The Art of Eat

XOX Truffles
754 Columbus Avenue
(between Filbert & Greenwich)
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.421.4814

I thought I had a pretty good grasp of how a great chocolate is supposed to taste but I am pleased to announce that my world was turned upside down a few days ago by a sweet little chocolatier by the name XOX Truffles. I’ve tried chocolates all over the world in Paris, Bavaria, New York, and Los Angeles at names like Vosges, Maison, Payard, and Ricard and many of the chocolatiers to be fair were sinfully good. Undoubtedly the quality of Maison and Payard are amongst the best the world has to offer, but there is another. Nestled at the end of the Columbus drag in North Beach, San Francisco is a little wedge of a shop that serves the best chocolate I have ever tasted at a price that I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe.

XOX Truffles is a mom and pop operation started about 12 years ago by chef Jean Marc Gorce following a heart attack. His days as a French restaurant chef were over, but thank god we weren’t robbed of Gorce’s talent. Like a phoenix Gorce has soared far beyond the limits of chocolate making known to normal men and I guiltily admit I’m a little happy he is now making his delectible chocolates. In the little shop in North Beach you can meet Gorce and watch him prepare his wonderful truffles and I swear there isn’t a humbler person.

For the most part XOX Truffles come in a variety of traditional liquered and non-liquered flavours. The truffles’ appearance is classic, deep in colour, and looks as rich as it tastes. You can tell right away that the truffles were made that morning and it doesn’t take watching Gorce make them behind the counter to believe it. My favourite of the flavours is the Tequila Chipotle truffle, but I have to admit the Earl Gray and Champagne were just as good. Even the plain old Dark Chocolate was delectable in its simplicity. Of the five or so flavours I tried my least favourite was the Green Tea which was a bit too strongly powdered for me but once the flavours mixed together it was still good.

My last favourite chocolatier has been Vosges for a long time, not so much for the quality of their chocolate but their sinful exotic choclate concoctions with ingredients like Tallegio cheese, Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Indian Curry, and Hungarian Paprika, and I never would have thought that a traditionally flavoured chocolate could surpass my taste for the exotic but I was very wrong. In comparison to other excellent traditional choclatiers with premium quality truffles XOX surpasses them for two reasons, freshness and price. Every other great chocolatier knows their skill and charges like they know it and then double that, but XOX is unbelievably well priced. Gorce even goes so far as to throw in complementary tasters on small orders like $20 which in the store will get you 4o truffles. Secondly the truffles are just so fresh and so tasty that I still truly believe they are the best I’ve had. Maybe it was being able to meet Gorce or maybe there’s some other secret magic in the truffles but after just one visit I am completely sure that XOX is the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten.

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd
(310) 399-8801‎

This is my gem of Los Angeles. The one and only place that I would consider a MUST go for any visitor to my favourite city. I consider Los Angeles my hometown even though I only went to high school there for three years, but I spent a lot of time prowling the streets of LA for the best places to go and without a doubt Jin is the place to go. Located in one of my favourite neighborhoods in the world, Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach, the little cafe and tea room is charming, delicious, and the epitome of what LA is about.

Los Angeles for most people is a confusing maze of freeways, bad traffic, and impossible to find places. What makes LA special to me is the secret stashes of bliss that dot the almost unlimited diverse neighborhoods around the city, and Venice holds the best kept secret in the whole county, Abbot Kinney. A three block stretch of modern design, California bungalows turned stores, and boutiques lies completely hidden from the outsider, but is home to many celebrities including Julia Roberts and Dennis Hopper, and more modern architecture homes than any other city in California. My favourite leather goods store, Daisy Arts, and one of my favourite shoe makers, Toms, are both located in this tiny stretch.

Jin Patisserie is located near the north end of Abbot Kinney in a fantastic California bungalow home. The entire house is the kitchen where the world’s best cakes are made and the front yard has been turned into a dreamy Asian-inspired modern garden surrounded by bamboo and reeds closed off from the rest of the world. In the garden is a small collection of chairs and tables creating a very quiet cozy eating place but it’s difficult to get large parties seated and calling ahead can definitely be a life saver.

