This was a year filled with extraordinary food and beverage adventures.  It was difficult to narrow down a “Best of the Best” list, but here are my picks for 2011:

Best Overall Coffee Experience: Roasting beans and doing a comparative tasting with Scott Miller, owner of Ogeechee River Coffee Company, Savannah, Georgia.

Best new chocolate confection chef: Chris Kollar of Kollar Chocolates in Yountville, California.  Especially love his passion fruit, coconut and peanut butter chocolates.

Best foraging adventure on a farm: La Petraia in Radda in Chianti, Italy, with owner and chef, Susan McKenna Grant.  Foraging was followed by a cooking class and lunch that featured our foraged ingredients!

Best wine harvest experience: Goosecross Cellars, Napa, California. Was such a learning experience to follow Winemaker Geoff Gorsuch during the pressing and crushing of the grapes for their Viognier wine.

Best new chocolate bar: Askinosie Chocolate, Springfield, Missouri.  I absolutely adore their new single-origin bar made with cacao beans from Honduras.

Best organic olive oil discovery: Castelas’ Biologique Olive Oil, Les Baux de Provence, France.  Grassy, aromatic, spicy and delicious.  This is a perfect finishing oil.

Best dish using brussel sprouts: Bottega Restaurant, Napa Valley, California.  Their new crispy brussel sprout salad is phenomenal.  I was upset that they took their shaved brussel sprout salad off the menu but this new salad is truly superior – so full of flavor and crunch!

Best new diner: The Fremont Diner in Sonoma, California.  Farm-to-table, Southern-inspired dishes such as BBQ pork sandwich, collard greens and housemade biscuits.

Best sugar discovery: Wasanban from Shikoku, Japan.  Wasanban is a very fine-grained sugar that is made from a thin sugar cane plant grown in Shikoku.  A friend in Japan sent it to me.  I have been using it to sprinkle on dessert crepes and cookies and to sweeten tea.  I love its delicate texture and sweet flavor.

Best affogato (gelato with a shot of espresso): Poggio in Sausalito, California.  They dress their affogatos up with slices of toasted almonds and candied orange peel.  Exquisite!

Best caramels: Jacques Genin in Paris, France.  These caramels melt in your mouth and dance on your tongue.  The flavors are rich and the texture is perfect.

Best wine education experience: Les Printemps de Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France.  Was there in April for a tasting of grenache wines from several different soil types and microclimates within the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation.

Best new artisanal salt: Jacobsen Hand-Harvested Pure Sea Salt from Netarts Bay, Oregon.  This salt has a wonderful crunch and a bright, clean flavor.  Excellent finishing salt.

Best hamburger in San Francisco: 4505 Meats, San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  Haven’t tried every hamburger in town yet, but this was my favorite of the ones that I tried this year.

Looking forward to discovering what new “Bests” 2012 will bring!

Note: Top photo taken by Oliver Seidel and Nicky Stich of deliciousdays.com.

With autumn at our door, I’m trying to savor one last moment of summer with this double chocolate ice cream with salted toasted pecans.   In this dish, I used my favorite Askinosie chocolate - made in the USA in Springfield, Missouri.  The pecans are from my hometown in Georgia.  I seasoned them with fleur-de-sel sea salt that I picked up on my last Culinary Getaway to Provence.  The combination of ingredients in this ice cream yields a dessert that is deep, rich and luscious – sweet and savory.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 ounces (by weight) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup pecans
1/4 teaspoon fleur-de-sel sea salt plus extra for garnish

You will also need:
Medium saucepan
Large spoon
Immersible blender
Baking dish
Ice cream machine

Instructions
Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium high heat until bubbles form at the sides.  Turn off the heat.  Add the cocoa powder and the chopped chocolate.  Let stand for a couple of minutes to melt the chocolate. 

Add the sugar.  Stir well. 

Use an immersible blender to fully incorporate the chocolate and sugar into the cream. 

Add the milk and the vanilla.  Stir well. 

Place the mixture into the refrigerator to completely cool.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.   Add the pecans to a baking dish and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until they start to get a toasty aroma.  Be very careful, as they burn easily.  Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Chop the pecans coarsely and add 1/4 teaspoon fleur-de-sel sea salt to the chopped pecans.  Mix well.  Divide into two portions – 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup.

Remove the cream mixture from the refrigerator and add 1/2 cup of chopped toasted salted pecans.   Reserve 1/4 cup chopped pecans for later. 

Make the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions for your ice cream machine.  Let ripen in the freezer for a few hours before serving. 

To serve, place the ice cream into festive dishes.  Top with a scattering of the reserved chopped pecans.  Sprinkle lightly with fleur-de-sel, if desired. 

Serves 4.

It is no secret that one of my favorite chocolate makers is Askinosie Chocolate, located in Springfield, Missouri.  Not only is their chocolate incredibly delicious and complex, but the company is very focused on the cacao farmers and also on helping their own community with programs such as Cocoa Honors and Chocolate University.   They have a wonderful program going on right now with 13 high school students and farmers in Liberia and in Tanzania.    

