In years past, Yvan Valentin crafted elaborate mousse-filled meringue cakes for Frank Sinatra, built a towering croquembouche (a cream puff pyramid decorated with pulled sugar) for Jane Fonda and Ted Turner's wedding and constructed a chocolate replica of downtown's Union Station for President Clinton.
But these days, the well-pedigreed French pastry chef is more interested in the rough-hewn chocolate truffles that are the heart of his Leimert Park chocolate factory and wholesale bakery. "What is most important to me now is not how beautiful is the chocolate, but how is the taste," explains the 49-year-old chocolatier in his persistent French accent.
These may not be the jewel box-worthy, cocoa butter-painted chocolates one might expect from the former pastry chef at L'Orangerie, the late, legendary white-glove French restaurant. But to Valentin — a handy last name this time of year — the nooks and crannies on each classic French truffette are pretty perfect just the way they are. Though he has experimented over the years by adding caramel to one ganache filling and dusting another with matcha tea powder, for the most part, Valentin has let that craggy dark chocolate coating tell its own flavor story.
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