Le Roux
Impact
Super-craft magic. The alchemist with Midas touch, transmuting dry dirt into golden amber-hued honey. The only caution: some of the meldings can be darkly occluded - which lends itself even more to the occult.
Presentation 3.4 / 5
bit distressed looking; enrobed; tiny & some wafer-thin;
Aromas 4.1 / 5
very pastry - nuts, buttered croissant
Textures/Melt 8.1 / 10
| Shells: | thin |
| Centers: | substantial; practically flourless cake ‘n cream |
Flavor 47.1 / 50
scarcely about the chocolate, which tastes fairly generic & then recessed; & yet one of the few chocolate-shy makers who flies really high; the stuff Jacques Torres only dreams of (both optimize rather substandard elements but Le Roux is alchemical in his pursuit of guiding the mission several step farther to the outer threshold)
Quality 28.6 / 30
Acrobatic; playful, innovative & now, for good reason, much-imitated.
Selections
| Couverture: |
Cortés - timing is everything; plain palet d’or beginning, sets the sensuous trap for an ambush by caramel & almond that verges on plunging praline; tremendous lateral & vertical movement
CBS (acronym for Caramel au Beurre Salé - salted-butter caramels) - much-hyped sour caramels (due to slightly rancid butter), in a variety of flavors including buckwheat & hops. What’s the fuss? Cultured Butter, cream, some salt & a sack of sugar for plastic-wrapped caramel twists, some pulling teeth out, while other lighter ones scrapped from the bottom of the cheese barn. And the French laugh at Hershey’s Milk Chocolate? Pffft.
Praliné a l’Ancienne – simultaneously private & pedestrian; sharp attack both w/ almond & sugar, followed-on by delayed salt hit; clears pastry butter
CBS wrapped in Chocolate - taffy strength stretch & pull; dark & deep savor
Milk Gianduja – on the edge of sugar-burn but comes off that wall for full frontal hazelnut spread in both nut butter & fine nut nibs, which colorize the chocolate itself, churning thru a cycle of milk, then cream, & into butter; super hi-craft
Poivre – pronounced black-pepper w/o turning into a tear gas canister; seemingly backed up by a molasses-accented cacáo; dark art
Kyra – coffee & cognac; absolutely witchy
Harem – money mint... hits both the C & the G spots
CBS (acronym for Caramel au Beurre Salé - salted-butter caramels) - much-hyped sour caramels (due to slightly rancid butter), in a variety of flavors including buckwheat & hops. What’s the fuss? Cultured Butter, cream, some salt & a sack of sugar for plastic-wrapped caramel twists, some pulling teeth out, while other lighter ones scrapped from the bottom of the cheese barn. And the French laugh at Hershey’s Milk Chocolate? Pffft.
Praliné a l’Ancienne – simultaneously private & pedestrian; sharp attack both w/ almond & sugar, followed-on by delayed salt hit; clears pastry butter
CBS wrapped in Chocolate - taffy strength stretch & pull; dark & deep savor
Milk Gianduja – on the edge of sugar-burn but comes off that wall for full frontal hazelnut spread in both nut butter & fine nut nibs, which colorize the chocolate itself, churning thru a cycle of milk, then cream, & into butter; super hi-craft
Poivre – pronounced black-pepper w/o turning into a tear gas canister; seemingly backed up by a molasses-accented cacáo; dark art
Kyra – coffee & cognac; absolutely witchy
Harem – money mint... hits both the C & the G spots