OP: A Passion for Chocolate

William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1989. Hardcover. Very Good Plus. 

Bernachon Chocolatier, based in Lyon, France, is now in its third generation of family ownership. Founded in 1953 by Maurice Bernachon, the shop is famous for fully manufacturing their chocolate, starting with raw cacao. Maurice’s son Jean-Jacques, with his wife, Françoise—Paul Bocuse’s daughter—ran the business until his passing in 2010, and it is their children who continue to run the company today.

In 1985, Maurice and Jean-Jacques produced their first and only cookbook, La Passion du Chocolat. The 1989 edition, which we offer here, was translated and adapted to the American home kitchen by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The perfect melding of expertise and rigor between the Bernachons and Beranbaum has produced a book so thorough and accessible that it remains unrivaled as a chocolate resource in the home baking world, even 40 years later.

This is not a book for the timid but one which will thoroughly reward the courageous. Their efforts will produce everything from “grand cakes” like Le Président (yellow génoise layered with chocolate ganache and brandied cherries) to bite-sized treats like les figues—fig-shaped sponge cakes filled with chocolate pastry cream—and frozen desserts like le dauphin au chocolat—a semifreddo made with unsweetened cocoa.

We’re pleased to offer a Very Good copy, clean and unmarked. Light shelfwear. Color photo inserts throughout.