You might not know who David H. Chow is yet, but he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. This engineer-turned-pastry chef is becoming known for his unique hand-crafted products, which combine the world’s top chocolate couvertures with locally sourced and produced raw ingredients.
His namesake company, currently in its early stages, offers products that are meant to challenge your tastes and perceptions. His line of confections include a Green Tea and Sesame chocolate bar, Fine Gold
Last month David celebrated the launch of his product line at All The Best Fine Foods, a speciality food shop in Toronto. I visited the shop, along with a handful of other food journalists, for an interactive chocolate-making experience.
There were three stations set up in the shop, with ingredients that ranged from tame to fantastic. David encouraged us to taste the ingredients before deciding which ones we wanted to include in our custom chocolate bar. It was fun to try new ingredients like freeze-dried tangerines!
Of course, not everything was my cup of tea… Enter the Tonka Bean. Oh my gosh, I’m so glad that I didn’t put the entire bean in my mouth! I bit a small piece off to taste it, and the only words I could come up with to describe the flavour of this spice was “fire” and “soap”. Although, some of the other ladies in attendance said that sounded fairly accurate.
It must be ok in small doses though, because the winning chocolate bar creation of the night had Tonka Bean in it. (Congrats to Jen Chan for winning!).
I opted for a combination of dried apricots, roasted pistachios, honey saffron toffee, pink peppercorns and sea salt. I was worried about how it might taste, since it looked more like a granola bar than a chocolate bar, but it was surprisingly delicious! So much so, that I actually might attempt to make this at home… my best friends sister is a pastry chef so maybe she can help me out.
David makes a variety of really cool confections, from elaborate easter eggs to adorable (giant!) #Valrhona chocolate strawberries. I don’t know about you, but I’d be happy to receive one of his treats as a gift.
*hint* *hint*
To grab some of David’s goodies for yourself, head over to All The Best Fine Foods at 1101 Yonge Street, Toronto. You can learn more about David H. Chow here.
Disclosure:
This is not a sponsored post.
I attended a media event about these products.
Great article! Any chance of David opening up a Vancouver shop 🙂
Not that I know of, but if I hear anything I’ll post about it! 🙂