I wonder if Sarah-Jane Evans is thinking of celebrating the recent publication of her ground-breaking choccypedia, Chocolate Unwrapped (Pavillion, £14.99), by indulging in the six-course, chozza-themed menu offered by Clos Maggiore (£55 per person) for this Chocolate Week?
Sarah-Jane would, I'm sure, approve of the subtlety of the deployment of her subject in the dishes on offer - and subtlety, in the end, is everything when it comes to cooking with chocolate. "Fish in chocolate sauce" might be an answer offered by an arsey catering student to the question: "What shouldn't you cook with chocolate?" But, if the chocolate is white, the quantity judicious, and the vehicle a silky beurre blanc studded with caviar to accompany a perfect piece of halibut atop a bed of wilted lettuce - then let the boy swap his hoody for a dunce's cap and stand him in the corner.
Ms Evans has brought to the study of chocolate the same methodological rigour and twitching taste buds which enabled her to qualify as one of only 289 Masters of Wine who walk the earth. The book has plenty of history, plenty about the whys and wherefores of how and where the best chocolate is made, lots of good advice on how to taste and an in-depth survey of what to taste - the products of 80 of the best chocolatiers. It's the first serious book on the subject that I'm aware of and the level of detail and the breadth of vocabulary are easily enough to sate the appetite of even the most ardent of chocoholics.
The Clos Maggiore experience certainly demonstrated to me that chocolate is far more versatile in the kitchen than one might think. White chocolate set with black olives - how does that work? A treat, in fact, to put a savoury crunch in a beetroot gazpacho with scallop tartare. A hazelnut biscotti instead of brioche with roast foie gras - have they gone entirely choco-loco? Not a bit of it, the nuts and the chocolate make you think a lot about what the taste of foie gras is really about.
Given her day job, Sarah-Jane would be especially interested to do the full choccomonty and go for the wine matches on offer with each course (add £40). Surprisingly - but successfully - the first three are white, but when the gloves come off for a classic roast venison fillet with a bitter chocolate sauce and a show-stopping fondant to finish, Italian reds were bossing things. The former with a bitter-cherry tinged Brunello di Montalcino from Ferrero and with the latter, a silky, garnet-rimmed Recioto di Valpolicella from Tezza which glinted and glided to the top of my best-ever wines for chocolate list. Not that I have such a thing - nor indeed would ever cultivate the slightest bit of geek-chic on such matters, you understand.
Lunch and dinner until Sunday at Clos Maggiore, 33 King Street, London, WC2 0207 379 9696 www.closmaggiore.com
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