Hooray, that's the chocolate talk done and dusted then. Not too bad, a little rambling in places (as is normally the case for me I think), probably lacking in some stuff......as is always the way with these things, halfway home and I remembered stuff I had wanted to talk about but didn't; but all in all not too bad. It was a nice bijou and compact group which meant that there was plenty to go around when it came to a little bonus tasting session at the end.......a nice selection of single estate and specialist chocolate called 'The Purist Library' from Hotel Chocolat, worth a look at if chocolate is your 'bag' and worth considering with Valentines day fast approaching.....as I'm constantly being reminded at home!!
The meetings about budget and so on went really well and we are now full steam ahead for the coming year....lots of great ideas are floating around and just need the rough edges knocking off of them, then finding the best time to put them into action. I know I'm being very vague and not telling you much, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise now would I! You'll just have to trust me that I'll let you all know what's coming up all in good time.
No new pictures today as I'm trying to eek them out for as long as I can, instead though I thought I'd give you another 360 degree panorama to look at......and they're quite fun for me to make. This one is of the first room in the Great Kitchen, now referred to as the Baden Powell kitchen as Lady Baden Powell was the last grace and favour occupant of that area......it's the range from her kitchen that you'll notice in one of the fireplaces there.
Just put your cursor over the image, click and hold the left mouse button and drag the picture around to have a look at the room.
The other fireplace, the one that the panorama starts on and that is currently filled with the coloured lights used to look like this
1 comment:
Well, Mike and I went to Richard's chocolate lecture "From bean to bar" last Thursday. It was excellent. Very interesting and very educational. He certainly held his audience's interest the whole time. Loads of slides to complement the chat. Not only did we learn about the history of chocolate, but how the cacao seed is grown to produce the tree and the pods containing the seeds which go through numerous processes such as drying, fermenting, roasting to ultimately produce chocolate.
The cacao tree isn't a strong tree; with a shallow root system, it could easily be felled by leaning on it. Amazing how they survive. Indiginous to Mexico, Honduras, Belize and Guatamala, it is was transported to the other countries where it is now produced.
And yes, at the end of the evening, we got to taste some exquisite Hotel Chocolate samples. I'm very much a dark chocolate fan, but the 100% was VERY drying in the mouth so it was most pleasant to then try a piece of a milk chocolate with caramel and salt. Then the salt kicked in and that was strange.
The samples were a real treat. Thank you.
An thank you, Richard, for a tremendous lecture. We all learnt a lot and my comments here really don't do justice to your efforts and attention to detail. (And my apologies for any errors!!!)
Helen
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