This week, Askinosie Chocolate will auction a set of five of the first single origin chocolate bars made with cocoa beans from Liberia as a fundraiser to send the high school students of Cocoa Honors to Africa in the Summer of 2010. 

The auction will be hosted on eBay and will begin on Sunday April 3 at 8 PM CST and end on Sunday April 11 at 9 PM CST. These five chocolate bars are not only the first single origin chocolate bars made with Liberian beans, but they are also the first and only chocolate bars that Askinosie Chocolate has made from those beans. This nano-batch was crafted from a one-kilo bean sample received from Lofa County,Liberia. The Liberian bar is bursting with notes of red berries and jasmine, hints of  roasted cocoa and coffee, with a long lingering earthy finish. 

All of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Cocoa Honors program, comprised of 13 students from Central High School, to travel to either Liberia or Tanzania in the Summer of 2010 with Shawn Askinosie, founder of Askinosie Chocolate. While there, the students, who have been working with Askinosie for several months on sourcing the beans and creating his next chocolate bar, will meet with their selected farmer group and perform a service project for the community.

A second auction will be held for their first chocolate bars made with cocoa beans from Tanzania.

Cocoa Honors is a program of Chocolate University. It is a neighborhood outreach of Askinosie Chocolate, consisting of a select group of students from Central High School in Springfield, Missouri USA. With the guidance of Drury University students, they seek to understand the cocoa industry within the context of the history, culture, and economy of Africa. Over 18 months the students will have a complete “bean to bar” experience by sourcing the next origin of cocoa beans with Askinosie.

Askinosie Chocolate is a small batch chocolate manufacturer sourcing 100% of their beans directly from the farmers. Shawn Askinosie travels to regions of Mexico, Ecuador, and the Philippines to work directly with the farmers and source cocoa beans for his chocolate. This allows the chocolate to be traced to the source and labeled Authentic Single Origin Chocolate. It also enables Askinosie Chocolate to profit share with the farmers, giving them a Stake In the Outcome™.

The Askinosie Chocolate mission is to serve their farmers, their neighborhood, their customers and each other; sharing the Askinosie Chocolate Experience by leaving the world a “better place than they found it”.

I am always looking for new food adventures, and I had many great ones throughout the year.  Here is a list of my top 10 food or food-related discoveries of 2009 (in no particular order):

(1) the red pepper velvet cake at Dirt Candy in NYC
(2) the skillet bacon jam from Skillet Street Food in Seattle
(3) the pechiole al tartufo (truffled wild peaches) from Conti Foods in Florence, Italy
(4) the professional cheese knife from Claudine Vigier of La Fromagerie du Comtat in Provence
(5) the amazing tasting menu and setting at La Petraia, a restored working organic farm and agriturismo in Tuscany
(6) the chilaquiles from Primavera at the Saturday morning SF Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
(7) Cibreo Restaurant in Florence, Italy
(8) The Nibble Bar from Askinosie chocolate, made in Springfield, Missouri using cacao beans from Ecuador
(9) the brussels sprout salad at Bottega Restaurant in Napa Valley
(10) three crushed dried chili peppers from Whole Spice in Oxbow Market in Napa – chili aleppo, chili marash and chili urfa

Perhaps the BEST chocolate in the world is being made by Shawn Askinosie in Springfield, Missouri.  Seriously.  It has become my absolute favorite, and I taste a LOT of chocolate.  

When starting up Askinosie Chocolate, Shawn decided to cut out the middle man and work directly with cacao growers.  This meant getting very hands-on in the bean-selection process – measuring the moisture level of the dried beans, monitoring the temperature of the fermenting beans and tasting and smelling the beans before importing them.  Working directly with the farmers allows Askinosie to pay higher than fair trade wages to the growers.  In addition, Askinosie shares 10% of his profits with the farmers. 

My favorite Askinosie chocolate is the San Jose Del Tambo with cacao nibs.  This chocolate is made with the Arriba National bean from Ecuador.  It has 70% cacao level.  This chocolate is smooth on the tongue and has a wonderful fruitiness on the palette.  I eat three squares each day and use it for taste comparisons.   I use the San Jose Del Tambo without cacao nibs for baking and have never been disappointed.  It is moist and rich and perfect for recipes that call for 70% (bittersweet) chocolate.  In addition to the smaller bars, you can buy it by the kilo – it is less expensive that way. 

Askinosie also makes chocolate from cacao beans grown in Mexico.  They have just added a new product from beans that were grown in The Philippines.  This chocolate is smooth and delicious, as well, but my preference for taste is still the San Jose Del Tambo bar.

You can find Askinosie chocolate in the Bay Area at Bittersweet in San Francisco.  I typically order mine online from the Askinosie website.  It is packaged to remain cool and arrives within a few days.

