“Life is short. Eat dessert first!”
That’s a motto we all can live by, especially if that dessert has anything to do with chocolate!
Chocolate chip cookies, hot chocolate, chocolate bars; it doesn’t matter. Even more so if that chocolate is from Master Pastry Chef and Chocolatier Jacques Torres, aka Mr. Chocolate.
In honor of our new Chocolate Tour starting on Monday, September 12th, we’d like to help you get to know the amazing chocolatiers and chocolate shops where we’ll be stopping on the tour!
So let’s start with the first stop on our tour: Jacques Torres Chocolates!
Imagine this:
The richest, most mouthwatering chocolate you’ve ever had, but it’s actually good for you! That’s what Jacques Torres promises and delivers. Every bite uses REAL ingredients, never any preservatives or essential flavoring oils.
“Real is my promise to you” – Jacques Torres
All the chocolate is made in Brooklyn too. It’s produced in a 40,000k square foot space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
And Mr. Chocolate has a personality that will make you fall in love with him:
“In 1980, on a dare from a girlfriend, 20-year-old Jacques Torres marched into the palatial Hotel Negresco in Nice to ask the imperious chef Jacques Maximin for a job. The concierge booted him out, so Torres sneaked into the kitchen through a back door. Maximin told him to return in one hour with a chef’s coat.” They worked together for 8 years.
It’s clear why we made Jacques Torres DUMBO a stop on our Brooklyn Chocolate Tour!
A few more fun facts about Jacques Torres Mister Chocolate:
Mr. Torres was raised in France and opened his first shop in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn in the year 2000. He now has 9 stores.
He even married a chocolatier, Hasty Khoei, who once said, “Chocolate runs through my veins.”
Jacques Torres earned the prestigious title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1986. He was the youngest chef to earn the distinction.
In 1993, Torres became a member of The French Culinary Institute’s faculty and later became the school’s Dean of Pastry Arts.
He worked at world famous Le Cirque for ten years.
A far as TV and books go, Torres created a 52-episode public television series called Dessert Circus with Jacques Torres. He has written three cookbooks and hosted a three-year Food Network series called Chocolate with Jacques Torres.
Clever Marketing
“One Valentine’s Day, I made big chocolate lollipops on dowels with the word Love on them. They were cute, but nobody was buying. So I told someone on my staff to reopen them and write Spank Me! on the other side. We sold so many that we emptied four Home Depots of their dowels.” – Mr. Chocolate
