Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner’s Private Collection
- ISBN13: 9780316056625
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
With gigantic vats of churning chocolate, desserts like their famous chocolate pizza, and 12 varieties of hot chocolate served in custom mugs, Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man has turned their line of hip, colorful themed restaurants into an international sensation.. Chocolate: A Love Story is a vibrant new cookbook that includes 65 original recipes narrated in the quirky, captivating voice of Max Brenner, the restaurant’s visionary founder and “bald man… More >>
Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner’s Private Collection
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When I opened this cookbook my first reaction was surprise. The recipes certainly looked delicious, but the full-color Art Deco poster graphics blew me away. I had never experienced a cookbook like this one; it was a collector’s delight. Having said that, it will also make chocolate lover’s drool, and rush to the kitchen to whip up a delectable treat. Recipes include: My lost childhood chocolate birthday cake; Politically correct Sacher torte; Intimate scones; The Belgian street waffle; and 61 others! I give this collector’s dream 5+ stars.
Rating: 5 / 5
Max really knows chocolate and how to make it oh so yummy! The 65 recipes in Chocolate: A Love Story, make your mouth water just reading the titles! The recipes are easy to follow with fairly simple ingredients you probably have lying around your home anyhow.
The book has beautiful artwork facing each recipe page by Yonathon, Max’s friend from Tel Aviv, which is awesome, but I was a little disappointed there were no photo’s showing you what the completed recipe should look like when done.
Some of my favorite recipes were the Bad Boy Chocolate Pizza and A Therapeutic Chocolate Pot Pie.
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Rating: 3 / 5
This is a large hardcover cookbook with 65 recipes, not all of them strictly dessert recipes, but all involving chocolate in some way. And like most chef inspired cookbooks there are some recipes that you can use for every day indulgence, and some that require more effort that you might want to save for special occasions.
I loved looking through this book and decided that before I could write a review I needed to test out a recipe. Believe me it was no hardship
There were so many that sounded yummilicious that I had a hard time deciding. Here are some of my favorite recipes:
* Veg-out chocolate cornflake TV wraps with lazy Brazil nuts and coconut sofa dipping sauces
* Control Freak chocolate spread with late night toasted almond splinters on a crispy munchy French brioche toast
* Parisian new life chocolate dream cake sprinkled in white powder sugar point of view
* Politically correct Sacher torte with a loyal good taste
* My lost childhood chocolate birthday cake sprinkled with shiny colorful candy tears
* A philosophical highly concentrated fudge brownie made of 70 percent dark chocolate thoughts
* A high school bonfire chocolate melting heart cake with a soft marshmallow first memory hidden inside
* Bad boy chocolate pizza with hazelnut spread, pure melted chocolate chips, and passionately roasted marshmallows
* Home industry chocolate cheese pockets filled with pears cooked in wine and made according to a cheesy chef’s recipe
* and so many more that I can’t list them all!
After much debate I decided to try the highly concentrated brownie recipe. For me there could be no better judge of the book than this recipe.
The brownies were relatively easy to make. It only took about 15-20 min to mix, about 30 min to bake, and the ingredients were not expensive. There were a couple of small drawbacks. First, it made a HUGE pan of brownies (13×18 pan) and second it recommended that you refrigerate the brownies overnight before eating to have them at their fudgiest best. You can’t bake these for 30 min, drooling at the delicious smell the whole time, then tell me I can’t try them until the next day! But I have to say they were better after being refrigerated, and a more chocolatey brownie you would be hard to find. I loved it, but friends who were not as much a chocoholic as I am thought they were too much. I say, just cut a smaller piece
I loved reading the recipes as well as the journal like musings accompanying some of these recipes. They were at times lyrical, insightful, poetic, frank and sometimes even sad. Let me give you an example:
“Night. Candles. Lots of warm yellow candles reflecting and shimmering in a shiny sauce poured over sweet desserts. Colorful alcohol served with incandescent straws, as on a tropical island. It is crowded. Everyone is handsome as movie stars in the dim light that flickers over their faces, hiding a magical intimacy behind twinkling eyes. A voluptuous smell whispers secrets that intoxicate the people. Peter Pan flies about among the guests. Adults revert to being children. The grand soiree of sweets releases inside us, as always, the most beautiful feelings.” p. 76 from the recipe Forever young white chocolate custard perfumed with lemongrass and mixed with falling-in-love sweet wine lychees
This is a cookbook that I enjoyed reading if that makes any sense. I loved the commentary that went along with the recipes, and took almost as much pleasure reading the recipes as I did consuming these confections. It has a nice variety of desserts, soups, drinks, shakes and so much more. I only wish that it would have contained more pictures, rather than the artwork. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a chocoholic, or loves to cook. I think it would be a great hostess gift, or a gift to yourself. This is a book that I think I will end up keeping for a long time.
Not convinced yet, check out the Max Brenner sweets menu from his restaurant in NYC and get a peek at some of what’s in this book.
Rating: 4.25 stars reviewed for Seductive Musings blog
Rating: 4 / 5
Yes, Max Brenner is a Chocolate God. He has amazingly crafted the diverse flavors of chocolate to create 65 decadent recipes bound in this one book. You think you know dessert pizza? Think again. Max’s Bad Boy Chocolate Pizza comes complete with a chocolate-hazelnut spread and topped with chopped marshmallows. If that did not wet your appetite, how about A High School Bonfire Chocolate Melting Heart Cake that is filled with a mixture of heavy cream, marshmallows & white chocolate. My knees are getting weak just thinking about these delicious recipes. What you will not find in this book is pictures of the recipes. This book is just as much about chocolate as it is about art, words and the intimate stories they tell. This book is seductive.
One final thought, my review would not be complete without the recognition of the artwork. What grabbed my attention among these 144 pages was the illustrations by Yonatan Factor. Page after page of pop art eye candy. I have found a new favorite artist. The pages of this book will one day be framed and hanging on my wall.
Rating: 4 / 5
Chocolate: A Love Story by Max Brenner is a chocolate-lovers paradise. The recipes included in this book are so different and decadent. How does “A philosophical highly concentrated fudge brownie” sound? Or “Lipstick banana chocolate cake bonbons”? My daughter and I made the bad boy chocolate pizza. If you think you know dessert pizza, think again. This one includes chocolate-hazelnut spread, semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and marshmallows which are the ultimate gooey roasted topping. This one was not for the faint of heart and is just the tip of the chocolate kiss when it comes to the chocolate paradise shared in this book.
Mr. Brenner has been in the chocolate biz for quite a while and is owner of Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man. He not only shares his recipes but also when and how his love for chocolate started. He also includes an introduction concerning the book’s illustrator, Yonatan. I would be amiss if I did not mention the pictures that accompany the recipes. There is a wonderful mixture of photography and art that is the perfect companion to the delectable concoctions.
Rating: 4 / 5