Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Open Office Hours

Open Office Hours

Fran Costigan - Open Office Hours

This event was on Tuesday, September 13, 2022 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Fran Costigan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to … Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Do you have a reliable source for organic raw cocoa paste for chocolate making?

— terilynn reese

Answer:

I know that you're working with Amy Levin. Amy. Levin is a very well-known very very capable. Raw Chef who does a lot with chocolates and she is in the UK and you can find her information. She did a live event with me that was really fabulous about desserts. So I don't use raw cacao paste because I don't make chocolates that way Cheryl Lynn, but there are I think you could do a search of many of the companies cacao paste is nothing more than unsweetened chocolate. So unsweetened chocolate has a few names it's called Coke it's not really called cocoa paste. It's cacao paste or it's chocolate liqueur and there are many organic ones and raw is a term that I always I'm going to tell you this there is no such thing as truly raw chocolate. And this has this was verified by Amy during the live event. It has been verified by chocolate makers. Thank you Richard for the link all. chocolate Is when it when the beans come out of the pot they are laid out to ferment during the fermentation process. The temperatures naturally go above what is allowable? For an ingredient to be called Raw. And so I prefer the term unroasted and so does Amy and so do most pastry chefs, so it is unroasted chocolate. Paste as opposed or unroasted chocolate as opposed to Raw. So, you know, I use I said, I've said that for years and then I always want to make sure that the information I had early on still holds so I go back and I ask people who have an expertise in a particular area and I do want to say that one of the absolute best things about culinary is no matter how long you have been a culinary professional. There's always something more to learn and Chef Jacques Pepin renowned Chef Jacques. Pepin said the very same thing.
Fran Costigan

Fran Costigan

Director of Vegan Pastry

FranCostigan.com