Science is delicious at the Chocolate Lab

Here we are, ready and excited to check out this thriving Dogpatch hotspot ChocolateLab. Come on!

In case this is the first post you're reading from us, just fyi, we Love chocolate. Tea Time Adventures has been enjoying Recchiuti Confections for several years. In fact, Michael Recchiuti was nice enough to sign one of JK's cookbooks that she dropped off at Fog City News after he had to cancel a signing at the last minute. This cafe is his newest venture, and boy does it hit the spot. It doesn't matter if you're looking for a quiet cafe, hip eatery or amazing desserts, this resto has it all. It was definitely worth taking the time to catch the MUNI T from downtown and wandering off our well-trodden pathways.

"Welcome to our Lab," she said.

This resto is a bright clean space.

The open kitchen lets you see the masters work.

Angela ordered a housemade lemonade which was perfectly balanced with a touch of sweetness to off set the tartness of the citrus. We perused the menu for a bit and spied on the plates and bowls remaining on the community table that a group of women were chatting over as they finished dining. Finally we settled on the Cheese Plate, with blue cheese (the best Angela has had in a while!), brie and a gouda, in addition to pickled veggies, local honey and caramelized seeds, with toast points and fig bread as cheese conveyors. We also chose the Bay Shrimp Tartine, which is a shrimp salad made with creme fraiche on top of toast with salad greens and more pickled veg on the side. These two items were ample portions for sharing and let us save some room for dessert. We speculated about what to get, the Brownie a la mode winning out over their Ice-Cream Sundae due to it's 'brownie' points. When it arrived the waitress poured the Extra-Bitter Chocolate Sauce over the fudgy brownie and vanilla ice cream. It was delicious end to a great lunch.

I'm ready for my lemonade infusion Doctor.

Bay Shrimp Tartine with Pickled Veg.
A salad of bay shrimp, tarragon, and creme fraiche, atop a bed of delicate salad greens.

Blue, Gouda and Brie cheese were the focus of this plate. Delish.

Up close and personal with our lunch.

Brownie Sundae Dessert with Bitter Chocolate Sauce.

If we can be so bold, we'd like to suggest that Chef Recchiuti hop on the Afternoon Tea bandwagon. Tea Time thinks this cafe would be a perfect place to enjoy a prix fixe  seasonal tea. Featuring bay shrimp and ham sandwiches? We're certain they have some tasty scone recipes up their sleeves... Meanwhile, if you're looking for someplace to hang on Valentine's Day, or any day you want to have a special dessert, head out to the Dogpatch, cause Recchiuti's got the cure for your ills at the ChocolateLab!

Located in a historic building.

Thanks for a great lunch!

UPDATE

We had such a good time at Chocolate Lab that we made second trek to Dogpatch, with our friend Stephanie, for another lunch. Of course we had to start with the delicious cheese plate which featured different cheeses from the last visit. Gouda, Brie and a white goat cheese in olive oil, along with pickled veg, and caramelized garlic bulbs.

Three imported & local selections served with house-made crackers,
toasted bread, fig bread, house-made condiments, roasted garlic bulb 

 After Stephanie was startled by the appearance of a rubber band on her fork (it must have been around our soft goat cheese with olive oil), our server brought us a fourth cheese to make up for the experience.

Angela chose the soup for her main course, a kale and green veg blend with lentils hidden at the bottom of the plate/bowl. It was perfect to combat the chill weather outside, light and savory.

Soups made with farm to table fresh herbs and seasonal vegetables.
Weekly non-vegetarian made with 100% grass fed & pasture raised meats available

 J.K. decided on the Frittata Tartine.

Farmer's Market Vegetable frittata with house-made vegetable spread or sauce.
Topped with Parmesan, farm fresh micro-greens

 Stephanie had the Bay Shrimp Tartine (see original post) and carrot cake for dessert.

MIlk Chocolate Mousse between two layers of carrot cake,
with white chocolate frosting and caramelized pecans.
Served with butterscotch custard creme, yum!

While Angela and J.K. shared the famous Chocolate Lab Cake. We give you two views in order to appreciate the thought and food styling that goes into making this dessert work!

