Customer Reviews

The Chocolate Connoisseur: For Everyone With a Passion for Chocolate

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a life-long chocophile, I have immersed myself (not literally, as someone in this book has!) in the enjoyment of chocolate. Naturally, I am interested in almost everything that has to do with the subject. Chloe Doutre-Roussel's book is a great place to start if you don't know about the different plantations, chocolate history, and her.
I found the book self-serving and a bit disingenuous. She does love talking about Chloe, and, she gives the impression she can eat a pound of chocolate daily and stay quite thin. Only at the end of the book does she tell you that she's exercising a minimum of two hours a day (swims an hour, does power yoga, and walks briskly).
I am not putting her down for her regimen, as that would be hypocritical. I enjoy chocolate and everything else I want to eat guiltlessly because I also love yoga and walking.
Chloe neglects to mention, let alone discuss, the history of slavery in the annals of chocolate lore; nor, does she even alight upon the current situations on the Ivory Coast, where child labor and terrible working conditions still exisit. I found this a huge omission.
Yes, fair trade chocolate may not rival Domori's line, but what about the good karma that comes from knowing no one was hurt producing it for your enjoyment? As she is someone with a great deal of power in the chocolate industry I was sad to see that she gave short shrift to this enormous aspect of the business.
She also omitted chocosphere.com as one of the great resources we have for buying our little delights in the US.
On the other hand, there were a number of things I really enjoyed about this book: *the health benefits of chocolate (not new, but concise)
*how to host a chocolate tasting (though I would include a bit in the beginning where everyone gets to speak about their own chocolate history)
*the art of tasting chocolate (this is also a bit of micro-management, but, then, I can enjoy a glass of wine without parsing out its merits)
*educating you about trends in the industry, the difference between beans, the finest producers
*and, most of all, raising the general awareness of excellent chocolate.
This is a good book for the novice who's developing a passion for more esoteric chocolates, and wants a basic course that's quick and easy to absorb.

The Chocolate Connoisseur takes the cake as the worst book I have ever read.

I am a cocoa trader and chocolate manufacturer, with a background in agricultural science. As such, I know a lot about cocoa trees, cocoa beans, and all things chocolate.

I am appalled by the amount, and magnitude, of misinformation in The Chocolate Connoisseur.

For starters, the author lies about her qualifications: contrary to what she writes in her book, Chloe Doutre-Roussel has never worked as an agronomist for the UN. In fact, she has never worked as a professional agronomist at all.

So what if the author lies about being an experienced agronomist? The problem is that she provides very dubious agronomic advice throughout her book. (Doutre-Roussel has an irrational infatuation with fragile, inbred cocoa trees. If her advice - to replace robust cocoa trees with inbred ones - was acted upon, she could one day become famous as the person who destroyed the chocolate industry).

Moving on from agronomy: The Chocolate Connoisseur contains dozens of factual errors about cocoa harvesting, processing, and manufacturing.

Also, The Chocolate Connoisseur's bibliography and referencing is a joke. (The bibliography contains just seven items - or eight, if you count the book by Jancis Robinson that is listed twice. And not a single one of the "scientific studies" Doutre-Roussel alludes to throughout the book is referenced).

To add insult to injury, the book is riddled with spelling mistakes (I counted eleven).

Doutre-Roussel is renowned for her "unbelievable" tasting abilities. Her abilities are, literally, unbelievable. For instance, she thinks that she can smell sucrose (which is actually an odorless substance). She also believes in the so-called "tongue map" (which taste experts have long dismissed as a myth).

In her acknowledgements, the author declares that chocolate is her best friend. Why am I not surprised that Chloe Doutre-Roussel's best friend is an inanimate object?

I read this book when it first came out. I had anxiously pre-ordered with Amazon. The book was not to disappoint!

Although a lot of information is covered in The Chocolate Connoisseur, she can only skim the surface as all things chocolate would take up many volumes. As a fellow chocolatier and writer, I can say that this is an excellent book to start yourself on the journey of chocolate. It's quite simple to read and basically leads you by the hand.

