Chez Atelier Melissa Coppel

In October, I had the amazing opportunity to take a class with Chef Melissa Coppel (incredibly talented and you MUST check her insta out here). Before I tell you about my journey, I want to give a massive shoutout to THE Ohio State University for making this possible- OSU has some great programs (esp. Food Science, and if you're someone who's even remotely interested.. please reach out!)

My day 1 in Vegas started with me grabbing some of the nicest grease I've had in a long time... mind you, it was 12am and the last time I ate was lunch at eastern time. I'd love some Inn and Out, but Burger Kind isn't half bad in Vegas.

Before I even talk about the class, I just want to give a shoutout for all the amazing lunched we had. Here's mole, made right in Chef Melissa's home. It reminded me of food from my childhood, and I swear I had the biggest grin after that meal.

And now for the important bit- the class. Chef Melissa's way of teaching is very interesting, in that everyone in the class gets a chance to see everything which I love- a lot of schools traditionally delegate or make multiple batches, but I do like her strategy of getting to learn each formula from her. It was more of a quality over quantity kind of deal. She also cares a lot about the quality of the product and excellence in execution, which explains why her product always looks and tastes top notch. With such sensitive and labor-intensive products like this, the margin or error goes up- and I kind of realized why being a chocolatier is perhaps one of the professions where you couldn't possibly excel without passion. She not only has a wealth of knowledge about chocolate, but also running a business while being a great mum. One of the things that really sets her apart is how much she cares about her students and empowering women, which I love. 

An added perk of the class was getting to meet Gabriel Riva, master of several trades and jack of none- we got to try some of his gelato during the class, and I still have dreams about it on occasion. Something common between the two that I observed that even though their execution was flawless, they paid great attention to the quality and characteristics of their raw materials. 

Passionfruit and sesame mochi gelato

tahiti vanilla with toasted pecans and caramel toffee

Here's literally the coolest cross section picture on the internet:

Cross section of all them delicious shiny bonbons

Parmesan

citrus curd, lime marshmallow, and a hazelnut base. my official favorite of the lot

The adult version of ice cream floats

I got my hands on some nice whisky while I was headed back home for a vacation last year. With a tendency for excessive shopping at airports, I ended up with more than just that. Among all the mess was a coconut ash chocolate bar. My pre-conceived notion of coconut ash being bitter was anything but right.

It had been a long time since I had had a good chocolate-caramel combo- one of my favorite chocolate components was almost a sorbet-like chocolate ice cream (or an ice cream with a much lower fat content). Pairing it with some (obviously salty) caramel, I gave it a twist with black lava salt which went well with the coconut ash chocolate ice cream.

In some ways, this is an adaptation of a chocolate, salty caramel and yuzu dessert that was the signature of a place I staged at. With my mind set of simpler desserts, I decided to turn it into a whisky sour float- take the citrus our and turn it into a granita. Not only does it add the the "rocks" for the whisky, it added an extra texture for the pallete.

The dessert is served with the components stacked and a shot of whisky (I used black label in this instance) poured into the bowl at the table.

Coconut ash and chocolate ice cream, black lava salt caramel. yuzu granita and a shot of whisky