Thursday, December 18, 2008

Chocolate

Chocolate A Bitter Sweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1. Nutella is a chocolaty glop that comes in glass or plastic tubs. It is to be spread on bread, but more often than not, it is licked straight off the knife.
2. The Nutella formula was invented after World War II. Italy was short of chocolate, but it had plenty of hazelnuts and other non - chocolate fillers.
3.There was other good chocolate around. But I could see an overriding attitude toward chocolate in mainstream America. It occured to me when I finally saw the film version of Roald Dahl's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder.
4. Consumers must make a basic choice. They decide what they like and hope for no disappointment,
5.There are few enough real experts; in any case, no one can speak for someone else's palate, let alone past life associations. If you like Hershey, count yourself lucky. If you crave Valrhona's best, morgage the house if you must. Life has few enough pleasures.
Questions -
1. Did the author feel as many people do, that Roald Dahl's book was based on the war between Hershey's and Mars?
2. What made nutella so popular in Italy?
3. What chocolate did the author like best after trying chocolate throughout the world?
4. Did the author agree with the other countries that American chocolate was inferior and if not what country had the worst tasting chocolate?
Vocabulary -
1. depicted - To represent in words; describe.
2. astringent - harshly biting; caustic
3. notwithstanding - in spite of; without being opposed or prevented by.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Italy and the United States.
2. Exposition -The author talks about nutella and when, where and why it was invented as well as its popularity.
Outline -
Nutella is invented during WWII because of the shortage of chocolate. It becomes very popular. The author also comes back to America to put his knowledge to use. His conclusion is that everyone has their own tastes when it comes to chocolate no matter the price.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Chocolate

Chocolate A Bitter Sweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.In the end, a good chocolatier must think beyond borders. Preferences may vary from culture to culture, but taste is universal.
2.Godiva displays are by and large beautiful. At each outlet, bon-bons nestle against golden glitter, skillfully arranged to fire sences.
3.The problem is that so much of this tempting chocolate tasted to me as if someone dumped a lot of sugar into melted candle wax.
4.But Godiva has its enthusiastic fans; plenty of people say they love the stuff.
5.Godiva has siezed unoccupied high growth in an America eager for something more than Hershey and Mars.
Questions -
1. Why did the author seem so against the mass marketing approach companies like Godiva use?
2. Was Godiva the worst chocolate the author sampled?
3.IF Godiva tastes so bad why do so many people love it?
4.Is Godiva a threat to Hershey or Mars?
Vocabulary -
1.optimism- the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
2.lurk - to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
3.accumulate - to gather or collect, often in gradual degrees; heap up: to accumulate wealth.
Literary Terms -
1 exposition -The author continues sampling and tries to discover the secrets of Godiva chocolates.
2.Setting - Belgium.
Outline - The author continues talking to Belgium chocolatiers and although he doesn't like Godiva, he still explores the company and how they do business.

chocolate

Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.To make memorable chocolate, you need above all the palate to recognize it.
2.In a world of fast food and junkybshops, the Grand-Sablon is a throwback to a different age.
3."Belgian chocolate is by far the best, no comparison to that stuff in France," Thier told me. "Frenchmen come to Belgium and by chocolate by the kilo."
4.In each of the samples I tasted, chocolate was secondary to other stronger flavors.
5.Belgium chocolatiers feel that quality above all makes the chocolate.
Questions -
1.Why does every chocolatier feel his country makes the best chocolate?
2.Why does Belgiums beliefs about chocolate vary so much from France's?
3.Why was the chocolate not the main taste in the Belgium samples?
4. Why does Belgium give more credit to the customers pallet than France?
Vocabulary -
1.generalities -the state or quality of being general.
2.flamboyant - strikingly bold or brilliant; showy
3.leeway - extra time, space, materials, or the like, within which to operate; margin.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Belgium
2. Exposition- The author talks to a Belgium chocolatier and finds out how different their thinking is on making chocolate.
Outline -
Belgium chocolatiers believe in quality and the customers tastes.they also feel they are far superior to France and other coutries in their chocolate making and customer satisfaction.

chocolate

Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.When I asked Hevin how he did it, he raised an eyebrow and looked at me for a moment. Without a word, he made his answer crystal clear: You couldn't do this with a million years of practice. Why ask?
2.Like so many others who specialize in chocolate, Hevin started out as a pastry chef and then followed his bliss.
3.My own favorite chocolatier, anywhere, is Jacques Genin, who works almost unnoticed in a signless little lab in the seventeenth arrondissement.
4.During 2004, prices fell in the range of fifty dollars a pound for top level chocolatiers with shops of their own. For candy that is a lot.
5. Unlike most fine chocolatiers, Chaudun believes that few consumers can tell the difference if a manufacturer sneaks in a substitute.
Questions -
1. Why do chocolatiers like Hevlin feel he was the only one to make fine chocolates like his?
2. What made chocolate prices fall in 2004?
3.Why does Chaudin feel people can't tell if substitutions are made?
4. What makes the author feel that Chaudin is modest?
vocabulary -
1.rhapsodize - to talk with extravagant enthusiasm.
2.intricate - complex; complicated; hard to understand, work, or make.
3.alcove -a recess or small room adjacent to or opening out of a room.
literary terms
1.setting - France.
2. exposition - The author is asking a chocolatier how he creates his chocolates.
outline -
One chocolatier feels no one can make chocolates as good as him, and another feels that the customers can't tell if he adds substitutes. The author also talks about the price drop of chocolate in 2004 and how it affected the individual shop owners.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

