A chat with Pastry Chef Ali Spahr

When I wrote my book, The Great Book of Chocolate, I got to meet — and learn from —some of the best chocolatiers in the world. One of them was Michael Recchiuti, co-founder and chocolatier of Recchiuti chocolates in San Francisco. At the time, artisan and bean-to-bar chocolates were emerging in the United States, and Michael was at the forefront, incorporating diverse ingredients, such as herbs, locally grown oranges and pears, Key limes, Hawaiian coffee, and French fleur de sel, into his sublime confections. On a recent visit to Paris, I invited Michael into my kitchen, along with his wife, Jacky, who is the co-founder and creative director of the company, to chat about chocolate, including discussing some of the differences between French and American chocolates. We also did a tasting of some of his favorite chocolates. Michael recounted how we met, which was when I was working on the first edition of The Great Book of Chocolate, and the (admittedly, extreme) lengths I was going to get the recipes right, and we’ve become friends ever since. At the time, I had never tasted chocolates like Michael’s before, which combined flavors and incorporated ingredients, such as chocolate-covered pears infused with Key lime juice and fleur de sel accenting smoky caramel. Michael enrobes Kona coffee ganache centers with dark chocolate, tarragon gets combined with grapefruit, and he embeds handmade bars of Mexican chocolate (a special chocolate made exclusively for him by Valrhona) with burnt caramelized almonds. Michael also uses the darkest milk chocolate I’ve seen in tablets of chocolate that raises the milk chocolate bar (so to speak), using milk chocolate that contains 54% cacao solids. In collaboration with San Francisco coffee roaster Linea, he melds finely ground organic coffee beans with white chocolate into an irresistible café au lait bar, reminiscent of a café latte. Michael has also been working with NASA and Astreas on a “luxurious functional truffle,” which astronauts will be taking into space, to keep them alert — and satisfy their chocolate cravings — while in the stratosphere. Here on earth, The New York Time’s Wirecutter team rated Michael’s chocolates, The Best Boxed Chocolates.

It’s Saturday morning and it’s a big day in France with strikes and major demonstrations nationwide. But everyone has to eat, so we hit the Marché d’Aligre in our neighborhood, to gather some things for the weekend. My weekend projects are Lamb tagine, Green curry, and Riz au lait (rice pudding) from my book, Ready for Dessert, for a recipe that I’ll be sharing here in the newsletter shortly. The lamb tagine is from my book, My Paris Kitchen and the North African butcher was so happy that I was making a tagine, he gave me a bouquet of fresh mint to make tea with, to drink afterwards. We also picked up persimmons, avocados, speck, shallots, Japanese eggplant, and Romain’s favorite cheese! (Well, one of them 😄 …) -David

I was thrilled when Sami Tamimi told me he was coming to Paris. Sami recently released his third book, Boustany: A celebration of vegetables from my Palestine, so I invited him into my kitchen to make a recipe from it with me. And the weather was so nice, we decided to prepare it outside. Sami is the co-founder of the Ottolenghi restaurants and delis, and the author of Falastin, one of my favorite cookbooks, which explores his Palestinian heritage through stories and recipes from his homeland. Boustany focuses ore squarely on the vegetable dishes of Palestine. Sami’s book features a bounty of recipes that focus on vegetables, such as salads like the Fridge-raid fattoush, and there are beautifully verdant Gazan fava bean falafels. I’ve never made falafels, but his recipe and the gorgeous photo that accompanies it make me want to. Other recipes that I’ve bookmarked are the spicy Shatta condiment, Bulghur wheat dumplings & lentil soup, and Ouzi phyllo parcels, which are individual dishes filled with rice, orzo, vegetables, nuts, and spices. Where does chocolate fit in? Well, like tomatoes and squash (which are lavishly featured in the book), chocolate is also technically a fruit. And besides, who doesn’t love chocolate? Since I’ve been in the chocolate mode, thanks to The Great Book of Chocolate coming out, I was glad Sami was up for doing some baking and showed up ready to make his Tahini, Halvah, and Coffee Brownies. Subscribe to my newsletter and get videos, recipes, Paris tips, and more, sent right to your Inbox!

A highlight of writing Drinking French was getting to meet, and highlight, some of my favorite creative people in Paris, and in France, who are part of the cocktail scene, which has rapidly expanded over the years, turning Paris into one of the world’s most exciting cocktail destinations. Franck was one of the heroes in Drinking French, and as you can see in the video, there are more pictures of him in my book…than of me. After working in an art gallery in Paris, Franck went on to work at the highly celebrated restaurant, Le Châteaubriand, where chef Inaki Aizpitarte was invigorating, and shaking up, the world of French cuisine. Franck saw how the world of cocktails was changing outside of France, and decided to delve into cocktails as well, creating cocktails that leaned into French spirits and ingredients. Subscribe to my newsletter to get videos, recipes, Paris tips, and more, sent right to your Inbox!

Places mentioned in the video where I shopped: Miyam, Terroirs de Avenir, Pari Local and Leonie bakery…