandmother, too!

By the time I returned from my break, we were ready for the main dish–a grilled lamb au poivre with sunchoke-creamed spinach and red shallot puree. “Sunchokes” were a dead giveaway that was Harold’s dish. In the finale, judges raved about Harold’s inventive use of sunchokes in his steak dish. As a final special touch, we were served a Canadian Riesling Icewine, which is quite difficult to obtain here in the States. This complemented our 5th and 6th courses of a trio of cheeses and saffron creme brulee with rainier cherry compote, respectively. The icewine was chill, and had a sweet, almost syrup-like muscat flavor, and was extremely well received at our table.

We ended the meal intoxicated and satisfied. I managed to get a few signatures and some more photos. Even Lee Anne hung out a bit at the end. A truly memorable meal; we can’t wait to taste the fruit of the labor of next season’s Top Chef finalists.

Update: Harold is opening a restaurant in NYC called “Perilla” (opening date TBD). Lee Anne currently teaches at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Stephen is scheduled to open his restaurant in Southern California in 2007. Miguel is a chef at the Mandarin Oriental in New York.