Chocdoc - off to meet the chocolatiers of Utah

[Kerry Beal]

Chocolot has invited me to her home in Utah - and has arranged for me to meet just about every chocolatier in Utah! They will run the gamut from mom and pop candy makers to bean to bar manufacturers.  

 

Our days are packed - and to add to the fun our evenings as well. A bunch of folks from the eG Chocolate and Confectionery workshops will be visiting too - so Chocolot's poor hubby might decide he wants to go out and sleep in the hanger!

 

It appears that there is no business class lounge in this terminal that I have access to - so arriving early at the airport was an unnecessary rush. I got home from my overnight shift at a little after 9 am - the pickup was waiting for me 10 minutes later, no traffic - so here I am cooling my heels. 

 

 

Opted for a breakfast burrito from the closest vendor - "Nobel Burger Bar" - I've had worse. 

[ElainaA]

Please keep us all posted on your trip! Candymaking was one of the first books I used when I started playing around with candy making MANY years ago. If I don't make Amy's Toffee every year for Christmas my sister-in-law would stop talking to me. 

[Shelby]

YAY!

[pastrygirl]

How fun!  I always love to see what other chocolatiers are doing and how they set up their work spaces, and what toys they have that I need.

[Deryn]

Oh goodie ... another amazing adventure to watch vicariously through the eyes and typing fingers of some of our most outstanding eGulleters!

Have a wonderful and safe trip, Kerry. Thanks for starting this thread - and thanks to Chocolot for organizing what sounds to be a great gathering of the chocolate clan.

I will be looking forward to hearing about everything.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[Darienne]

Hooray for you.  Off to meet Chocolot, whom I almost met several years ago, and to stay in her abode.  Lucky you.  And in Utah.  Home of my favourite place on earth, besides my own farm home, Moab of the red rocks, blue sky and constant sun. 

 

Do say hello for me  and have a good and safe travel and time in place. 

[Kerry Beal]

First leg of my flight was to Detroit. I enjoyed a couple of glasses of tomato juice and a bag of chips.

 

 

 

Second leg was from Detroit to Salt Lake City - 3 and a half hours - so there was time to feed us. 

 

 

Decided to have a G&T with lime. 

 

 

Asian beef salad - other choice was chicken enchilada. Interestingly on the side was a little pile of hummus - not particularly asian flavoured either. 

[Kerry Beal]

After my pickup at the airport we went to Shanghai Cafe (pretty sure that was the name) - one guy doing all the cooking - 

 

 

Coconut shrimp - amazingly tender. 

 

 

Scallion pancake.

 

 

Pot stickers.

 

 

Mapo dofu 

 

 

Pork belly.

 

 

Fat noodles. 

 

 

Stir fried green beans with pork.

 

 

The other dumplings the name of which escape me.

 

 

Salt cooked pork chops - the name intrigued me - and they were excellent. 

[Kerry Beal]

Then we headed home - got a tour of Chocolot's chocolate room(s) - and sampled some experiments that Ruth, Willow, Gaylene and Romina had been playing with yesterday. 

 

 

 

[Chocolot]

After my pickup at the airport we went to Shanghai Cafe (pretty sure that was the name) - one guy doing all the cooking - 

 

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Coconut shrimp - amazingly tender. 

 

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Scallion pancake.

 

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Pot stickers.

 

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Mapo dofu 

 

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Pork belly.

 

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Fat noodles. 

 

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Stir fried green beans with pork.

 

DSCN6052.jpg

 

The other dumplings the name of which escape me.

 

DSCN6053.jpg

 

Salt cooked pork chops - the name intrigued me - and they were excellent. 

 

Name is Boba World, but it is Shanghai cuisine:)

[Anna N]

If your first meal is any indication I am going to spend my time being extremely jealous of your whole trip! The scallion pancakes and the salt cooked pork chops are especially enticing.

Edited to fix a couple of typos.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Then we headed home - got a tour of Chocolot's chocolate room(s) - and sampled some experiments that Ruth, Willow, Gaylene and Romina had been playing with yesterday. 

 

IMG_1128.jpg

 

I've spent 30+ years working in laboratories, but these are the sorts of experiments I'd really like to help QC!

[Shelby]

As I sit here eating a bowl of plain 'ole ramen noodles, I am green with envy.

 

What is up there on the plate with the grapes?  Pie?

[Kerry Beal]

As I sit here eating a bowl of plain 'ole ramen noodles, I am green with envy.

 

What is up there on the plate with the grapes?  Pie?

Yeah - apple pieish sort of thing. Not too exciting.

[Kerry Beal]

 

I'm counting on Chocolot to add some pictures of other things we did today - or you will think we are simply lushes. We visited two distilleries - both High West - the new facility very recently opened up at the Blue Sky Ranch and the original distillery in Park City. 

 

 

 

One of the distillers makes various pieces of furniture out of old barrels.

 

 

 

 

I would have loved to check out this little room in more detail with one of the distillers - unfortunately being Sunday none were there.

 

 

 

 

 

After our tour we did some tasting - the little item that the whiskey is poured through allows to government to keep an eye on quantities dispensed to discourage any unreported sales. 

 

 

 

They provided us with this very nice charcuterie board - we made a bark with some of the spicy lavash after we enjoyed our repast.

