Published Chocolate

The first time I saw a copy of Australian Gourmet Traveller, I assumed it was some kind of a corporate hybrid of the American magazine Gourmet and the UK version of Conde Nast Traveller. However, the food and travel magazine is a local entity. The lush photos that balance Australian versions of the sybaritic and refined are well worth the 50 cents an issue I pay at the neighborhood op shop (thrift shop), and probably the $7.95 asking price at newsstands.


I even would have paid $19.95 for the Australian Gourmet Traveller: Chocolate cookbook had I not found it at the St. Kilda Library. It was obviously churned out of the archives (the only piece of editorial content is an intro in large font that doesn't try to disguise the fact that it was written in about five minutes), but the value is really in the full-page pictures of desserts like sticky chocolate cakes with caramel Muscat cream, white chocolate and geranium-water tarts, and milk chocolate and ginger creme anglaise.

This book has also motivated me to establish a chocolate regime in my kitchen. Starting in March, I will follow a chocolate recipe and report on it once a week. First, I'll have to find a supplier of couverture chocolate in wholesale quantities at wholesale prices. More on this over the next few weeks.


Chocolate in a Greater Context: Chocolate in Context is now listed on the Food Porn Watch roster, along with The Food Section, Chocolate and Zucchini, Daily Olive, 80 Breakfasts, and other food blogs great and small.