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When I use ripe (not too ripe) avocados for chocolate mousse, sometimes there are brown spots/streaks on and inside of flesh of avocado. There is no odor and tastes fine. Cause for concern?

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

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This event was on January 28, 2025

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Dan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Maria Allen

When I use ripe (not too ripe) avocados for chocolate mousse, sometimes there are brown spots/streaks on and inside of flesh of avocado. There is no odor and tastes fine. Cause for concern?

Answer

No, that's actually great. Um, that's one of my favorite uses historically for, uh, avocados that might have a little brownness, but you're not getting that funky smell or taste from them, um, is to be able to make a chocolate mousse out of it because it hides all of that and you still get the great, um, nutrients and flavor outta that as well too. So you, you're, you're totally fine with that. If you open up the avocado and it smells off, or if you taste a bit of it tastes off, I would move on to a different, uh, different one. Avocados are so hard, right? It's like, it's like you're waiting and waiting and waiting and then it's too late.

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

*Dan Marek* is a chef educator who has been teaching vegan and vegetarian cooking for over 15 years. At Rouxbe, he is our Director of Plant-Based Culinary and Development where he helps develop content, classes and builds courses for many of our partners. Dan is a board member of Slow Food Austin, the Institute of Child Nutrition, and Conscious Capitalism. He has earned his BA in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University. Prior to his role with Rouxbe, Dan worked with Whole Kids Foundation training teachers and food service at schools across the country on nutrition and culinary best practices. He also worked as a Healthy Eating Educator at Whole Foods Market’s flagship store in Austin, TX, was a personal chef for some of Austin’s elite business people, taught classes in culinary techniques at Austin Community College, The Natural Epicurean, and Le Cordon Bleu. Dan also regularly volunteers cooking or speaking about nutrition for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Marathon Kids, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas.