It seems we wear many hats as chefs; we're chemists and biologists, we're architects and historians. And there's the art/craft aspect, too. I am (or at least used to be) a huge film buff, and one alternate dream career for me would involve directing. It hit me the other day how there's a parallel between making a film and the running of a restaurant: the creation of and immersion into a mood, an atmosphere, a narrative arc. And it's all a game of chance, as no matter how much of what we do is for ourselves as cooks, we're really trying to anticipate what will make a lot of different people happy. Our clients come to the restaurant for much more than mere sustenance; perhaps we sometimes wear the hat of psychologist, too.
I'm not sure what that has to do with hot chocolate. But to me, the drink conjures up history, comfort, and the simplest craft of cooking, the subtle layering of flavors. My version takes cues from Maricel Presilla; I had the pleasure of once watching Maricel make chocolate by hand, straight from the bean. She ground the cacao with sugar and spices on a traditional metate to produce first a paste that resembles the Ibarra chocolate we can get from Mexico, which then is transformed into the frothy drink. Once again, something old circles around to the new: traditional chocolate is frothed up with a wooden molinillo, which is really just a low tech version of the immersion blenders we all use today to foam up all kinds of things.
And just by coincidence, I'll be talking about hot chocolate tomorrow morning on the Today Show...
Download: Spiced Hot Chocolate (Today Show)-Workbook 8.2.09
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