A good friend of mine, Mr. John Lefler, brought me this book last night while I was at a beer tasting for the release of Pretty Things Fluffy White Rabbits.
I brought some of my leftover chocolates from all of my reviewing that had been accumulating in my house, which looks like I am distributing crack in little plastic baggies (those are older pictures from the first time I had to unload leftover chocolate), for my friends to sample too. Out comes this book and I couldn't be more grateful. The art work was incredible and recipes will be a good challenge for me to try at home.
The art work is done by Yonatan Factor.
The description of the book from the website and on the back of the book. Complete with celebrity endorsements.
"Max Brenner's desserts are so amazing and so creative! With this delightful book, y'all can recreate the magic of his chocolate restaurants in your own home." - Paula Deen, host of Paula's Best Dishes and Paula's Party
"We've always enjoyed bringing our daughter, Ella, to Max Brenner's in NYC. We look forward to using his cookbook at home." - John Travolta & Kelly Preston
With locations in NYC, Philly, Australia, Israel, Philippines, and Singapore, Max Brenner will be making his debut in Boston this winter with a new shop opening up on Boylston st. in the Back Bay. I will be looking forward to the opening.
Max Brenner's chocolate drinks are pretty good. But as far as their bonbons are concerned, I think they're overpriced. They taste like mass produced gourmet chocolates to me. I'm not too impressed with the quality. Think Helen Grace Chocolates, higher quality than your supermarket chocolates, but a far cry from Venchi or Leonidas or Neuhaus.
But who knows, perhaps it also has something to do with the climate over here in the PHilippines. It's pretty hot and humid here and those MB chocolates are imported all the way from Israel. Most of their chocolates here are discolored and dull, caused by the extreme change of weather and they don't have that smooth texture that good quality chocolates are suppose to have.
Needless to say, I'm not a regular customer. I'm willing to spend money on good chocolate, but I feel like I'm being ripped off everytime I decide to give MB a chance and buy another one of their products in the hopes that the previous one I bought was just one bad apple. If someone is paying $3-5 for a piece of 2.5-oz chocolate, they need to find a way to at least make it look presentable to the customer, instead they look like rejects that didn't sell in Israel and decided to export it over here.
But, perhaps your experience with MB will be a better one because unlike people here, Americans tend to be demanding customers/consumers.
Posted by: The Kitchen Masochist | 03/13/2010 at 12:34 AM
I reviewed this book and everything sounded so decadent!
I just wish there were more photos--but I liked the cool, retro vibe.
And I wish could try his product myself!
Posted by: sagemom | 03/15/2010 at 02:23 AM