Chocolatier

Before I jump into my next vocational venture, I must start with this side-note. I got into a cooking frenzy today (it's called avoiding schoolwork) and now I have chocolate chip pumpkin bread and chipotle lentil soup going at the same time. My house smells.. interesting. It's kind of disgusting, to be honest. I firmly believe that they will both turn out superbly. I also firmly believe that I will not serve them together.

My dream job of today is to be a chocolatier. The movie in my head has me tromping around the rainforests of south america, finding the perfect cocoa bean suppliers and improving peoples' lives dramatically by discovering their cocoa crops and helping these small farmers succeed. Then I see myself in my spotless, Spanish colonial chocolate kitchen crafting artistic masterpieces that critics will rave as 'sinfully divine'- wrap your head around that one! Aaahhh. What a great life.

I tried my hand at chocolatiering last summer (2009). It was an interesting, inspiring, and frustrating journey. And by journey, I mean that I made maybe 2 different batches chocolates. I made lemon ganache truffles and chocolate covered caramels. Yes I made the ganache and caramels by hand, thank you very much. Both chocolates TASTED good but chocolate is tremendously fussy and it never quite set up like I wanted it to. Oh, add expensive to the list of adjectives that describe my chocolatiering journey. Once you start buying things like candy thermometers, dipping forks, vanilla beans and Scharffen Berger chocolate, it really starts to add up. So if anyone has loads of money and would like to send me to culinary school to learn what the heck I'm doing, buy all of my equipment and ingredients, and fund my expeditions to South America, please respond in the comments section. :)