NY Food and Wine: Chocolate Shop: Charbonnel et Walker at Saks

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Chocolate Shop: Charbonnel et Walker at Saks

611 Fifth Avenue (bet. 49th and 50th Streets)
8th Floor
866-478-7586
www.charbonnel.co.uk
www.saksfifthavenue.com

The British landed at Saks in the fall of 2005 and went directly up to the 8th Floor. Charbonnel et Walker, established in 1875 and chocolatier to Her Majesty, now have a shop and café at this classic Midtown department store. The chocolate counter, where you can put together a personalized gift box or buy just one chocolate ($2.25 each), has dozens of classic bonbons and truffles to choose from.

The biggest seller is the “pink champagne” truffle, and it just may be the prettiest truffle that we’ve seen. Flavored with marc de champagne, the chocolate center is enrobed in white chocolate, flavored with a hint of strawberry, and lightly dusted with sugar. Other unique selections include the violet- and English rose-flavored creams covered in dark chocolate. And if you’re in a hurry, there is a vast selection of prepackaged boxes.

Keep in mind that Charbonnel et Walker makes traditional, sweet English chocolates. Perfect for your favorite Anglophile or doting aunt, we don’t recommend them for someone who craves an intense bitter chocolate experience. Service is extremely helpful, and during our last visit we were offered several samples.

The Chocolate Café
Alongside the shop is a small café where weary shoppers can recharge. Cups of hot chocolate ($5.25) can be paired with classic English sweets such as scones and puddings. Desserts are made in the kitchen directly behind the chocolate counter and are displayed on a moving conveyer belt that circles the café counter.

About Us

Bill Gillen and Patricia MacKenzie are a husband and wife team, who published a monthly newsletter, “The NY Food Letter” in the 1990’s, have written food, wine and travel articles for the Daily News, and are co-authors of The New York Chocolate Lover’s Guide (City and Company 1996). They live in New York City, Columbia County and Paris.

Our Story
We were both born in Brooklyn and in our adult lives have lived in Brooklyn, the Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen and now Carnegie Hill, and for the past 20+ years, we’ve always ready to go to any neighborhood in any of five boroughs to find something good to eat. Some people might just go shopping to Ikea in Elizabeth New Jersey and return home. Not us. We come back via the Bayonne Bridge just so we can stop at Denino’s on Staten Island for pizza. When we go on a family trip to the Bronx Zoo, we have to eat at Dominick’s and then go shopping on Arthur Avenue picking up prosciutto rolls and other Italian treats. And on a regular weekday, we’ll go miles out of our way and walk the long avenues in Hell’s Kitchen just to buy a loaf of bread from Sullivan Street Bakery.

We are avid home cooks. On a daily basis, we love shopping for the best ingredients, and don’t think of it at all as an effort, but as an enjoyable activity. We carefully plan our special celebrations sometimes by mapping out an extravagant homemade meal, or more often by making reservations at an exceptional restaurant, including a mix of New York classics and the latest trends.

In 1986 we went to France on our honeymoon. We were in the Champagne region and ate at the then Michelin three-star restaurant, Boyer Les Crayeres. It was literally a life altering experience. How could food be this good? Up to that point, we never ate anything that was even closely comparable. Thus started a love affair with France that has only grown through the years. Our time spent there has educated us enormously on what it takes to deliver good ingredients and outstanding meals. We’ve traveled and eaten in every region in that country and since 2000 have had the good fortune of owning a tiny apartment in the St. Germain neighborhood on the Left Bank in Paris that gives us the opportunity to eat and cook like Parisians, when our schedules permit. (The spoken language is another story…)

Along the way, we became interested in wine. In 2000, we had a blast studying with Kevin Zraly in New York City at his renowned wine course. We have been to many of the major wine areas in France, Italy and California, and every year go on a buying trip in Burgundy. But much more of our education has come from simply buying and drinking on a regular basis. We’ve shopped at dozens and dozens of wine shops in New York, and always converse with sommeliers at restaurants, asking for their recommendations and learning from them. We are rarely disappointed, and more often are delighted with a new discovery. So, while we don’t claim to be experts on the more technical points of wine, we do know where we like to shop, what stores offer what, etc.

We feel fortunate to live in New York City and that’s in no small part to all of the people who have dedicated their lives to feeding the rest of us. Ethnic family food stores that have been around for generations, a master chocolatier from France who opens up shops around the city, a chef who has worked in the best of places in the Far East and Europe but has decided that Manhattan is where he wants to hang his toque, these are just a few of the many resources that we have at our doorstep. And we love it.

What we put on this website is highly personal. We really like to write about things that we enjoy, places that we’d like to go back to, meals simple or grand that are exceptional, and shops where the experience is fun and not a simple transaction. It’s really not our style to be edgy or nasty. Too many people work too hard, put in long days so the rest of us can be well fed. So, for the most part we only include enthusiastic recommendations and omit those places that don’t make the mark. But sometimes we do feel the need to issue a few cautionary remarks.

So, we hope that from time to time, the people and places that we write about might make your food and wine life a bit more rewarding.

NY Food and Wine

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Chocolate Shop: Charbonnel et Walker at Saks

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