The 'guru of ganache' takes on the holidays

By Jim Raper

MARCEL DESAULNIERS has written cookbooks about the contemporary American cuisine he serves at the Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, but he is better known for the cookbooks he writes celebrating chocolate.

His reputation as the "guru of ganache" is kicked up a notch this holiday season with the release of his 10th book, "I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas" ($30, John Wiley & Sons).

The Rhode Island native and Culinary Institute of America graduate opened the Trellis in 1980, and within months the upscale restaurant on Duke of Gloucester Street was a favored stop for foodies on the East Coast. Desaulniers' talents in the culinary arts eventually would bring him a slew of national awards, and gigs on television with the likes of Julia Child.

In 1988, he published "The Trellis Cookbook" to a respectable reception. Then in 1992 he hit his stride. "The Trellis Cookbook: Expanded Edition" was published early that year, followed by "Death by Chocolate."

Who knew what a warm reception "Death by Chocolate" would receive? The book became a best-seller and won the James Beard Foundation award in 1993 for best dessert cookbook. Desaulniers published "Desserts to Die For" (1995), "Death by Chocolate Cookies" (1997), "Death by Chocolate Cakes" (2000) and "Celebrate with Chocolate" (2002)

before his latest collection of recipes hit the bookstores this fall.

"I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas," is a breeze for amateur cooks to follow compared with the earlier books, which, as Desaulniers acknowledges, are chock full of "over-the-top recipes." The legendary Death by Chocolate cake, which is served in one-pound slices at the Trellis and is composed of layer upon layer of brownie cake, cocoa meringue, chocolate mousse, mocha mousse and ganache, swimming in a mocha sauce, commands a three-page recipe and takes three days to make.

The new book is designed for cooks who don't have hour upon hour to devote to the preparation of desserts during the busy holiday season. "You want to have your cake and Christmas, too," Desaulniers quips, echoing a line from the book's introduction. "Most of these are very accessible recipes, the Golly Polly's Doodles (ping-pong ball shaped dark chocolate cookie with a peanut butter filling), for example. This is an edgy, delicious cookie for adults that is easy to make and requires all of six minutes in the oven."

As has become his practice, Desaulniers provides commentary with each recipe, giving tips, such as the brand of chocolate he prefers, the chain store for buying good but inexpensive kitchenware, or even how a microwave might be used to reheat a dessert. Also, as we have come to expect from his books, there are color photographs of finished desserts vivid enough to make a chocoholic head for the kitchen to get started.

Some of the book's recipes are Christmas-specific. A section titled "Santa's Workshop" includes directions for making Sloshed Santa Sauce and White Chocolate Spiced Rum Sauce. But most recipes are for year-round treats. Brownies, fudge, cookies, candies, cupcakes

and frozen delicacies are all there, together with pies, layer cakes, cheesecakes and mousses.

The recipe for Hungarian Chocolate Walnut Roll stands out, at least partly, because this dessert falls into no neat category. It's something like stollen, but with walnut fudge filling.

Coconut, peanut butter and prominent spices get to waltz with chocolate in recipes such as The Stoner Family's Cocoa Coconut Cake with Warm Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce (named for Rod Stoner, who was Desaulniers' classmate at the Culinary Institute of America and is a retired former executive with the Greenbrier Resort Management Center); Chocolate Mouthful of Peanut Butter Bars; and Chocolate Gingerbread Snowflakes.

He said he encourages friends and readers to share recipes with him, "and I always give them credit when we use their ideas." But he said the recipes he gets from amateur cooks often need to be tweaked. "These folks make adjustments in their cooking that they do not note on their recipe cards. We have to have recipes that can be followed with a great deal of success. Especially with baking, each time a recipe doesn't come out right, people get discouraged, and we don't want that."

Desaulniers' trademark ganache - which is a French term for what you get when you whisk dark baking chocolate with hot heavy cream - turns up on more than a few pages of the new book. He shares ways that ganache can be flavored with Frangelico, walnuts, caramel morsels or peanut butter and then employed in making uncommonly rich desserts.

What's next for the celebrity chef? He said he intends to keep his hand in the operation of the Trellis, which he owns with one of the original partners, John Curtis. And he wants to write more cookbooks. "My wife, Connie, is an artist and has more creativity. We came up with the idea for a book proposal during a recent trip" to the culinary

institute. "It will be a savory cookbook but will focus on dishes you normally think of as being sweet. Pies, for instance."

So, we want to know, will chocolate be one of the ingredients in this savory cookbook, perhaps used in a sauce for meats? He laughs and says a chapter on savory chocolate dishes just may be included. "We were talking about that and decided we could call the chapter 'I Can't Help Myself.' "

Jim Raper, humstew@cox.net