I really enjoyed that she shared this book from her experience and her knowledge from being a chocolate buyer. You feel as though she is in the room with you while you're reading. Many pages in my book have been dogeared and referred to time and time again.

Buy this book if you are just starting out on your own chocolate journey!

Chloe-Doutre-Roussel is a fantastic saleswoman for top quality chocolate. This short book is easy to read and gives the basics of what happens from cacao tree to bar. It also sets out helpful tips on how to improve your chocolate tasting skills and what to look for in quality chocolate. I read the book on first publication 3 years ago and it inspired me to undertake much more detailed research into cacao and chocolate. While some of Chloe's facts may need to be taken with a pinch of salt, her sheer enthusiasm (occasionally becoming perhaps a bit gushy) for the subject is infectious!

I adore this book. At the core of The Chocolate Connoisseur is a true passion for the subject and a completely selfless wish to share it. It tells the history of chocolate as well as the science behind it in a way that is compelling and interesting. But its strongest point is Chloe's encouragement to form your own opinion and deepen to your appreciation and pleasure - great life lessons indeed. That's what food writing is all about.

I read other posted reviews of this book, then checked it out of the library. Far from being "autistic" on any level, the author is (as she admits, herself) lovingly obssessed with chocolate. She refers to herself and her own experiences only to provide the reader with a frame of reference.

This book is a terrific introduction to the world of premium chocolate, especially the richer, higher-cocoa-percentage chocolates now appearing in better stores. While I would've liked more references to external sources concerning the history and current status of chocolate, to support her facts, I found this book extremely useful for preparing a small seminar on chocolate and chocolate tasting. I highly recommend the book.

I really enjoyed this book.
Ms. Doutre-Roussel has a light-hearted style of writing that made this book an easy read. At the same time, she drew me in from being moderately interested in premium chocolate to being seriously interested. Sure, it doesn't have every possible detail of the history or manufacturing or other topics within the world of chocolate - but this book wasn't meant to be exhaustive.
She assumes the reader is not an experienced chocolate lover, and therefore does a good job of explaining many things simply. I appreciated the diagrams of tasting, the handful of recipes, the simple timelines of chocolate history, and more.
This book is an excellent stepping stone for a budding chocolate conoisseur and probably just right for the person moderately interested in chocolate.
Ms. Doutre-Roussel also clearly states her opinions about the kinds of chocolate that she adores and the "chocolates" she doesn't. She repeatedly emphasizes the point that you have to discover your own opinions about chocolate. I found it easy to not be offended or turned off by how she grew up, how much chocolate she eats in a day, and other more personal items. Rather, I just read the book for what it is meant to be - an enjoyable education.

Well done!

Found this fun book a few days ago and am enjoying it for what it is: A somewhat informative writing on chocolate. After reading some of the earlier reviews I'm amazed! God forbid an expert in the field actually lets down their hair and tells you their opinion on something. Obviously, the author's early upbringing of privilege hit a nerve with some, and her statements about mass market chocolate pretty much being "crap" is offensive to others. I share this view about sub-standard chocolate and personally feel that most Americans have been trained to covet processed excrement. Take the book for what it is and chill out with the fanaticism.

I really enjoyed this book! My husband and I switched to a low carb diet in the fall of 2009 and cut out sweets. This book helped guide me through the world of super dark high quality chocolate, and now I can enjoy even 100% dark chocolate if it's well made. The book is well written and I found the author's passion for chocolate to be delightful. It includes the history of chocolate, how to find good chocolate, how to taste it and how to create your own "chocolate profile."

is the title a joke that i haven't been let in on? this book is an ego trip and very little else. if you are looking for history, gastronomy, or any other useful info or writing about chocolate, go somewhere else (try sophie coe, chantal coady, maricel presilla, mort rosenblum and others).