Askinosie Chocolate
514 E. Commercial Street
Springfield, Missouri  65803
417-862-9900
www.askinosie.com/

A friend of mine recently told me about Brix Chocolate, a line of chocolate that has been specially formulated to complement wines.  I was skeptical because I have never particularly liked wine and chocolate together, unless it was a port-style wine and chocolate.  I immediately went to the Brix Chocolate website and ordered a variety pack.  The chocolate comes in three varieties – milk chocolate (40% cacao), medium dark chocolate (60% cacao) and extra dark chocolate (70% cacao).  All varieties of the chocolate are formulated from cacao from Ghana. 

I tried the milk chocolate first.  It is recommended that the milk chocolate be paired with Port, Ice Wine, Rose, Pinot Noir and Burgundy.  We had some Ice Wine that was open in the refrigerator so I tried the two together.  I was quite pleasantly surprised.  The chocolate did not make the wine taste bitter or acidic at all; in fact, the combination was really good!  The next day, I tried it again with a Muscat de Beaumes de Venise.  Again, a great pairing.

It is recommended that the medium dark chocolate be paired with Zinfandel, Syrah, Rhone, Merlot or Sherry.  I tried it with a glass of 1998 Swanson Napa Valley Syrah.  Again, a good pairing.  This surprised me, as I was expecting the taste of the wine to be drastically changed by the chocolate.  Instead, I got complexity and harmony from the pairing that I did not expect. 

A couple of days later, I tried the extra dark chocolate (which is recommended for pairing with Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux or Barolo) with a glass of one of my favorite Cabernets.  I thought the pairing was okay, but I think that the tannins in the Cabernet seemed a bit sharper after the chocolate.  I am looking forward to trying the extra dark chocolate with a Barolo next for comparison.  And maybe with a Zinfandel – I think that combination might work, too. 

Yesterday, I was in the Napa Style store in Napa Valley and discovered that they carry Brix chocolate, too.  You can also order it from the Brix Chocolate website.

TCHO Chocolate is a new chocolate producer in San Francisco.  Today I stopped by their factory store and found that their version 1.0 chocolate had just been released.   It is now available to the public in the form of four different types of chocolate – TCHO 1.0 ”Nutty” Peru 65% cacao, TCHO 1.0 “Citrus” Madagascar 67% cacao, TCHO 1.0 “Fruity” Peru 68% cacao and TCHO 1.0 “Chocolatey” 70% cacao.  Note that these chocolates are not flavored with “fruit” or “citrus”.  These flavors occur as a result of the type of beans used, the conditions under which the beans were grown, and the roasting, fermentation and other processes involved in making the chocolate. 

TCHO  founders, Timothy Childs and Karl Bittong, came from the technology world.  They approached the chocolate-making process quite differently than do traditional chocolatiers.  They decided to get input from their target audience along the way.  They spent a year making various beta samples and having their ”users” test them and provide feedback.    In fact, this chocolate went through more than 1000 iterations over the past year before the 1.0 product was released! 

I have very strong opinions about chocolate and I couldn’t wait to get home to do a “taste test”.  The result – I really love the TCHO chocolates!  All four are different and delicious.  They all have a smooth texture and complex flavors.  My favorites are the “Citrus” and the “Fruity” but I would not turn down any of the four that I tried!   I also brought home a tin of their dark chocolate-coated dried mango – delicious!

Check out TCHO online or stop by their factory store in San Francisco. 

TCHO Chocolate
Website:  tcho.com/
Factory store:  Pier 17, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA

Robert Lambert makes unbelievably delicious chocolate sauces.  I first discovered these sauces at the Marin farmers market in San Rafael, California, on a Sunday morning.  I am very particular about chocolate (and other foods, as well) and I was skeptical about “yet another chocolate product” until I had a taste of the Coconut Dark Chocolate Sauce that Robert makes.  First of all, it had a deep, rich chocolate taste and texture.  Second, it had a deep, rich, natural coconut flavor.  Third, it was incredibly delicious!  I bought a jar, took it home and served it for dessert that night with a French baguette.  What a hit! 

I have since tried some of the other products that he makes – Extreme Vanilla Bean chocolate sauce, Deep Dark chocolate sauce, Four Orange chocolate sauce.   ALL delicious! 

Robert also makes exceptional marmalades, fruit preserves and fruit cakes (seriously!), utilizing recipes and memories from his Wisconsin childhood and his grandmother. 

You can see Robert in person at the Oakland farmers market on Saturdays and at the Marin farmers market on Sundays.  You can also order directly from his online store:  http://www.robertlambert.com/store/index.html .

Try the chocolate confections here with the tea-flavored ganaches inside.  The boutique is gorgeous with beautiful hardwoods and tempting displays. 

Pierre Marcolini
89 rue de Seine
Paris 75006
33 1 44 07 39 07
www.marcolini.be

One Ferry Building Plaza, #30
San Francisco, CA
415-834-9494
www.recchiuticonfections.com

I simply love the chocolate confections made by chocolatier, Michael Recchiuti. The flavors are intense and interesting. My favorite is the fleur de sel – caramel with sea salt covered in dark chocolate. It is exquisite. Their burnt caramel sauce and their homemade marshmallows are favorites, too.