chocolate

chocolate
comments -
1.Valrhona is good not because of the machines themselves but rather because they are put to use. And that is only part of it.
2. In the end, Valrhona bon bons might not receive the same personal attention as those made by France's best artisans, but I'd eat them anytime.
3. Valrhona is an odd duck for a corporate subsidary. It was founded in 1924, by the father of Olivier Deloisy, who now owns La Chocolatiere de L'Opera, a Franch company that sell products that are made to specifications by Chocovic in the Catalonian mountains of Spain.
4. The Valrhona product range runs heavily to chips and chunks for big time bakers. But its real pride is a collection of origin - specific chocolates.
5. For chocolate lover's tha Valrhona approach has turned out to be good news. In 1991, an affable Italian perfectionist named Alessio Tessieri visited the plant. His family had a thriving business selling ingredients to Italian bakers. Valrhona made no excuses for why they were not interested in any dealings with Alessio and his family. They trusted no one that wasn't From France.
Questions -
1. What makes Valrhona so much better than its competitors?
2. Why do countries like Denmark and Italy want access to Valrhona chocolate as opposed to others?
3. Why do the French feel other countries are not worthy of Valrhona chocolate?
4. What bakers use Valrhona chocolates and are they sold everywhere including the United States?
Vocabulary -
1. Sanctum - an inviolably private place or retreat.
2 .Artisans - A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson.
3. affable - pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite.
Literary terms -
1. Setting - Valrhona plant France.
2. Exposition - A tour of the Valrona plant and a meeting with an Italian businaess man trying to form a partnership.
Outline - Valrhona is not unlike Willie Wonka as the mystery surrounding the chocolates makes them more enticing to the public.Other countries have tried to become part of the Valrona company but are denied because of Frances strong distrust of others.Valrona remains one of the finest chocolatiers in the world.

chocolate

Chocolate
Comments -
1. For industrial chocolate giant companies like Hershey or Nestle simply pour beans into one end of a factory and truck boxes of finished candy bars out the other.
2. In the end does it matter? Valrhona, by almost any measure makes the best range of commercial sealed chocolate anywhere.
3. Getting permission to visit Valrhona is a little like applying for a North Korean visa. There is seldom an outright refusal, yet ther visit does not take oplace unless someone decides it is in the company's interest.
4. For those who are deemed Valrhona - worthy, or who otherwise manage to weasel their way past the heavy steel gates, there is a pleasant surprise. The haughtiness of the public face is missing in the inner sanctum. Valrhona employs Frenchmen who, as God is my witness, all but whistle while they work. Among a full- time staff of four hundred, thirty - year veterans are common.
5. Confidences are not blithely divulged. Most employees would sooner eat a Mars bar than betray their familytrust. Just in case, Valrhona takes no chances. Sacks of beans are coded with numbers and left unlabled. Only a few senior company officals can determine the country of origin, let alone the specific plantation.
Questions -
1. Why does the world look down on American chocolate companies like Hershey's and Mar's when they are so successful?
2. Was Valrhona actingf like Willy Wonka with their fear of theft or is it a legitimate fear?
3. With modern technology, couldn't someone just take a piece of chocolate and have it duplicated?
4. What makes emplyees during this time remain so loyal to a company like Valrhona and why?
Vocabulary -
1. blithely - joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
2. divulged - to disclose or reveal (something private, secret, or previously unknown).
3. haughtiness - disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious.
Literary terms -
setting - In France at the Valrhona chocolate plant.
exposition- The author is trying to get into the plant and interview workers.
outline -
The Valrhona chocolate company in France is considered to be the finest in the world. It is also a company that while having very satisfied employees, is filled with a lot of distrust of the public. They will not allow any non employee on the premises for fear of theft, unlike companies like Hershey's who encourage tours.

Chocolate

Comments-
1. For better or worse, the old style planters with a firm hand and a single minded vision are gone for good. Nothing has yet replaced them.
2. A smart planter shapes a young tree to grow from three main boughs that spread from a short trunk. Branches that extend from the tree uprights find their happiest place between light and shade.
3. pruning is essential not only to shape a tree for easy picking, but also to coax it to maximum production. Done well, it reduces competing branches so that more nutrients reach the most promising limbs. Fertilizer and pesticides might help, but both are expensive.
4. To hear the world's finest chocolatiers tell it, the Valrhona factory at Tain, Hermitage in the heart of France is an earthly equivalent of heaven.
5. From the first moment I began to poke at the edges of chocolate, the name Valrhona seemed to take an outsized place in any conversation. Soon I learned to nod sagely and listen. If you talk jewelry, you should at least pretend you know about Tiffany's. In fact it is more than that. There are other over the top-end jewelers.

Questions-
1. Was the new technology for farmers really better?
2. If the fertilizers and pesticides would help, why didn't they use them and raise the price?
3. Valrhona is considered to be the best but what chocolates was it compared to?
4. Did the author feel Valrhona was the best of all the chocolates he sampled?

Vocabulary-
1. Sage- Someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.
2. Pesticides- A chemical used to kill pests, especially insects.
3. Chocolatiers- A person or firm that makes and sells chocolate candy.

Literary Terms-
1. Setting- The setting takes place in France.
2. Exposition- It starts off with the author explaining how to farm cacao plants.

Outline-
1. Planting and caretaking of the cacao plants are a lot of hard work. Every farm uses their own special technique in how they care for them. From the planting to cutting, watering as well as fertilizing and the use of pesticides, every farmer has his own individual style resulting in different types of cacao beans, which leads to different flavors of chocolate.