Norman Love Confections

Top 10 Chocolatiers In North America

Yesterday was a great event held at ICE in New York City (Institute of Culinary Education) Big sponsor was Cacao Barry and hosted with Dessert Professional Magazine. This event showcased the top 10 chocolatiers in North America. The chocolates were so unique coming from all other the country hand made by each chocolatier.

Just to highlight a couple from the night, Oliver Kita was revealing a new experimental chocolate he had put together that had seaweed on top of the chocolate. It was a take on the salty and sweet combinations that are very popular with chocolate. This version was a little healthier and the saltiness was a little more mellow. Anette Righi DeFendi had a great spread of chocolate reminiscing for Valentine’s Day! The chocolates were beautiful and jewel shaped. Her signature chocolate of the night was her chocolate turtle that consists of chocolate, caramel, and pecans. Simple but the flavor really jumped out. Santosh Tiptur’s chocolate table had an amazing presentation. The tiers of chocolate and the vessels he served them in were almost too good to touch. His popular chocolate of the night was his chocolate parfait that was layered with chocolate mousse, cake, caramel, and chocolate balls on top. The last to arrive but stole the show was the ever popular chocolatier from Savannah, Georgia Adam Turoni. His featured chocolate of the night was a creme brulee bite sized treat. He was blow torching the chocolate as it was served. It had the perfect crystallized crunchy exterior and the inside just melted with chocolate. Norman Love was the first inductee of the chocolatier hall of fame that night as well.

Norman Love and Johnny Iuzzini

Norman Love and Johnny Iuzzini

List of top 10:

Susanna Yoon- Stick With Me
Adam Turoni- Chocolat By Adam Turoni
Christophe Toury- Voila Chocolat
Santosh Tiptur- Co Co Sala
Daniel Sklaar- Fine & Raw
Slawomir Piot Korczak- Polska European Bakery & Chocolate
Oliver Kita- Oliver Kita Chocolates
Elaine Hsieh & Catherine Sweeney- EHChocolatier
Anette Righi DeFendi- Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates
Michael Antonorsi- Chuao Chocolatier

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Dessert Professional 22nd Annual Top 10 Pastry Chefs In America

Last night was a great event by Dessert Professional with big name sponsors such as Kitchen Aid. The event was held at La Venue on W. 28th Street. The event honored the top 10 pastry chefs in America! You can imagine how many amazing sweets there was to try. It was great to see pastry chef Jimmy Leclerc of Laduree USA showing off his amazing macaroons. Also among the group was Lisa Bailey of D Bar in Denver/San Diego, Miroslav Uskokovic of Gramercy Tavern in New York, and William Werner of Craftsman & Wolves in San Fransisco. All the winners served amazing sweets so I certainly had to pace myself going from table to table.

Here is the list of winners:

Lisa Bailey- D Bar

Michelle Gayer- Salty Tart

Jimmy Leclerc- Laduree USA

Salvatore Martone- Atelier Joel Robuchon

Maura Metheny- Norman Love Confections

Thomas Raquel- Le Bernardin

Thiago Silva- EMM Group

Miroslav Uskokovic- Gramercy Tavern

William Werner- Craftsman & Wolves

Zac Young- David Burke Group