Devil's food cake, surrounded by a 65% semisweet chocolate wrap,
 with cacao nib infused foam, and caramelized cacao nibs,
in a sea of coffee creme anglaise

Fancy Food Show-NASFT

I've been having a lot of trouble with library DVDs lately. They would just display “skipping damaged parts” for a while, then eject. Or would fail to start the DVD player at all and eject themselves. Cleaning the disks didn't help. The internet wasn't much help. There is advice to clean the slot drive with a business card wrapped in a lens-cleaning cloth. That scares me. The sales associate at Target assured me that the non-brush slot drive cleaner that Maxell advertises doesn't exist. (?!) Then I accidentally discovered that I wasn't pressing hard enough on the disk with the DVD/lens cleaning cloth. Latest DVD (Thurgood) went from not engaging the drive to playing perfectly. Problem solved. I hope. So, I was very happy when two exhibitors at the Fancy Food Show presented me with lens cleaning cloths soon after I entered the north hall. I was hoping that this meant lens cleaning cloths were the new trinket of choice, especially since I promptly lost one of them. Alas, this was not the case. All the press kits were on flash drives (the one from Walker's Shortbread looks like a little cookie and the one from the Republic of Tea has a wood-grain pattern), but there wasn't another lens-cleaning cloth at the show. There were several silicone bracelets being offered, but those are so over. Nobody is even wearing the Lance Armstrong wristband, which started the whole fad, any more.

Okay. Will Gordon moment is over. The Fancy Food Show is a surreal experience. After receiving a couple of samples outside from vendors who couldn't afford to be exhibitors, I entered the halls. Both halls at Moscone—north and south—were packed with aisle after aisle of exhibitors. I was walking past booth after booth of Japanese treats when I suddenly found my self in a chocolate section, in front of the Scharffen Berger booth. What a juxtaposition! And no matter how many times I walked an aisle, there was always something new that I had previously missed.

Everyone is incredibly generous with food samples. Even the Hudson Valley Foie Gras people pretended not to notice how much of their product I scarfed down. After an hour of little nibbles, I was stuffed, and looking for little packets of things I could take home with me and think about later. I kept thinking I could take one bite and discard the rest of each sample, but really, it was all so good that I was quickly looking at an empty plate. Or empty cracker. I have a limited capacity, so I didn't want to fill up on crackers, even though most of them were premium crackers.

Something that really surprised me was food sales at Cafe Savor inside the show. I don't know how anyone could want a meal after being plied with all those samples of excellent treats. Carlene and Rich LeFevre, frequent winners on the competitive eating circuit, often go for dessert after a competition, but they're the only competitive eaters who are still hungry after a competition. And you would have to be a competitive eater to to sample all the tasty treats offered at this show.

Another surprise was that the plastic bags provided for those who didn't have a tote bag for all the literature offered by the exhibitors weren't immediately snapped up by San Francisco residents who have to pay ten cents per bag, none of which are plastic, as plastic is politically incorrect and not allowed.

International Glacé, Inc., which unfortunately is wholesale only, has the quality of crystalized ginger that Trader Joe's used to have. They are willing to sell to individuals, but unfortunately the minimum order for crystalized ginger is 44 pounds. Their equally amazing glacé fruits have have a 20 pound minimum, though.

Sukhi's Street Food Cart gave me a little combination plate that was a meal in itself.

And for dessert, a 9-second microwave s'more from Shakespeare Chocolate, which sells a kit for making these.

This is a sculpture commissioned by Redwood Hill Farm to celebrate its 45th anniversary year. Created by Sarah Nep from 80 pounds (!) of the company's delicious Goat Milk Cheddar Cheese, this sculpture is very impressive.

JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, featured several demonstrations. This one is a mentaiko caviar canape. After watching the chef assemble these, everybody watching was treated to one.

Le Chef Bakery had the best-looking booth at the show!

Brand Castle makes adorable baking kits that will delight the children in your life. I asked for a flyer, so I could show the Cookie Cutter Collectors the product range, and it came with this adorable ninja cookie cutter attached.

   

Tea. Many brands of high quality tea, all vying for your attention.

Pistachios. Many brands of premium nuts, especially pistachios, which seem to be the latest thing. Have you seen this SuperBowl ad? Pistachios are certainly a lot more attractive now that the manufacturers have stopped dying them.

Walker's Shortbread. Made from butter, sugar, flour and salt. And nothing else, except occasional inclusions like chocolate chips.

