Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate

The first cookbook from America's premier chocolate makers, filled with recipes, kitchen tips, and dazzling photographs

As Americans have become fascinated by chocolate, and especially high-quality chocolate, one name has risen above the rest: Scharffen Berger. Founded in 1996 by Robert Steinberg, a physician and amateur chef, and John Scharffenberger, an award-winning vintner, the company's confections have won a following among food professionals and home cooks alike. Now, in their first cookbook, the duo shares their passion with the world.

The Essence of Chocolate features more than one hundred spectacular -- and often simple -- recipes drawn from the Scharffen Berger files and from two dozen top pastry chefs. It is divided into three sections: "Intensely Chocolate," which includes such decadent treats as That Chocolate Cake, in which the sumptuous flavor of chocolate is the star; "Essentially Chocolate," with lighter chocolate desserts like White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache or Brown Butter Blondies; and "A Hint of Chocolate," with recipes that use chocolate's spicier qualities to their best effect, like Vegetarian Chili and John's Cocoa Rub. And all will work magnificently with any high-quality chocolate. Filled with helpful tips, sumptuous photographs, and the story of how chocolate is really made, here is a book that is every bit as seductive as its subject.

Robert Steinberg is a family physician, graduate of Harvard College, and accomplished home cook. After studying chocolate making in France, he founded Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker with his friend John Scharffenberger. A long-time resident of San Francisco, Robert has practiced medicine part-time at the San Francisco Free Clinic for the past ten years. John Scharffenberger founded and ran Scharffenberger Cellars, one of the premier sparkling wine manufacturers in the U.S. When his friend and former physician Robert Steinberg approached him about joining his chocolate-making venture in 1996, he turned his expertise to fine chocolate. He lives in Berkeley and Mendocino County.