On Nov 20, 5:47 am, Mike Tommasi > wrote:
> cwdjrxyz wrote:
>
> > 1. black truffle in criollo genache on a bed of potato coulis;
>
> > 2. grilled corn on a bed of chestnut coulis;
> > 3; pear coulis on a bed of Cassis de Dejon genache;
> > 4. kalamanzi in soy milk genache on a bed of carrot coulis;
> > 5. tomato in light genache on a bed of basil genache;
> > 6. pumpkin coulis on a bed of chamomile flower coulis;
> > 7. carmelized celery root coulis on a bed of genache flavored with
> > mild spices;
>
> <nitpick>that would be GANACHE and DIJON?</nitpick>
>
> These are odd combinations, I am not sure that they all "work", there is
> a little bit of an attempt to "épater les bourgois" here, no? :-)

I am so sure some of the combinations will not work for me that I have
absolutely no plans to order any. These combinations remind me
somewhat of certain chefs that try too hard to make something
completely new and different.

>
> I have no idea how these are presented, are they chocolates filled with
> the above ingredients, or are they dishes prepared using chocolate? How
> present is the chocolate, if it is a ganache it must be quite strong...

These are all filled chocolates containing the mentioned ingredient
combinations. The chocolate used to cover in other Richard chocolates
often is quite intense, sometimes up to about 70% cocoa content.
Ganaches used in the interior of some other Richard chocolates are
also often rather intense.

Richart has a web site and has stores in a few major cities around the
world. However I do not find the seasonal "A Festive Garden" listed
there. Perhaps they do not include seasonal items on their site, or it
has just not been added yet. The catalog I received from Richart came
from their San Francisco store.



>
> I find that, unless the chocolate is present in a subtle form (a
> sprinkling of shavings?) the pairing fails even before the wine is
> added, except for #1 and #3
>
> --
> Mike Tommasi - Six Fours, France
> email linkhttp://www.tommasi.org/mymail