Chocolate Program

Slated At Library

Love chocolate but shy away from working with it because it’s too tricky? Do you yearn to present someone special with a box of elegant and luscious truffles that you made yourself?

If you simply love chocolate and cooking or would like to learn to make some elegant chocolates, come to a lecture/demonstration entitled “Festive Chocolate” at C.H. Booth Library on Wednesday, March 22, at 7 pm.

The lecture will include some basic information about chocolate, including various types, and how to work with it. The demonstration will focus mainly on the making of hand-rolled and dipped chocolate truffles. Participants will sample the chocolate candies and compare several types of imported and domestic chocolate.

Presenting the program will be Maria Poirier Brandriff, a longtime chef and an assistant director at Cheshire Public Library. Ms Brandriff’s interest in fine cooking and baking came from growing up in a Ukrainian household where Viennese-inspired tortes and confections dominated every holiday. Since then, Ms Brandriff has experimented with the traditional recipes and has come up with her own variations.

She has also become more and more involved with the intricacies of working with chocolate. Each Christmas, instead of baking cookies, Ms Brandriff produces hundreds of truffles, which she shares with family and friends.

Ms Brandriff won the grand prize twice in the now discontinued New Haven Register Cooking Contest — in 1985 with her White Chocolate Torte and in 1986 with her Coffee Walnut Torte. In fact, the noted chef Jacques Pepin, one of the judges of the 1986 contest, gave Ms Brandriff a perfect score for her creation.

Two years ago, Ms Brandriff completed the Certificate of Gastronomy program at the University of New Haven. Her training there included an intensive pastry making class with Patrick Boijot, former chef-owner of Le Petit Café in Branford and director of the Department of Gastronomy at the University of New Haven.

In March 2004, Ms Brandriff traveled to France where she studied with a chocolatier in Provence, studying the techniques of making molded chocolates.

Although the program is free and open to the public, registration is necessary, as attendance is limited. Call the library at 270-4535 to register or for further information.