Kerry Beal

Oh my god I love it! He really did have a wonderful support team behind him - cowbells were constantly ringing out when anything he did was noticed. He seems a genuinely nice guy. My guys with EZtempers were 2 and 6. Let me see if I can get a few pictures posted this morning that I haven't had time to before. (they might have made it to Instagram I must confess) Here is Vincent Vallee checking out the EZtemper on the workbench of Florent Cheveau. Torr Stubbe had his tucked under the bench. Day 1 of the competition we have Florent using one of the EZtempers provided for all the candidates to use. He used it to temper his chocolate then to stabilize the ganache for his Or Noir piece. And here we have Jérôme Landrieu showing the EZtemper to a jury member and another Cacao Barry Ambassador

Maybe it was a silkie.

Indeed it is!

A little dessert at une Glacé a Paris - now in line again

Lunch -

It is indeed!

Starting our day back in civies - here plus Mora and Deco Relief. @Alleguede is carrying 12 kg of powdered stuff. Hiked over to the shop of Cedric Grolet - now we wait in line.

Sorry - crazy day yesterday - collapsed into bed when we got home. Dinner last night after the gala (not great food - all fish as far as I could determine) was at the Big Fernand - where you can get a rare burger.

Another anxiety provoking day today at the WCM - poor fellow I was feeling sorry for after yesterday had an even rougher day today. You could see the spirit just go out of him after the first of three tasks this morning. In better news - the two EZtemper owners of the group both made it among the 10 finalists that will compete tomorrow. Dinner tonight at Boulom - a French 'all you can eat' place. Who should we run into there but our Chicago Cacaobarry connection - the one who had arranged our cocoa butter and chocolate which turned out to be a container of cacao mass and several American chocolatiers who were being brought to enjoy the Salon. So you start at the front entrance where a delightful hostess cuts you several kinds of bread for your basket - then leads you back to the seating area where you find an embarrassment of traditional French foods to chose from (read gorge on). rillettes are brought to the table to accompany croutons some salads Some crustaceans and molluscs cut your own Bayonne ham . carpaccio like dish with pomegranate seeds Deviled eggs the terrines the hots There was a cheese board with some ossu iraty that I would have enjoyed - but I was too replete after dinner and dessert (not shown)

Interesting - didn’t realize you could vote. I nearly cried yesterday for the fellow who’s truck fell off the piece while he was assembling and the other fellow who was struggling to finish on time,

Wow! Didn’t see that

I’m happy to help as well via PM - while @gfron1 can field business questions better than I, technical Chocolate questions I am good with. PMing us both in copy will likely get answers.

Dinner much better - a Breton creperie sweet cider @Alleguede‘s second - notice the cream on the plate and the missing cream from my plate

Sad lunch at venue - getting pecking by 2:30 - so cold we warmed it up with hairdryer

Try the Belcolade Vietnam Lait

Judges gotta judge

Took a couple of tries to get the name right on the sign - in the process we apparently became American.

We had to be in very early this morning to make sure our machines were as they should be at the World Chocolate Masters. Sadly that meant grabbing breakfast a little later out on the street. We have done better.

Tarte tatin - caramel sadly taken a hit past the point of no return!

We both had linguini - I went for pork filet, @Alleguede the ribs. They brought spaghetti squash.

@jmacnaughtan dropped around to the show this evening for the opening events. Before he left he recommended this fairly close by restaurant for our dinner. Origins - 14. She stopped by the table with a bread basket, a terrine and pickled cauliflower!

But I don’t know Living in America!

The view from our AirBnB

I recall it was good coming back though!

Yes - Rodney has some - said it sucked!