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

So off to the other High West location in Park City. 

 

 

They have a pot still with two columns and that can be used to get a spirit up to 190 proof. 

 

 

They also have this little pilot sized still in the area where they mash that will handle about 25 litres of the approximately 7% ABV wort that they produce and with it's single column can get it up to about 65% ABV with a single run. 

 

 

I spent a few minutes trying to stay out of the way on the line while the executive chef melted a little chocolate using the heat from the stove and the TurboChef induction microwave - 13 seconds in there had the chocolate pretty well melted.

 

 

Exec chef pouring us out a bit of an up and coming product that was pretty fabulous - a double rye aged in syrah and port barrels. 

 

 

Bark made with peated barley malt - very tasty with the above mentioned blend.

 

 

Then it was time for dinner at High West - bread basket to start.

 

 

 

A Little Italy for me - asked them to replace the rye with their American Prairie Bourbon. Then asked for ice because they brought it up in a highball glass.

 

 

 

Saw them cooking schnitzel when I was in the kitchen - decided that would work just fine for me.

 

 

 

 

Gaylene and Willow shared a burger and salad. 

 

 

S'more - also done in the TurboChef I was told - a few seconds to roast the marshmallow - 3 seconds to make the chocolate bar flop.

[Chocolot]

 

The girls ready for the tasting at Blue Sky

 

 

Kerry Showing the EZtemper to a group of pastry chefs in Park City.

 

 

Some of the products they dipped.

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Breakfast in bed! Beer bread, Beehive Promontory Cheese and a nice milky tea. We are within a few miles of the Beehive Cheese factory. We will be fitting in a visit at some point. They make some of my very favourite cheeses and Ruth has the fridge full of them.

 

We will be on our way for another busy day very soon.

[Shelby]

Beautiful distilleries.  Everything is so shiny.  Charcuterie plate up there looks gooooood.  I'm sure the pastry chefs were super impressed with the EZ!

[Anna N]

Kerry,

Was the beer bread purchased or homemade? Looks really good.

[Chocolot]

Anna, Beer bread purchased from grocery with organic bakery. 

 

 

We had another full day today. Kerry and Willow are trying to kill me off!!

 

 

Started out the day at Thermoworks. Executives asked to see the EZtemper. Spent some quality time with them and picked out some good thermometers. They are in their fabulous new building.

 

 

Showed EZ to chefs at Culinary Crafts. They were excited to see just how easy it is to temper chocolate.

 

Showed EZ to several bean-to-bar makers in the afternoon. Full day again tomorrow.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Mary from Kitchen Crafts trying her hand at dipping. 

 

 

In and Out Burger - cheeseburger animal style, fries and rootbeer float

 

 

Sorting table at Coleman and Davis.

 

 

Lab sized roaster

 

 

Industrial sized roaster.

 

 

Winnower

 

 

Nib grinder

 

 

Five roll refiner

 

 

Conche

 

 

Tempering machine still has bugs to be worked out - this is a vibrating belt.

 

 

Chocolate we had tempered heading in to the cooling tunnel

 

 

Fabulous old winnower at Amano Chocolate (Art Pollard)

 

 

Roaster with the cooling table in front. 

 

 

The ball inside Art's roaster

 

 

Art's chandelier.

 

 

Dinner was at Pei Wei (opened apparently by PF Chang's ex wife) - Ruth opted for some fresh rolls

 

 

Dan dan noodles for me

 

 

Willow's Sesame Chicken

Edited November 3, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

[curls]

Kerry, thank you for documenting your trip. Very cool to see the equipment and layout at the various factories and shops. Hope you are having a great time and selling a lot of EZ Temper units.

Are you planning to have an EZ Temper at the May 2016 chocolate workshop? It sure was nice to have around at the 2015 workshop.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, thank you for documenting your trip. Very cool to see the equipment and layout at the various factories and shops. Hope you are having a great time and selling a lot of EZ Temper units.

Are you planning to have an EZ Temper at the May 2016 chocolate workshop? It sure was nice to have around at the 2015 workshop.

Indeed - there will be one or more there. There should be a couple that permanently live in the facility where we will be holding the workshop. 

[Kerry Beal]

For breakfast this morning we all met up at Romina's patisserie  -  Les Madelines. 

 

 

 

A quick glance in the pastry cases. 

 

 

Her star piece - Kouign aman. So I have had this pastry a number of times now and wondered what all the fuss was about - I had been told that Romina's was the best and I knew if I didn't like hers then it just wasn't a pastry I liked. Well - now I get it! It was crunchy, buttery, and sweet (but not too sweet) with caramelized sugar. 

 

Next problem - others will now fail to measure up!

 

 

Ruth's breakfast sandwich.

 

 

Willow's breakfast sandwich

 

 

Cappuccino 

 

 

My 'everything' croissant with chive and cream cheese with an egg.

 

 

Gaylene's 

 

 

Cassidy's

 

 

Romina's. 

 

 

After our gig at Gygi's we went on the advice of the restaurant critic/blogger who had attended our demo - to Oh Mai - a vietnamese banh mi joint. 

 

 

 

Short rib banh mi for me.

 

 

Bun for Ruth.

 

 

Lemongrass tofu banh mi for Gaylene.