Jin Patisserie was started by a Singaporean dessert chef trained in Singapore and France and the specialty of the house is the most beautiful and delicious cakes in the whole world. A selection of almost 15 varieties of cake spans the whole French and Asian palette, from dark chocolate and lavender to green tea and passion fruit. My most notable favourites are the Desire and the Passion Fruit. The Desire is a complex mousse cake hidden in a soft chocolate shell with a raspberry or cherry on top and feuilletine, creme brulee, and sponge cake at the base. The flavour mix is staggering and each ingredient holds its own as the cake melts in your mouth. The Passion is slightly more simple but no less intriguing, a passion fruit, mango, mascarpone cake that is sweet and pleasing to any tongue. Every other cake on the menu is absolutely mind blowing in flavour and delicate intricacy and there’s no wrong choice. Even the house cake served with the lunch special, the Tropical - a blend of mango and coconut usually served in a shapeless tumble, is fantastic.

The tea selection at Jin focuses on Green’s and Black’s from China and the Near East and is the perfect compliment to the cakes and sandwiches. My usual choices are the The de Loup and The du Hammam, strong greens with hints of nuts and flowers. The sandwich selection rounds out the menu items with traditional egg salad, tuna salad, and my favourite, the chicken salad. The sandwiches are made from fresh meats and ingredients and are luscious and creamy. I always got the fresh olive bread, a healthy whole grain Italian style bread with chewy crust and large slices of Kalamata olive in the large pockets and a dab of olive oil. The sandwiches are accompanied by a mesclun salad with an extremely light salty dressing that brings out the natural flavour in the fresh greens and I still have never been able to replicate the dressing to this day no matter how hard I try.

Jin Patisserie is one of the best tea rooms in the world, my favourite cake maker, and their take home chocolates, cookies, and teas make good gifts for the more discerning taster. As a cafe, the atmosphere is charming and dreamy, appealing to all the senses at once and closing off the diner from the rest of the world. Time stands still while eating at Jin. I can remember exactly the way the cakes tickled my taste buds, melted on my tongue, and smelled fragrant of flowers and fruit - even from the first time I visited five years ago. Yes it’s that amazing and if you don’t visit while in Los Angeles you won’t even begin to understand why it’s my favourite city.

One last note, the hours the cafe is open are very limited and so is the seating. Like most bakeries, the cakes are usually best about one hour after opening and often run out of the more tantalizing selections before closing time. Call ahead if you have a large party and don’t forget to stroll the street before or after your meal. It was a journey just writing about Jin. Enjoy.

Fauchon
442 Park Ave
(212) 308-5919

I am very sorry to say that this wonderful little cafe has closed permanently. I’m writing about it because it was so wonderful and those world travelers out there can always visit the cafe in Paris, which thankfully is still open. The best sandwich in the whole world is on the menu at Fauchon and that’s why it’s worthy of receiving this belated write up. I speak of the Fauchon Club, a triple decker extravaganza of foie gras and black truffle, young greens, sauterne jelly, and large toasted white bread accented with white truffle oil. When I say gratuitous amounts of foie gras and black truffle I mean tons, loads, gallons. There’s so much foie gras and truffle I can’t say I’ve ever seen so much in one dish. Especially meant for one person to eat. And eat it all I did. Every last orgasmic bit.

Fauchon wasn’t just about the Club. Brioches and quiches and salads from the cafe were all excellent. The tea service was a tad underwhelming with a good selection of high quality loose teas although not anything particularly fantastic in terms of exotic choice, but then again Fauchon is more traditional than not. The tea sandwiches were the average assorted selection except for the mini Fauchon Clubs, which sadly eclipsed the others in every way. Then again I couldn’t really see myself getting anything but the Club despite it’s $24 price tag because honestly for that much foie gras and truffle that’s a steal.

The cafe itself was rather underwhelming, tacked onto the side of the main boutique floor where parcels of every size, tea tins, and cases of chocolate delicacies were everywhere. The cafe, for its high dollar menu items, was rather poorly decorated with plain steel chairs and tables, hard floors, bright lighting, and drafty walkway. I would have imagined a charming French cafe with traditional dishes to be either open aired and spilling out into the street a la Paris, or more likely since this is Park and there are no tables on the barren sidewalk, a deep, enchanted, dark-wood hollow with inner gardens and little French cherubs. Fauchon is a confusing brand to me, they exist as a traditional French confectionery but also as a modern design brand.

Fauchon’s primary focus is the confectionery with a wide variety of chocolates, truffles, candy, and teas. The chocolates I tried were delicious and worth a try, I wouldn’t say they were as great as my favourite chocolatier Vosges, but they were still excellent. Their truffle collections were of a more traditional selection, but make for great gifts and a nice specialty snack. It’s very unfortunate that Fauchon one and only boutique store in America is now closed, especially for the Fauchon Club, but the chocolates are still available at many Neiman Marcus’s and a few other retailers.