Kitchen Table Bakers. This outfit makes cracker-like crisps entirely out of cheese. Well, some of them have flavorings, but no flour, sugar, etc. So they can be eaten by themselves or used for a cheese-on-cheese experience. Or layered with anything you might serve with cheese. And perfect for the low-carb diet.

Maple Bacon Lollypops from Melville Candy Company

The show wasn't all about food, though. 

Relm West Labels & Packaging demonstrated their packaging by providing packaged treats.

And Thermosafe was there with several sizes of PolarPack, a blue ice-type product that stays frozen longer than anything else I've tried and works better than dry ice for shipping perishables. There was a large display of insulated carriers that would be good for caterers, containers for many different kinds of food and drink, and fancy tins that were custom made for various products.

Trinkets!

Ethel M.-your new grandma

While I was visiting Las Vegas we did a few fun things. One of them was to venture through the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Tour (and then wander through the Botanical Cactus Garden). I had not heard of Ethel M. chocolates and I had no clue that there was a person -a Chocolatier!- behind the  Mars Corporation. (It certainly makes sense, but Mars today is such a conglomeration of products that I could never think of it as a "mom and pop" business--just stockbroker overload.)

*In 1981, Forrest Mars Sr, retired to Henderson, Nevada and created Ethel M.® Chocolates to honor his mother. This line of gourmet chocolate candies reminded him of how he learned about quality chocolate making. No Preservatives: Ethel M.® Chocolates contain no preservatives and are therefore perishable. Ethel M.® Chocolate treats are made to be enjoyed right away, so you can taste the quality.

The factory tour is self guided, meaning you walk down a long hallway and look through huge windows into the chocolate factory. As tours go, it was actually a pretty great space. Not quite the tiny close-up thrills of the original Oakland Schaffenberger tour, or the hands on farm to table approach you get at Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory. However, you can stand as long as you want with your nose pressed against the glass watching people make chocolate and candy. We seemed to have arrived at lunch time, but things picked up later on after we had visited the chocolate shop and returned to the viewing hall. They fixed a problem in one system, and then we watched several men talk about one of the antique copper kettles for a while. Pretty neat if you like factories and chocolate!

Worker bees are off at lunch.

Info cards tell about the machines you see in the factory.

Handy overhead signs help guide you along.

A Chocolatier gets the machine fixed.

Wooot! Back from lunch, back to work.

Is it ready?

Let's make some chocolate bars people!

Why do they need a siren? Chocolate Disco Night!!

That's ready to wrap.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make me a chocolate Match!

In the hallway, opposite the windows to the factory, there are is a montage of photos and historical information about the company. This space features the companies background and ethics as well as how they relate to the cacoa growers and environment. There are several TV's that also provide info along the route as well.

They don't just create chocolate here, they make electricity!

No one can frown when they work with Chocolate all day.

A little background media about the company founder.

Can't argue with that quote!

M & M World is actually at the entrance to the Ethel M factory. The only thing missing from this store is the opportunity to write your own words on the m&ms. Otherwise they have every color from the extended rainbow, plus lots of chotchkies with the logo on them.

M & M WORLD awaits.

Taste the Rainbow. Oops! Wait, they don't melt, that's it.

The green lady.

Once you get into the Ethel M. chocolate gift shop at the 'end' of the tour, you'll find a plenty of treats to take home. In fact if you're looking for Las Vegas souvenirs, this is the tastiest spot. You can buy prepackaged favorites, or create your own box from their counters that feature everything made in the factory. At the time we visited they also had a deal for customers who use social media (specifically twitter and facebook).

Yes! Please do...

Premade boxes of factory favorites are available.

We chose to make our own box to go.

Hey, bring me something good.

A wide variety of goodies in the shop.

Lovely store presentation.

Finally, we had to stop and enjoy the cactus garden. The grounds keepers were taking down/off all the Christmas lights while we wandered and marveled at the landscaping. Here are some of the photos I liked best from the array we took that day. If you get the chance to visit Ethel M in Las Vegas, make sure to give yourself a few hours. It's not a big factory, but when you include the chance to walk in the garden and munch on chocolate, it's a great retreat from the hustle and bustle of the Strip. Enjoy!

*from the website of Ethel M.