French comic book creator Franckie Alarcon is given the assignment of a lifetime! He's to follow confectioner Chef Jacques Genin for a year in order to create a graphic novel that unlocks the mysteries of Chocolate! During his time, Franckie will learn how cocoa beans turn into cocoa and then later chocolate. He'll explore the challenges chocolatiers face both professionally and personally during the holiday rushes of Christmas, Easter and Halloween.
After the holiday rush, Franckie spends a week as an intern at Chef Genin's chocolate works. The pace is grueling. Then Franckie heads east to Peru to visit a fully operational cocoa plantation while being introduced to the global initiatives of fair trade and eco-friendly indigenous farming techniques and the protection of endangered heirloom crops.
I found Alarcon's book fascinating. As a professional chef and culinary instructor, I find it increasingly difficult to get high-schoolers to want to read. So, I am on the lookout for alternative texts in order to teach cooking techniques to them. And I know that I at least learned a lot. Unfortunately, due to a scene involving 'sexual chocolate', I don't think I'll be able to use this book in schools.
There are 2 types of chefs in the world. Bakers and those who can do everything else. I am not a baker. But I can do chocolate work. Still, despite being able to do it, I've had trouble trying to understand some of the process. Thanks to Franckie's illustrations, I understand the cocoa development process. Though, I still don't know why white chocolate isn't chocolate if it has cocoa butter in it!
Chefs have very strong opinions about work ethic, food, taste and quality. Chef Genin and his sous chef, Sophie are not afraid to share theirs! And they pass along a few recipes as well. One thing to keep in mind is that all of the recipes are based on the metric system. I'll need to use the Google measurement converter tool before I tackle some of them however.
When it came to the recipes, I had trouble with Chef Genin's definition of a praline. His have zero nuts of any kind in them. I checked and both American, French and Belgian praline recipes call for nuts- just different types. All Genin's pralines call for are butter, sugar and fruit. No nuts and No chocolate! For a book about the revelations of chocolate, Franckie Alarcon spends a lot of time on a cocoa-less confection!
Franckie also eats a ton of chocolate. Considering how much the author eats in a year, I'll never understand how he didn't gain any weight. That is unless he took a lot of liberties and decided to not drawn himself getting bigger over time!
Though The Secrets of Chocolate debuted in American retail outlets last year, this book is actually a lot older. Alarcon's quest occurred between 2013-14. It then was published a few months later in French. This book probably would have come overseas sooner if not for the pandemic.
I really enjoyed this book. Though it wasn't a bad read I had to take my time with it. It was very technically and quite philosophical. Plus, I feel like too much time was spent on non-chocolate candies. That being said, I'm actually looking forward to more time with Franckie Alarcon. His Art of Sushi dropped just last month and upon completing this visual journal of sugary delights, I placed an order for it at my favorite LCS.
A shining star in the growing trend of culinary graphic novels.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
Completing this review completes Task #44 of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. 'About Cooking/Food.'
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