Page 29 - Wine Spectator (January 2020)

C H O C O L A T E

Grand Design

BY OWEN DUGAN

very now and then, a happy surprise comes

along. Something you’re used to unexpect-
edly punches above its weight or delivers
Esomething new. This happened to me re-
cently with two chocolates made by Christopher

Curtin, who runs Éclat Chocolate (eclatchocolate
.com) in West Chester, Pa., coincidentally near
where I grew up. I’ve known Curtin for over a de-
cade, and his chocolates always deliver. But this
time he really blew me away, with his filled choco-

lates called Mondiants and his striped Parallel bars.
Mondiants ($29 for 5.6 ounces), a riff on the clas-
sic chocolate rounds called mendiants, are Curtin’s
invention. Chocolate discs a couple of inches across Éclat Mondiants

are molded, then injected with filling: cacao nib,
caramel or my favorite, peanut butter in milk choco- doesn’t have to. I had bean to bar. I had sourcing.
late. They’re disarmingly thin, delicate even, each Then I worked at the best in Belgium. That was
with a pattern that creates a literal grip on the pal- the plan, then to come back to the States.”
ate. The chocolate Curtin uses is more pleasurable He’d been in Europe 14 years and his parents

than austere. The proportions are perfect. I defy you were retiring to Pennsylvania, where they have
to eat just one. roots; one ancestor, Andrew Gregg Curtin, had
The Parallel bars ($10 for 2.2 ounces) explore been governor during the Civil War and helped
what he calls “symbiotic relationships in nature.” sway the state into the Union.

Each features two flavors and is striped. In one, all- He opened Éclat in 2004. He had no investors,
spice and sesame seed are infused into 54%- and so at first was somewhat conservative and crowd-
33%-cacao batches of chocolate and molded to- pleasing. He didn’t have a marketing hook like
gether. He won’t tell me how he does it, but the Christopher Curtin so many upstarts did; he simply made excellent
effect is waves of flavor in varying proportions de- chocolate. As the business became secure, he
pending on how you eat them. They elicit surprise. started to branch out into more products but avoided novelty. “We’re

Curtin had the ideas for both for years before he and his team of 10 trying to do interesting things that aren’t gimmicky,” he says. “The ba-
figured it out, almost by accident: “You’re way too tired, you’re being con chocolate thing I never got.”
silly and you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can fill this.’ All great things He’s also enjoyed diverse collaborations with nearby Victory Brewing
in the kitchen, I’m convinced—puff pastry, hollandaise—started with Company and with Fruition Chocolate Works in Woodstock, N.Y.,

some junior cook making a mistake. It’s not like on Chef’s Table where among others. With chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York City
they’re walking by the water, contemplating.” and food and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, he made a bar they
Curtin’s background combines traditional training and hard work with called Good & Evil, from a rare Peruvian cacao strain, embedded with
risk. He grew up in Madison, Wisc., in an academic family and was a crushed nibs. Recalling Bourdain’s suicide in 2018, he says, “We pulled
nationally ranked competitive cross-country skier. He excelled but also it that morning. People were ordering like 15, 20. We had lists, and we

began to realize it might not be a viable career. He landed in culinary just declined to sell to them. I went to Eric [Ripert] through his people,
school but dropped out after a year: “I’d rather go to Europe and learn but I made that decision on my own. Out of respect for everyone in-
straight from the source.” volved, it did not seem right at all.”
In Germany, he achieved the accreditation Konditormeister—mas- Curtin makes some of the raw material himself and is expanding with

ter pastry chef—and soon gravitated toward chocolate: “There’s an a new facility. He’s very committed to fair and sustainable sourcing,
artistic element,” he muses. “There’s a travel aspect and a huge cul- even in parts of the world like West Africa, where poor labor practices
tural aspect, traveling to countries around the world and learning have led to boycotts. He works directly with farmers there to ensure
about issues with sourcing.” that they and their workers are treated equitably. He likens refusing to
Curtin has a long-standing membership in Les Compagnons du De- work in the region to not voting.

voir, a centuries-old France-based guild that preserves and supports Curtin explains his drive and his place in the chocolate world through
traditional tradespeople and artisans through housing and work con- a racing analogy. “I won a race with 30,000 people in the stands, but
nections. Through them, he was exposed to a broader field of handi- that’s not my best race,” he says. “My best ski race, I came in 11th. I was
work and craft. in the zone for 15 kilometers. I felt no pain, I was totally focused, I re-

After Germany, he went to Brussels, first to Van Dender, a very high member seeing my mom on the sidelines. It was an out-of-body experi-
quality small producer, and then to Pierre Marcolini, also high quality, ence. My best race was actually the one I didn’t win. So we push what’s
but at scale. “Belgium was finishing school,” he says. “I had the indus- possible for ourselves. Hopefully other people will like it.”
trial background by then—industrial has a bad connotation, but it Owen Dugan is features editor of Wine Spectator.

JAN. 31 – FEB. 29, 2020 • WINE SPECTATOR 27